[vortex] 3c905b, linux-2.4.17, periodic slowdown/hang, ifdown/ifup starts period again

[Scott McDermott]

Ever since going from stock 2.4.5 to 2.4.17, my 3c905b periodically
slows down to a crawl and eventually becomes completely unresponsive.
It seems to be cumulative and relates directly to the amount of data
coming through it; a noticeable slowdown will remain at the same level
of slowness even when the system is idle for several days in between
using it, and eventually the interface stops working altogether and I
start getting EHOSTUNREACH.

A simple ifdown/ifup on the interface restores it to full speed.  Again
with 2.4.5 I could run the interface at full speed for as long as
I wanted with no ill effects.

Link partner is a Cisco 677.  Traffic starts at about 300KB/s and slows
down to about 35KB/s or so before stopping to work altoghether.
Immediate ifdown/ifup gets it back up to 300KB/s again.

I've read the list archives and see some others having similar problems,
even with other chips altogether.  However no one seems to know what is
causing this problem...has anyone figured it out yet? Should I be asking
linux-kernel?

Now that these problems are occurring at home, I am worried to upgrade
my firewall at work which has several 3c905b interfaces, I really don't
want a cron job to reset the interfaces every hour, but I need to
upgrade it for other reasons... is it safe to use an old 3c59x.c ?