[vortex] 3c900 Combo fails to detect connections if network not restarted.

[xavier.sinecosa]

Hello, and sorry to bother you concerning my problems, but I
am quite new in linux and don't know much about bug reportings. 

I use the 3c59x driver for my 3COM 900 Combo Ethernet Card on
a box B1. I use this card on a lan, which is a set of 2 boxes
connected with a crossed cable. When I disconnect the cable
for a while (about 30 seconds), or boot my box B2 after box
B1, I always have to restart network '/etc/init.d/network
restart' or do a 'ifconfig eth1 down ; ifconfig eth1 up' on
box B1. I have double boot with windows on both boxes, and I
tested with windows on box1: I had no problem to ping both boxes. 

I can try to generate a bug report as mentionned in file
vortext.txt, but  you may know this problem, that seems to
have been already reproduced see page 
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2001/08/msg01564.html
It is a closely related or same problem. 

I found on libranet site an update of the 3c59x driver for
kernel greater than 2.4.23. They mentionned an eventual
improvement of the driver for the problem, at page: 
http://libranet.com/support/2.8/0305
I tried this update, upgrading to kernel 2.4.27 on box B1,
with no improvement for the problem. 

I cannot get the latest source driver, and don't know if
improvements have been done after 2.4.23. Do you know if an
improvement of this driver has been released for the problem ?
Or should I set options I did not find for this module ? 

Thank you, Xavier.

PS I tried to download the diagnostic tools on scyld.com ftp
site, but connection is refused. I am not an expert, so may be
I did something wrong, I don't know how to download these
files. Any advise ?