Odd Linux Networking Behavior

[szadig]

Hi Everyone,
I'm having some interesting connection issues on my linux box. The system is running Redhat 8.0 - I just did a fresh install from 7.0, but it didn't fix the problem, which developed a few days ago. Here's the deal: occasionally during file transfers (http downloads, ftp downloads, smb transfers, redhat network upgrades, etc) the transfer will just stop. It'll recieve a certain amount of data (usually under a meg), and then the transfer will halt and eventually time out. The system is a web, email, and file server. This is getting to be quite a problem, because I find I can't transfer web files over SMB to be uploaded to the server, and I'm worried about mail getting interrupted. My network is behind a firewall, but even transfers between machines behind the firewall get interrupted. I'm leaning towards labelling this as a hardware issue (NIC, perhaps - its a 3C905C, and has been stable up till now), but before I start swapping out hardware on my production box, I wanted to know if any of you guys had any suggestions. If I left some vital info out, feel free to email me or post here asking for clarification. Thanks, I really appreciate the assistance!

 

[zeland]

This sounds just like what happened to me just a few week ago. Are you able to ping any machine on your network when the problem arises? In my case, it was a faulty hub that some how "flooded" my NIC with signals until the interface dies.

I couldn't find any error while I was in X. When I changed to console mode (init3), I kept getting an error "too much work at interrupt!" every so often. Whenever the error appears, I had to run the command "ifdown eth0; ifup eth0". This would rectify the situation for about 5 minutes or less before I get the error again.

 

[szadig]

zeland, that was the problem exactly. The switch it was plugged into was faulty. Switched out the switch, no more problems! Thanks for your help.