On 11 Mar 2002, at 22:34, Max Timchenko wrote:

> Hello David,
>
> Monday, March 11, 2002, 2:08:49 AM, you wrote:
>
> DG>   Note, though, that this could be a misleading message.  And the
> DG> requirement that the cable be plugged in suggests that such a
> DG> connector *may* actually be required in order to run a loopback test.
> DG> (The card may see some signals when the cable is connected that
> DG> convince it that there *might* be a loopback connector installed.)
>
> The test passed when the network was working regardless of cable
> connections.
>
> DG>   Do these cards have LEDs which display the link status?  Which ones
> DG> are on and which off?
>
> Status LED is on on both cards when cable is connected and both PCs
> are on. With advanced test [supposedly, cards connect and send test
> packets to each other and I can see totals of sent/received/dropped/
> mis-sequenced/other error conditions], link speed is reported as 100
> Mbit/s but one of the cards is not receiving test packets. No errors
> reported, though.
>
> With the other cable, one of the cards doesn't receive and I also get
> a lot (over 30%) of bad packets on the card that is receiving something.

  This sounds like you could have both a bad NIC, and a cable that is
in poor shape.

> I'll just get another NIC and try to eliminate the bad card. Those
> cards are cheap [$10], I simply wanted to get a better understanding of
> the problem I'm having here...
>
> Yours,
> | Max Timchenko [MaxVT]

  I almost recommended that you just replace the card, but I was
afraid they might be a lot more expensive where you are than they are
around here.  I'm glad that's not the case.

David Gillett

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