I wonder if any one could kindly shed light on this:

I have a Sparc 20 networked to an Ultra 1, via ethernet.
The 20 is permanently logged in using CDE to the Ultra.
It also runs an Informix DB which is accessed from the Ultra.

From time to time (usually a few days) the 20 will refuse to
communicate via the LAN, and the log is full of "le0 no carrier - cable
disconnected or link test disabled?" messages.

I can confirm that the network is intact and that this is not a hardware
problem on the 20 as I have swapped with another identical machine.

Running ifconfig down, followed by up, clears the problem (for a while!).

Temporary solution is a script running ifconfig down/sleep/ifconfig up
on the 20. There are no errors recorded on the Ultra.

Op. sys is Solaris 7 on both systems.

Not a major problem, but an annoyance!

Regards,

Les.

L$s Hayward wrote:
> I wonder if any one could kindly shed light on this:
>
> I have a Sparc 20 networked to an Ultra 1, via ethernet.
> The 20 is permanently logged in using CDE to the Ultra.
> It also runs an Informix DB which is accessed from the Ultra.
>
> From time to time (usually a few days) the 20 will refuse to
> communicate via the LAN, and the log is full of "le0 no carrier - cable
> disconnected or link test disabled?" messages.
>
> I can confirm that the network is intact and that this is not a hardware
> problem on the 20 as I have swapped with another identical machine.
>
> Running ifconfig down, followed by up, clears the problem (for a while!).
>
> Temporary solution is a script running ifconfig down/sleep/ifconfig up
> on the 20. There are no errors recorded on the Ultra.
>
> Op. sys is Solaris 7 on both systems.
>
> Not a major problem, but an annoyance!
>
> Regards,
>
> Les.

I've seen it said this problem only occurs when you have full duplex
ethernet devices around. I think its a problem that the SPARC 20 will
not work at full-duplex and the other system does not always negotiate
half-duplex properly.

That said, I have 5 SS20's and while I have seen this behavior if a
cable is unplugged from an SS20, then reconnected to a 100baseT
full-duplex switch, I have *never* seen it if 100baseT switch is left
connected.

Some say to use a switch such as a Cisco that allows you to configure
half-duplex, but my 3COM can't do that - you only have auto-negotiation.

Thanks for the thoughts Dave, it gives me something to investigate.

Les.

>
> I've seen it said this problem only occurs when you have full duplex
> ethernet devices around. I think its a problem that the SPARC 20 will
> not work at full-duplex and the other system does not always negotiate
> half-duplex properly.
>
> That said, I have 5 SS20's and while I have seen this behavior if a
> cable is unplugged from an SS20, then reconnected to a 100baseT
> full-duplex switch, I have *never* seen it if 100baseT switch is left
> connected.
>
> Some say to use a switch such as a Cisco that allows you to configure
> half-duplex, but my 3COM can't do that - you only have auto-negotiation.
>

Dave wrote:

> Some say to use a switch such as a Cisco that allows you to configure
> half-duplex, but my 3COM can't do that - you only have auto-negotiation.

"managed" 3com switches allow full/half-duplex setting per port, but
of course they are more expensive than the unmanaged switches (I don't
know how they compare to Cisco's)