3Com NICs gone Wild

[Rilescat]

Hello....I have a pair of onboard 3Com 3C920 LAN adapters on my Thunder K7 dual Athlon board.

After I enable these cards, and plug them into a switch, they go APE!! They flash like mad and take up to 58% of the network bandwidth, even though they are actually not moving ANY data. As soon as this happens, the SYSTEM service also ends up taking about 65% of the processor usage. Basically the system is unusable. Everytime I put it on the network, it hits the network so hard that it crashes the DHCP server and floods everyone.

I scanned for Virus.....nothing.

I looked for services/programs running that might cause this. Nothing.

Any thoughts anyone?? I have a pretty nice box just sitting around because of these damn NICs....

BLAH!@!

 

[mcveigh]

can you disble them and try a pci NIC card, see if it does the same thing?

 

[Rilescat]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
can you disble them and try a pci NIC card, see if it does the same thing?

Yes, I can do that. I have been able to run other NICs without any problems. However, given these 2 are built in to the board, I was hoping I could figure out some way to use them.

Thanks!!

 

[mcveigh]

so other nics work but not the onboard ones?

2 ideas

the board is bad....RMA it

OR

maybe a new bios would fix it?

 

[n0cmonkey]

What happens when you only plug one in?

 

[Rilescat]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
so other nics work but not the onboard ones?

2 ideas

the board is bad....RMA it

OR

maybe a new bios would fix it?

ya...I am on the newest BIOS now.

 

[CBuxton]

Are you using load balancing software or anything? Cause if you just plug 2 nics in you're gonna have a big traffic mess because your computer will effectively have 2 MAC addresses and computers will not know how to communicate with it. Unplug one and things should work right.

 

[Tallgeese]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
What happens when you only plug one in?

I'm thinking that the NIC driver and/or switch is not configured to support trunking across multiple interfaces, so each interface is FUBARing the other one.

Just use one. See what happens.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
What happens when you only plug one in?

I'm thinking that the NIC driver/switch is not configured to support trunking across multiple interfaces, so each of them is FUBARing the other one.

Just use one. See what happens.

Thats along the same lines as what I was thinking... Yeah, thats the ticket

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
What happens when you only plug one in?

I'm thinking that the NIC driver/switch is not configured to support trunking across multiple interfaces, so each of them is FUBARing the other one.

Just use one. See what happens.

Thats along the same lines as what I was thinking... Yeah, thats the ticket

good thinking guys, wish I'd thought of that

 

[Tallgeese]

Originally posted by: mcveigh
good thinking guys, wish I'd thought of that

Oh...that was all n0c's pickup.
I was mainly just agreeing with him.
Somehow I completely fuzzed and didn't notice rc was pluggin two NICs in at once (ostensibly into the same switch, of course).

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: mcveigh
good thinking guys, wish I'd thought of that

Oh...that was all n0c's pickup.
I was mainly just agreeing with him.
Somehow I completely fuzzed and didn't notice he was pluggin two NICs in at once (ostensibly into the same switch, of course).

It was my second idea. My first was "Windows sucks!" But thats not always a solution to the problem

 

[Tallgeese]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
It was my second idea. My first was "Windows sucks!" But thats not always a solution to the problem

Good to know the counselors finally got through to ya pal!

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
It was my second idea. My first was "Windows sucks!" But thats not always a solution to the problem

Good to know the "*nix-itis"counselors finally got through to ya pal!

Nah, got a moment of niceness there. Wont happen much more.

 

[Tallgeese]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Nah, got a moment of niceness there. Wont happen much more.

Cr@p, and we were just startin to get used to the "kindler, gentler" n0cmonkey.
Well...some of us were. Personally I miss the beatific smack you used to lay down on folks, as I've bemoaned in other threads here recently.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Nah, got a moment of niceness there. Wont happen much more.

Cr@p, and we were just startin to get used to the "kindler, gentler" n0cmonkey.
Well...some of us were. Personally I miss the beatific smack you used to lay down on folks, as I've bemoaned in other threads here recently.

The mean me comes out on occassion, but Ive recently reached a small stage of enlightenment in my life so it doesnt come out as much. But every day I come into work that enlightenment's existance is threatened and the snarling me is getting stronger

Just wait, give the blood time to boil.

 

[Rilescat]

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
What happens when you only plug one in?

I'm thinking that the NIC driver/switch is not configured to support trunking across multiple interfaces, so each of them is FUBARing the other one.

Just use one. See what happens.

Thats along the same lines as what I was thinking... Yeah, thats the ticket

good thinking guys, wish I'd thought of that

Well, yes, good thinking. However, I have the NICs bridged. And, tonight I decided that 3Com sucks and I disabled the NICs. Thinking that you guys were on the right track, I shoved in 2 Intel 10/100 NICs. I bridged them....and low and behold....no problem.

Only happens when I use the onboard 3Coms paired......

3Com sucks.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Rilescat

Originally posted by: mcveigh

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: TallGeese

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
What happens when you only plug one in?

I'm thinking that the NIC driver/switch is not configured to support trunking across multiple interfaces, so each of them is FUBARing the other one.

Just use one. See what happens.

Thats along the same lines as what I was thinking... Yeah, thats the ticket

good thinking guys, wish I'd thought of that

Well, yes, good thinking. However, I have the NICs bridged. And, tonight I decided that 3Com sucks and I disabled the NICs. Thinking that you guys were on the right track, I shoved in 2 Intel 10/100 NICs. I bridged them....and low and behold....no problem.

Only happens when I use the onboard 3Coms paired......

3Com sucks.

Im really curious to know if just one would work though

BTW, what do you mean by "bridged"? The definition Im thinking is probably different...

 

[Tallgeese]

Originally posted by: Rilescat
Only happens when I use the onboard 3Coms paired......
3Com sucks.

I have to admit, that is the conclusion I've come to about 3Com in servers/high IO installations.
I've seen issues w/ 3C920s before too. General flakiness, not initializing properly on a cold boot. Stupid stuff.

 

[Tallgeese]

Originally posted by: Rilescat
However, I have the NICs bridged. And, tonight I decided that 3Com sucks and I disabled the NICs. Thinking that you guys were on the right track, I shoved in 2 Intel 10/100 NICs. I bridged them....and low and behold....no problem.

When you say "bridged," do you mean "teamed?"
Just tryin to get terminology straight for everybody.

 

[Tallgeese]

And duh....what OS?

 

[spidey07]

bridged - as in looped, as in broadcast storm as in, well...a loop.

Remember these small unmanaged switches don't run spanning tree and can't detect loops.

Try with only one nic.

That and I'll agree that 3com server nics suck.

 

[owensdj]

Rilescat, are you sure you're using the correct drivers for that onboard NIC? If so, try getting the very newest version from 3COM's site.

 

[Rilescat]

Originally posted by: TallGeese
And duh....what OS?

Ok...don't yell at me to much...but the box is XP. Also, I have updated to the newest drivers on 3Com's site. Even though Tyan states the onboard NICs are 920s, 3Com states they are 98X. Any thoughts there?

As for bridging, it is a process used to connect the two NICs. It is a built in ability with XP. But, I have tried the two NICs bridged, and unbridged now. Single and dual.....they do it any which way. And as of yet....the two Intels I put in are still acting fine.

I do have an IBM 2945 switch that I thought I could try instead of the Netgear I am using now. Any opinions there?

Thanks for the help all!!

 

[spidey07]

You'll most likely get better performance by just using one network card.

By bridging the cards you are creating a loop by which packets/frames are just endless forwarded forever. You can try to use the IBM switch as it probably runs spannting-tree.

But for sure eliminate the bridging.