[c-nsp] FE experienceing errors and CRCs

[James Sneeringer]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2005 at 01:15:03PM -0400, Bill Wichers wrote:
> I have seen this with Cisco-Cisco links. We had an uplink some time ago
> that was from a PA-FE-TX on a Cisco 7507 going into a VLAN on a 2924
> switch. The link was set to "auto" on both ends, and showed maybe 30%
> packet loss due to all kinds of errors. After setting BOTH ENDS of the
> link to force 100 Mb/s and full duplex all the problems went away.

PA-FE-TX does not support autonegotiation, which was the real source of
your problem.  This particular card seems to confuse switches whose ports
are set for autonegotiation, and as you found out, the only way to make
it work reliably is to force both sides to half or full duplex.

I had a similar experience with the same card in a 7206 going to a 3524.
Forcing both sides to full duplex (and the switch to 100base) fixed it.

-James