Topic: 100Mbps LAN

[Taivo]

Hi

I've a SME Server V5.1.2 operating as a Internet gateway and DHCP host for the local area network.

Everything works just great with current situation:

10/100Mbps PCI LAN card with Realtek 8139 chip is for incoming static IP. SME Server recognized it as Realtek 8139 chip based card.

10MBps PCI LAN card with Realtek 8029 chip is for LAN. SME Server recognized it as NE2K_PCI card or something like that.

At this point everything is running just fine. But there is a real need for 100Mbps LAN speed and this is where the problems begin. If I replace that 10Mbps Realtek 8029 chip card with a 10/100Mbps Realtek 8139 chip card then SME Server does recognize the card but all network communication between computers is shut down and Internet Connection Test from Server Manager keeps telling me that the test is failed.

Well, I didn't see that Realtek 8139 chip cards were supported on the whole but why does it work as a external card (is it called eth0 ?). If I replace the cards (eth0 and eth1) then also nothing changes. I reconfigured the cards, of course.

I have tried several different Realtek 8139 chip based cards + Genius GF100TXR card which is on the list of recommended cards (and is also with Realtek 8139 chip).When I tried to manually choose a driver for this card then the Genius GF100TXR wasn't on the list at all.

Sadly at the moment I don't have a possibility to try out 3COM or Intel cards...

does anyone have suggestions?

[Gary Parker]

Umm.....quick and dirty way to fix this is to login locally as 'admin' on your e-smith box then run through the configuration script accepting all the default options (they'll be the current settings) until you get to the network card bit. At some point it'll ask you if you want to swap your cards over so that eth0 becomes eth1 and vice versa. Once you've run through this and it reboots, swap the cables over that connect you to your LAN and your Internet connection and all should be well.

Alternatively, you could try telling the 8139 driver that there are two identical cards in the system at boot time via kernel parameters...

Finally, a word of friendly advice....ditch the 8029...they're *evil*

Gary

[Bill Talcott]

Yup, unless you really need the 100Mb upstream connection, the best thing to do is use the Swap Cards setting in the configuration and switch the cables around. I think others have posted about having problems using two identical cards, which could explain your problems with replacing the 10Mb card...