rtl8139 driver "looses" network

[David H. Goodlette]

Apologies to all up front if this is a know problem and I've simply not
seen the posts;  I'm looking for
the news archives for the rtl8139 driver now.

We are running the driver on a small Cyrix based machine with a built-in
rtl8139 chip.  The chip
is in promiscuous mode (it's a sniffer),  and after a random time frame,
the chip stops working.
Pings to the machine do not work, nor do pings out of the box.  If we
ifconfig eth0 down, then this
somehow resets the driver and it starts to work again.

We are using rtl8139.c v1.08a, dated 7/5/99., on a 2.2.14 kernel.  If
I'm not mistaken, the same problem was seen with
an earlier version of the driver on an earlier kernel.  The driver is
under heavy data load, so I'm wondering
if it might me load related.  Comments about the 8139 on the cedis page
mentioned that  it is not a
performance oriented product, and that is true.  However, replacing the
chip and driver is not an option;
it's an integral part of the main board and it's a box with no slots
(specific use).

I have downloaded the diagnostic utility and will compile that post
haste in an attempt to track
down more information.  In the meantime, does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks up front for any and all aid.

Dave Goodlette
Senior Software Engineer,
eSniff.com


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