In message <43589E84.2050400@riscworks.net>, Timo Schoeler writes:

>i said on a plain dumb SMC 10/100 _hub_ this problem appears. then i 
>tried the Nortel 450 (_switch) -- this runs fine in full duplex mode. 
>when i then manually set both the switch (managed) and the G4 to half 
>duplex, the problem occurs again.
>
>when using the SMC _hub_ the machine automatically sets the NIC to half 
>duplex as it should be.
>

In other words, whenver your machine is supposed to use half-duplex, 
you get these failures, whether the setting is manual or automatic.  I 
don't know if it's a bug in the chip or the driver, though.  I don't 
recall all of the details of this thread, but how do other OSs behave?  
Do any succeed in such a situation? If so, it's probably a driver bug.

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb