Networking problems in unusual configuration

[Hans van Staveren]

We had exactly the same problem, I think. If it only happens to 3/60's and
not to 3/50's it must be the same. Our ISOLAN repeaters were swapped to
get it fixed. It seems that there is a crystal in early models of it that
is just a teeny bit out of spec. The Sun 3/60 seems to be marginal but
just in spec, so the combination fails. Every large packet sent from a
3/60 through a repeater has a pretty high chance of being munged.

Since 8K NFS writes are 6 Ethernet packets, and are retransmitted all six
when things fail, the chance of all six getting through gets close to zero
giving the effect you describe.

Get your repeaters replaced.

	Hans van Staveren
	Vrije Universiteit
	Amsterdam, Holland