NIC freezes during large file xfer recving

[David Snyder <dasnyderx@yahoo.com>]

To all and sundry,

I have had the problem of my dc0 NIC (see dmesg and ifconfig below) 
freezing up (stops transfers) during the receipt of large files.  I am 
able to 'unfreeze' the NIC by 'bouncing' the interface (changing the
IP address and changing it back to its old IP).  The problem seems to be 
just in the receiving of large files and only when the transfer rate 
rises above 1MB/s (transfers from my wireless computer, which doesn't 
exceed 800KB/s, work fine).  I've tried this with both scp and ftp 
transfers to this computer, when the media has been set to '100baseTX' 
and '100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex', and both transfer means caused the 
interface to freeze.  I don't think it's my home network, because I had 
this computer hooked up to a 5-port hub and then an 8-port switch and 
the problem persists.

So, my question is, do I just have a piece-of-s**t interface and I
should just get a newer (and better) one?  Or does this presage an
interface failure?  Or is there some other possible problem?

BTW, why the ifconfig's address output should display the correct MAC 
address and the dmesg dc0 output shows only ff's for the address, I have 
no idea.

David

The interface's ifconfig output:
~ > ifconfig dc0
dc0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
         address: 00:fe:e1:ba:d0:a7
         media: Ethernet 100baseTX full-duplex
         status: active
         inet6 fe80::2fe:e1ff:feba:d0a7%dc0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
         inet 192.168.1.103 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 255.255.255.0

The computer's dmesg:
~ > dmesg
OpenBSD 3.6-current (GENERIC) #118: Mon Nov 15 04:40:03 MST 2004
     deraadt@i386.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
cpu0: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz ("GenuineIntel" 686-class) 2.83 GHz
cpu0: 
FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,
ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,CNXT-ID
real mem  = 536453120 (523880K)
avail mem = 482312192 (471008K)
using 4278 buffers containing 26927104 bytes (26296K) of memory
mainbus0 (root)
bios0 at mainbus0: AT/286+(ff) BIOS, date 01/10/02, BIOS32 rev. 0 @ 0xfb480
apm0 at bios0: Power Management spec V1.2
apm0: AC on, battery charge unknown
pcibios0 at bios0: rev 2.1 @ 0xf0000/0xdf84
pcibios0: PCI IRQ Routing Table rev 1.0 @ 0xfded0/176 (9 entries)
pcibios0: PCI Exclusive IRQs: 5 9 10 11
pcibios0: PCI Interrupt Router at 000:17:0 ("VIA VT8366 ISA" rev 0x00)
pcibios0: PCI bus #1 is the last bus
bios0: ROM list: 0xc0000/0xfc00 0xd0000/0x5800
cpu0 at mainbus0
pci0 at mainbus0 bus 0: configuration mode 1 (no bios)
pchb0 at pci0 dev 0 function 0 vendor "VIA", unknown product 0x3128 rev 0x01
ppb0 at pci0 dev 1 function 0 "VIA VT8633 AGP" rev 0x00
pci1 at ppb0 bus 1
vga1 at pci1 dev 0 function 0 vendor "Nvidia", unknown product 0x314 rev 
0xa1
wsdisplay0 at vga1: console (80x25, vt100 emulation)
wsdisplay0: screen 1-5 added (80x25, vt100 emulation)
ahc1 at pci0 dev 12 function 0 "Adaptec AHA-2940U2 U2" rev 0x00: irq 11
scsibus0 at ahc1: 16 targets
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <SEAGATE, ST373405LC, EE25> SCSI3 0/direct 
fixed
sd0: 70007MB, 29550 cyl, 8 head, 606 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 143374741 sec total
dc0 at pci0 dev 13 function 0 "ADMtek AN983" rev 0x11: irq 10, address 
ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
ukphy0 at dc0 phy 1: Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface
ukphy0: OUI 0x000749, model 0x0001, rev. 1
cmpci0 at pci0 dev 14 function 0 "C-Media Electronics CMI8738/C3DX 
Audio" rev 0x10: irq 9
audio0 at cmpci0
pcib0 at pci0 dev 17 function 0 "VIA VT8366 ISA" rev 0x00
pciide0 at pci0 dev 17 function 1 "VIA VT82C571 IDE" rev 0x06: ATA100, 
channel 0 configured to compatibility, channel 1 configured to compatibility
wd0 at pciide0 channel 0 drive 0: <WDC WD200AA>
wd0: 16-sector PIO, LBA, 19092MB, 39102336 sectors
wd0(pciide0:0:0): using PIO mode 4, Ultra-DMA mode 4
atapiscsi0 at pciide0 channel 1 drive 0
scsibus1 at atapiscsi0: 2 targets
cd0 at scsibus1 targ 0 lun 0: <COMPAQ, DVD-ROM GD-2500, 0011> SCSI0 
5/cdrom removable
atapiscsi1 at pciide0 channel 1 drive 1
scsibus2 at atapiscsi1: 2 targets
cd1 at scsibus2 targ 0 lun 0: <SAMSUNG, CD-R/RW SW-232B, R300> SCSI0 
5/cdrom removable
cd0(pciide0:1:0): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2
cd1(pciide0:1:1): using PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2
uhci0 at pci0 dev 17 function 2 "VIA VT83C572 USB" rev 0x1b: irq 11
usb0 at uhci0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0 at usb0
uhub0: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci1 at pci0 dev 17 function 3 "VIA VT83C572 USB" rev 0x1b: irq 11
usb1 at uhci1: USB revision 1.0
uhub1 at usb1
uhub1: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci2 at pci0 dev 17 function 4 "VIA VT83C572 USB" rev 0x1b: irq 11
usb2 at uhci2: USB revision 1.0
uhub2 at usb2
uhub2: VIA UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0 at pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
pms0 at pckbc0 (aux slot)
pckbc0: using irq 12 for aux slot
wsmouse0 at pms0 mux 0
pcppi0 at isa0 port 0x61
midi0 at pcppi0: <PC speaker>
sysbeep0 at pcppi0
lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378/4 irq 7
it0 at isa0 port 0x290/8: IT87
npx0 at isa0 port 0xf0/16: using exception 16
pccom0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
pccom1 at isa0 port 0x2f8/8 irq 3: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2
fd0 at fdc0 drive 0: 1.44MB 80 cyl, 2 head, 18 sec
fd1 at fdc0 drive 1: density unknown
biomask e945 netmask ed65 ttymask fde7
pctr: user-level cycle counter enabled
ahc1: target 0 using 16bit transfers
ahc1: target 0 synchronous at 40.0MHz, offset = 0x3f
dkcsum: sd0 matched BIOS disk 80
dkcsum: wd0 matched BIOS disk 81
root on wd0a
rootdev=0x0 rrootdev=0x300 rawdev=0x302