100base-Tx FD with crossover cable

Nicholas Edwards nicholas@gns.nicholas.net
Sat Aug 22 10:17:11 1998


Hi,

I am trying to get two of my linux boxes, one with a netgear/tulip card
and the other with a MX98713 card to talk to each other at 100baseTX full
duplex using a Cat 5 crossover cable.

Both cards work at 10baseT when plugged into a hub, but seeing as I can't
afford a 100baseTX switch, I thought it would be nice to get 200mbps with
only a crossover cable.

Upon unplugging each card from the hub and plugging the crossover cable
into each of them, both cards physically recognize the new link (nergear
puts on its LINK led, its 100 mbps led, and its full duplex led) (macronix
card puts on its 100mbps led). However, I cannot get the machines to ping
one another. The netgear card reports that it is 100baseTXFD in the
console messages, and I think the Macronix does, but seeing that it is one
of those cards with no MII, it is very hard to tell. 

My question is this...if both cards physically recognize the new, 100mbps
link by putting their other LEDs on, does the driver need to adjust, or
does the fact that they changed their LEDs from 10 to 100mbps mean just
that?

Any help in resolving this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Nicholas