Strange NIC behavior, hanging, timeouts, sucking

[tribedude]

I just built another server a few weeks ago, to replace an aging webserver in our rack. Specs are at the bottom of the post. It is showing some weird network behavior that I cannot understand. Hopefully someone here can tell me what could be causing this....

Loaded on F5 32 bit version, tested and burned in server with burnin test. No problems, all tests passed.

Able to connect to the internet through my LAN - through gateway to cable modem .

Able to download big files 135 mb+ as long as they are on a web server somewhere (using firefox download manager) via http

Unable to transfer files to the server across my local LAN or from another computer directly (with a crossover cable). The transfers always time out, usually before the transfer reaches 50mb. Sometimes the NIC locks up after this and I have to reboot the server, or wait like 10-20 minutes till the NICs somehow reactivate.

I thought this was a hardware issue so I disabled the mobo's onboard NICs and bought the Intel card. Still happens. I troubleshot till I was crosseyed by removing memory, raid, and other stuff and swapping it out in various configurations but still the problem persists.

I installed a fresh FC5 64 bit version and still the timeouts happen.

HELP!

The server works beautifully in every way except for large file transfers.... This machine is destined to be a webserver and it has to be able to transfer files...



Setup

Tyan S2881 mobo (dual onboard broadcom NICS disabled)
4 gigs ECC
two opteron 252
adaptec 2130slp-r raid card
3 x seagate 15k rpm 72 gig hard drives
supermicro 2u chassis
Intel® PRO/1000 MT Dual Port Server Adapter

[leonpmu]

So your nic is the Intel Pro/1000 then?? I don't have any experience with them, but it sounds like you either have a faulty card or a bug in the river, Iusually tend to stick to D-link or Via based cards..

Edit : what is the rest of your network running?? i are they Windows boxen you are accesing through Samba, are they NFS shares with other Unix boxen etc.. are the other boxen on 1GB lan or 100MB Lan, what backbone is your rack server attached to? I have heard horror stories of NIC's not being compatible with certain switches etc...

[dkeav]

if you think its the hardware then use the onboard nics

[xrx]

I thought this was a hardware issue so I disabled the mobo's onboard NICs and bought the Intel card.

Which means you already tried using the onboard NICs?

Otherwise, we need the answers of leonpmu's edit.