Network not working correctly without promiscuous mode being set?

[David]

there are 2 redundant routes on xl1 side, but I'll let that be for now.  I
have upgraded the source and have since noticed VLAN_MTU which makes me
wonder.  If this card is enabling a virtual lan and it sends packets out,
but can't get them back this would make sense, and when i set promisc mode
it basically bypasses the vlan settings.  I'm new to VLAN support so I might
as well ask for any info on this and how to disable it, or atleast set it
correctly ;)

thanks again.