ethernet card not working

[Michael Powell]

David Collins wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have just gotten an old ethernet card, not entirely sure how old it
> is but it has pulse H1012 on one of the chips and appears as ethernet
> device fxp0 in freebsd 7.0.
> 
> When I plug an ethernet cable between this card and another computer
> (freebsd 7.2) ifconfig says that the status has no carrier. When I
> unplug either end and plug it into my ibook (OS X) the status changes
> to active and I can ping the other computer. From this I can see that
> both both freebsd computers have working ethernet cards and the cable
> works also, just not freebsd-freebsd.
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas why this might be the case and how to fix it?
> 

One thing to consider is you may require a crossover cable for a computer to 
computer connection (e.g., no hub or switch in use). Most newer equipment 
will auto configure for any cabling arrangement so it doesn't matter if it's 
a straight-thru or crossover; but if you are using a straight-thru it may be 
failing because the old card is balking. Try using a crossover cable and see 
if it makes any difference.

-Mike