[Techtalk] Slow networking connection

[Akkana]

Davis, Jennifer writes:
> It seems that there is a problem connecting my two main pcs via ethernet.

Don't rule out a hardware problem.  I know it sounds weird, but
hear me out.  A similar problem drove me nuts all last week on my main
machine: I could telnet anywhere, I could browse the web just fine,
but cvs checkouts were flaky (at first they didn't work with -z 3 but
did work without any -z, then later they didn't work at all with any
flag) and ftp would only get N bytes and then hang forever (where N
was different depending on the machine on the other end and which way
the connection went, i.e. whether my machine was the client or the 
server).  I spent days installing updates (this was a newly installed 
Redhat 7.2 machine so I presumed a software problem) until, frustrated
and at the end of my rope, I asked David, "Do you remember when I put
that sound card in?"

Sure enough, with the sound card removed, the network was back to
normal.  I still don't know exactly what the problem was, but for
some reason, the sound card was conflicting with the ethernet card,
but only in subtle ways, not something obvious like ethernet not
coming up at all.

	...Akkana