Re: NIC War

[Ian Melnick <dazed@vonsteuben.cps.k12.il.us>]

>   nic1: ipA, macA
>   nic2: ipB, macB
> On the network attached to nic1 one you send an arp request:
> "who-has ipA tell x.x.x.x"
> where "ipA" is the ip you believe is assigned to nic1. nic1 does not 
> respond. nic2 responds with:
> "ipA is-at macB".

Yes, this is what's happening.


> At the time of this flip, according to the local machine is the 
> assignment still as follows (still correct)?
>   nic1: ipA, macA
>   nic2: ipB, macB

Yes, when I do `ifconfig` it reports back the correct information.


> What do you think, could this indicate a problem with nic2 or its 
> driver? Are nic1, nic2, and nic3 all the same model and using the same 
> drivers? Have you tried replacing nic2 with a nic you know to work, or 
> if you know nic3 to be working, temporarily with nic3?

All three cards are Linksys LNE100TX (Tulip), all purchased around the
same time. I have not tried using the third nic in place of the first
one. The second nic---the one assigned the secondary IP address and
taking over the first nic's---has been tested completely in place of the
first nic, and in that case, though it worked, outside requests were not
able to come in. Odd, since the MAC is constant. You'd think that if
outside requests are supposed to come in to the first IP, and the second
one is able to receive these while accepting both the first AND second
IP, that it'd also be able to get it while using ONLY the first IP, but
that's not the case. It's only worked "normally" with the first NIC down
and the second NIC up, receiving on behalf of both.