On Thu, 5 Mar 2015 13:33:23 -0500 Todd Goodman <t...@bonedaddy.net> wrote:
> * Marc Joliet <mar...@gmx.de> [150305 04:47]: > [..SNIP..] > > 1.) The NIC is brought up (some built-in Intel model). > > > > 2.) A DHCP client configures it. > > > > 3.) The network connection is lost at some point (the amount of > > time this takes varies, but it can be as little as 20 minutes). > > > > 4.) Eventually the lease runs out and the DHCP client tries to > > renew it, but gets no response. Sometimes, after many hours (at > > least 6), it will get a DHCPACK, but that's it. One of our > > sysadmins says that not only does the DHCP server never see the > > packets, but the managed switch that the PC is directly attached to > > *also* never does (again, except for when the occasional DHCPACK > > comes). > > > > 4.) Restart the network device. A reboot is not required, but it > > is necessary to terminate the DHCP client. After that everything > > works again. > > > > 5.) GOTO 3. > [..SNIP..] > > Is this a WiFi NIC? > > Is it possible the device is powering down? > > I've had lots of problems with WiFi devices powering down (both driver > issues as well as just trying to disable the default setting of > powering down.) +1 I've seen similar things many times myself (but nevr on Intel network kit so far) A lot of reading and Googling usually leads to the solution: - firmware upgrade for the hardware - use the correct driver (this is often non-obvious) - try the in-kernel driver vs any out-of-tree vendor driver - apply driver parameters designed to work around buggy hardware (this often involves (much reading) Alan
