Actually, the problem is not speed or simplex/duplex auto-negotiation.

On Cisco EtherSwitches, the 10/100 ports negotiate channeling and
trunking by default.  The delay caused by channel and trunk negotiation
are what confuses the Sun's HME (or any other 10/100 ) NIC.

If you disable channel and trunk negotiations on the port your Sun
server is attached to, you will see the problem go away.

Here is Cisco's page on the issue:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/12.html

Lou Costabile wrote:

> I found setting these in /etc/system on solaris works best with Cisco
> 5500's,  and I agree with who ever made the comment, autonegotiation
> doesn't work.  These options will globally affect all hme and qfe
> interfaces.
>
> set hme:hme_adv_autoneg_cap=0
> set hme:hme_adv_100fdx_cap=1
> set hme:hme_adv_100hdx_cap=0
> set hme:hme_adv_10fdx_cap=0
> set hme:hme_adv_10hdx_cap=0
> set hme:hme_adv_100T4_cap=0
>
> set qfe:qfe_adv_autoneg_cap=0
> set qfe:qfe_adv_100fdx_cap=1
> set qfe:qfe_adv_100hdx_cap=0
> set qfe:qfe_adv_10fdx_cap=0
> set qfe:qfe_adv_10hdx_cap=0
> set qfe:qfe_adv_100T4_cap=0
>
> --
> Lou A. Costabile    416-215-2800
> Bell Nexxia
>
> --
>
> _______________________________________________
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--
Matthew Lee Stier                 *  Fujitsu Network Communications
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Matthew.Stier AT fnc.fujitsu DOT com     *  Pearl River, NY 10965