Matthias Scheler <tron@zhadum.de> writes:

> That's broken. I've never seen any host taking that long to negotiate with
> any gigabit switch. The various wm(4) interface in my computers at home
> negotiate with gigabit switches almost instantaneous. And considering
> that my guess is you have a hardware and not a software problem.

Sounds reasonable.  It might just be the fact that the cabling to my
office is of insufficient quality for gigabit, of course.  It's CAT5,
and about 100 feet long.

> How long does the auto negotiation take with other operating system,
> other network cards and other switches?

I'll try to do some comparative testing.  I do know that the laptop in
question, running the same software (NetBSD), auto-negotiates just
fine with two 10/100 switches I've had occasion to use it through.

-tih
-- 
Don't ascribe to stupidity what can be adequately explained by ignorance.