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PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS ON AUTO-NEGOTIATED 10/100 LINKS | by Randall
Wiebe-Dembowski

The IEEE 802.3u 100BaseTX standard for Fast Ethernet defines a
mechanism for auto-negotiation of the speed and duplex of an Ethernet
link. If the link partners fail to negotiate the same link speed and
duplex settings, a link may still be established, but performance
problems will arise. The most commonly seen symptom in a
speed/duplex mismatch is severely reduced network throughput from a
server. Although some auto-negotiation failures can be caused by
non-conforming implementation, hardware incapability, or software
defects, most can be solved by understanding the configuration issues
involved.

Read more about the optimal performance configuration at
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid7_gci802539,00.html

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