We have a netra X1 which seems not to like our ethernet. We can
install it fine (so it has no trouble doing reads), but if we try and
do something like connect an X session to it, it is either unusably
slow or doesn't work at all (connection just hangs). This all smells
of some failure to negotiate duplexness with the hub but I don't think
it's that.

We have a tiny 3com officeconnect 10/100 hub (which I think must be
some kind of switch really, since it can (and does) support 10 and 100
simultaneously on different ports). The netra ends up running at
100Mb, half-duplex, which is the same as the other machines modulo the
router which is at 10 on one of the ports. Between other machines I
can get close to 10MB/sec with this setup so I don't think there's
anything wrong with the hub.

If I connect the netra with a crossover cable to a random laptop
(dlink card?) then there is no problem at all.

Has anyone seen anything like this? It's kind of a pain... I'm
wondering if I should just speculatively replace the hub but how do I
know the replacement will be better? And what should I get that's not
too expensive anyway?

An unrelated question: the manual for the netra says it takes standard
PC133 memory. Does this mean I can (modulo support questions) go to a
random PC shop and buy memory for it? What about parity &/or ECC,
does it not have this (eek!)?

Thanks

--tim