> 
> Well, I have tried it with 2.4.0-test10, both SMP and non-SMP, and the
> result is a little confusing.
> 
> Under SMP a ping -s 50000 -f other_host takes down the network access
> with no messages (ne2k-pci), and no possibility of being restored
> without a reboot.
> 
> Under UP the same command works ok, but after a while the dots stop for
> 30sec, then ping prints an 'E' and the dots continue. strace revealed
> this:

Another suggestion - if you have your heart set on using ping
as your network stress tool, you may want to try using multiple
instances of MTU sized pings versus  a single "ping -s 50000".
In this way you aren't involving any IP frag code and its associated
bean counting - giving us one less factor to consider.

Oh, and since you get a silent failure, maybe you would be interested
in testing this patch I was (originally) saving for 2.5.x. -- It adds
watchdog transmit timeout functionality to 8390.c (which is used by
the ne2k-pci driver).  Last time I updated it was a couple of months
ago, but nothing has changed since then.

Paul.