If you see your syslog populated with similar messages like this: (istanbul is the name of the machine)
Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: Probably a duplex mismatch. See Documentation/networking/vortex.txt Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: Flags; bus-master 1, dirty 801945(9) current 801945(9) Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: Transmit list 00000000 vs. c46c6440. Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 0: @c46c6200 length 800000b2 status 0c0100b2 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 1: @c46c6240 length 80000042 status 00010042 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 2: @c46c6280 length 80000042 status 00010042 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 3: @c46c62c0 length 80000082 status 0c010082 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 4: @c46c6300 length 800005ea status 0c0105ea Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 5: @c46c6340 length 800005ea status 0c0105ea Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 6: @c46c6380 length 800005ea status 0c0105ea Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 7: @c46c63c0 length 800005ea status 0c0105ea Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 8: @c46c6400 length 800005ea status 8c0105ea Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 9: @c46c6440 length 800000d2 status 0c0100d2 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 10: @c46c6480 length 80000052 status 0c010052 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 11: @c46c64c0 length 80000072 status 0c010072 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 12: @c46c6500 length 80000082 status 0c010082 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 13: @c46c6540 length 80000252 status 0c010252 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 14: @c46c6580 length 80000282 status 0c010282 Nov 24 06:31:54 istanbul kernel: 15: @c46c65c0 length 80000082 status 0c010082
as suggested check Documentation/networking/vortex.txt of course
Generally the problem is that your host is running on Half-Duplex mode where the others in the same network is running with Full-Duplex mode:
So issue a:
mii-tool -F 10baseT-FD
or
mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD
Depending on your type of connection
As the document says:
As a last resort, you can force the 3c59x driver into full-duplex mode with options 3c59x full_duplex=1