I don't think this is a FreeBSD problem but it was encountered as during the setup of a new FreeBSD box. I am a FreeBSD newbie and haven't touched a Unix OS in 15 or more years so I was pretty sure initially that my configuration for the NIC card was flawed. The ethernet LED's showed a connection on the PC and what looked like heavy traffic on the router port. When trying to ping the router, packet loss was about 99%.
After going through the help files and being sure the configuration was correct my focus moved to the NIC card itself, an integrated Pro/100 VE. I had a LinkSys LNE100TX card on hand so threw that in, configured it and had the same result.
I then moved the 60' patch cord to my laptop and got a good connection right away. For some reason I was still suspicious of the cable (CAT-5e) so cut and replaced both ends and even made up a new CAT-5 cable from a different batch all with no change, effectively ruling out the cabling as the source of the problem.
As a last ditch effort I moved the router so the 60' patch cord was between the modem and router with a 4' patch cord from the router to the PC. Works perfectly! Both NIC cards work fine with this arrangement.
What I'm puzzled by is why two out of 4 NIC cards function perfectly at the end of a 60' ethernet connection and the other two refuse to connect. I can't keep the wireless router at that end of the basement as it puts it out of range of the two PCs two floors above. I'm suspicious of the wired connections on the router but hate to buy a new router just to troubleshoot. If anyone has any insight I'd love to hear it!
Conrad
After going through the help files and being sure the configuration was correct my focus moved to the NIC card itself, an integrated Pro/100 VE. I had a LinkSys LNE100TX card on hand so threw that in, configured it and had the same result.
I then moved the 60' patch cord to my laptop and got a good connection right away. For some reason I was still suspicious of the cable (CAT-5e) so cut and replaced both ends and even made up a new CAT-5 cable from a different batch all with no change, effectively ruling out the cabling as the source of the problem.
As a last ditch effort I moved the router so the 60' patch cord was between the modem and router with a 4' patch cord from the router to the PC. Works perfectly! Both NIC cards work fine with this arrangement.

What I'm puzzled by is why two out of 4 NIC cards function perfectly at the end of a 60' ethernet connection and the other two refuse to connect. I can't keep the wireless router at that end of the basement as it puts it out of range of the two PCs two floors above. I'm suspicious of the wired connections on the router but hate to buy a new router just to troubleshoot. If anyone has any insight I'd love to hear it!
Conrad