Hello, I have built a data link system (i.e. microwave radio) with bridges at both ends of the link (sort of back-to-back). The data link boxes have highly asymetrical RS-422 serial interfaces which are interfaced to the bridges with dscc4/hdlc/syncppp modules. Also, the bridges each have one regular ethernet port. The intention is to have the ethernet at one end appear to be connected to the ethernet at the other end. Also, one end is usually connected to a busy lan with lots of broadcast traffic. The bridges are running on 266 MHz Pentiums with no other load. The system works in general, but sometimes there are very long and erratic delay times (up to several seconds) when pinging through the link. If the radio link is brought up before the bridges are started, things seem to work well (ping times of ~10-15 ms). The problem seems to occur if the bridges are started before the radio link is brought up. Once the problem appears it will persist until the bridge is restarted. I wondered if the problems is that the MAC table was getting too big. I reduced the ageing time from 300 to 30 seconds, and this seemed to help (the MAC table got smaller), but the problem persists. Also the problem can be seen sometimes when not connected to the lan, so maybe I just don't have the bridge configured properly. Any help or suggestions appreciated. Bob Snyder
