On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 01:50:33PM +0100, James Bensley wrote:
Seems like your laptop isn't auto-negotiating with the switch correctly. You can manually force it 1000Mbps F/D; http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-change-the-speed-and-duplex-settings-of-a...
Yes, I tried to get ethtool to change the speed to 1000Mb/s but although no errors were reported the speed stayed obstinately at 100Mb/s.
You laptop negotiates it's link speed with the switch, not the other computer (I got the impression you thought it was have a conversation about the link type/speed with the other computer, but unless it can send and receive data properly it can't talk to anyone, this is a carrier sense issues between laptop NIC and switchport).
No, I reported both computers' ethtool output to show that another Linux box successfully negotiated 1000Mb/s with the switch.