82579LM and PIX 515 Firewall Compatibility

[idata]

I recently received our first Dell Optiplex 790 with the intel 82579LM on board nic. It will not see the gateway on the network which is a Pix firewall.

It is on the same switch as the Pix. It can ping every other machine on the network except the Pix. Every other machine on the network can ping the firewall and the problem machine. I have tried two different operating systems (7 and XP) with the drivers from Dell as well as the latest drivers from this site. I have tried every possible setting on the card to no avail. I've run the diagnostics and everything passes. With the network settings set to Auto the card will get an IP address and DNS appears to be working. There is no setting in the firewall that would prevent the machine from pinging it and I see nothing in the firewall logs.

When I plug the machine into a different network (a DSL wireless router) it works fine. I talked to Dell tech support and they were unable to resolve the issue. At first I thought it might be incompatibility with the Linksys Etherfast switches, but since it sees all the other machines on the switches I have to conclude it's an incompatibility with the Pix. I will be getting more of these machines in the near future so I need to resolve this issue. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

[Douglas_B_Intel]

Sorry to hear your having some troubles. Here is some things to try to see if it helps out.

I'm assuming you mean the Cisco PIX. Which version? I found this on wikipedia, and might be worth trying for you...

According to a 2000 field notice, due to a "procedural error", PIX 525s with serial numbers 44480380055 through 44480480044 were manufactured with erroneous or omitted http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEPROM EEPROM programming in their 82559 chips that caused the onboard FastEthernet ports to behave erratically when set to full-duplex. Starting with PIX OS 5.3.1, the "eeprom update" command will reprogram the defective data and restore normal operation permanently. Viewing the field notice requires registration http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_field_notice09186a00800949c4.shtml [92]. Most, if not all, 525s in use today within that range have likely been corrected, but an unused or unopened unit within that range would still need the corrective action to be taken.

I would put WireShark on the 82579 side and see if the packets coming back from the PIX are there. And since the PIX is only 10/100, you should be able to put the PIX on a hub and get the data from it as well.

I'm guessing once you see what is coming and going to both sides you'll see the troubles.