Here's the problem:

2 intel based machines (AMD500 {#1} and AMD2000 {#2}) running RedHat 9.

Connecting from #2 to #1 with ssh as a user.
$ su - to root.

everything works (ls, pwd, cd, etc etc)

$ cd /data
in /data is a dir called photo with a content of about 500MB in jpeg's.

$ tar cvf foto.tar foto
tar starts but after about 75% the proces stops, ctrl-c doesn't work, connection hangs.

with another terminal -> ssh from #2 to #1
$ ps -ef
i see the login proces, the su proces and the tar proces
$ top
tar has no cpu usage, no zombies
$ kill -9 <tar proces>
doesn's work
$ kill -9 <login proces>
connection in first terminal closes
$ kill -9 <su proces>
$ kill -9 <tar proces>
$ ps -ef
login and su proces are gone but the tar proces is still visible
$ cd /data
$ ls
terminal hangs !!

same thing happens with the command find
if i use scp to copy a large amount of data from #2 to #1, it will start but after about 800MB the transfer stops and the terminal hangs

all the rights are set correct, there is enough free space on both machine's and there is no data limit for the user.

if i don't do anything what uses a lot of the system (cpu or disk activity) the ssh connection can stay open for hours. but one wrong move via ssh and the terminal hangs.

also, if i work localy on #1: tar works fine, find works and cp has no problems with a .tar of 2GB copying it from /home to /data.

can anyone help me with this strange problem?

And have yet to find the solution. Did you ever find a fix for yours? If I find one I'll post it here

Still no clue what is wrong.

A friend of mine suggested to take out, and put back in, the network card.
No luck.

At this moment #1 is running Red Hat 9 and #2 is running Mandrake 9.2.

I have learned to live with it and found out that FTP works for most of the time.
And if it hangs i kill it and restart it and it start where it stopped.

I blame it on the motherboard (hardware failure).