[ale] Interface dropping packets, how to fix safely?

[Dow Hurst]

eth2: VIA VT6102 Rhine-II at 0x9000, 00:0e:a6:a2:f6:3d, IRQ 11.
eth2: MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x786d advertising 01e1 Link 43e1.
eth2: Setting full-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 43e1.


I am seeing a number of dropped packets on this interface.  This is a 
remote machine so I have to be careful what I do.  Is there a known way 
to find out if the switch this interface is connected to is running 
half-duplex?  Can I just find out the driver flags to switch it to half 
duplex without too much risk?

Initially after boot there wasn't any apparent problems, however, after 
a long upload of a lot of data the interface is almost unuseable with 
long delays between letters typed while using SSH.

Note this later /var/log/messages entry:
eth2: Setting half-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 0000.
eth2: Setting full-duplex based on MII #1 link partner capability of 43e1.

eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0E:A6:A2:F6:3D
          inet addr:152.13.214.246  Bcast:152.13.215.255  Mask:255.255.254.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:a6ff:fea2:f63d/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2138379 errors:0 dropped:19647 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1343549 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:2265150739 (2160.2 Mb)  TX bytes:128588389 (122.6 Mb)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x9000

Running mtr to track the route and see where the delays are shows that 
the last interface, namely this interface, is the big delay with an 
order of magnitude higher time than any of the hops between me and the 
machine.  I'm still in Acworth, GA while the server is at UNCG 
Greensboro NC.

Thanks for your help!
Dow