I did try using an old hub (10 mb) and it not fix my issues. But that was me and here.
Once the NIC breaks; it stays broken unless you disconnect it.
Removing the network interface though did fix my serial comm issues (noticed mostly with the Omnitouch and Omnistat serial comms)
The network interface basically just quits functioning; there is nothing complex about that. (sniffing the network interface will only confirm this)
Personally here with the 3.13 FW I had issues initially and then I did a cold reset uploading my stuff to a blank panel.
I am not used to doing a cold reset with my OPII panel such that it was a PITA (but easy).
Read the threads above relating to my fix of my network and timing issues and serial issues with the 3.12 FW.
It worked for me. I will most likely downgrade to 3.12 and do my networking thing if the board hiccups again.
That said per an open ticket with HAI tech. HAI tech folks were polite and very responsive to my concerns.
HAI tech told me that there was nothing wrong with my board and it related to using a legacy and promiscuous old network interface on the HAI OPII.
IE: board was an old design which couldn't handle a large multidevice network.
I am today close to 128 devices on my network. I did post a message relating to my open ticket and response to said ticket here on the forum.
I am also now using managed Gb switches and unmanaged Gb switches mostly these days.
So instead I just played until I got it it working fine. (HAI OPII with FW 3.12 and my DIY fix worked great).
This endeavor got me playing and modifying a micro-router.
The micro router will let me connect to the panel via the regular home wired or wireless network and even do out of band management with it via whatever topology I want to utilize (network or serial). (that and I can also do the email thing stuff) .
Looking now too at an even smaller micro router that I can modify in a similiar fashion.
Now using FW 3.13 (sans hiccup) the panel is on the main sub net of my home network. It does not have any networking issues, significant time loss or serial problems which all seemed to occur at the same time.
Maybe it
was an issue with the firmware? Maybe they just didn't want to repair my OPII board?
Maybe there has been a subtle design change in more recent OPII boards that we do not know about?
Maybe having the email board with a clock sync, serial connection and a second network interface fixed the issue?
Mine is about 4 years old now. I do have my original board in another home and its still functioning just fine (~ 2003 OPII board).
Above PCT88 just replaced his board with a newer one and his problem went away.
Once I swapped out my board I have not had any problems since. The old board sits in the basement awaiting further experimenting- though I find it unlikely that I will put much effort into that given that the new one is happy to deal with the same network conditions. I did isolate my assorted Arecont megapixel cameras from the OPII early in the troubleshooting: they provide many tens of MB of continuous traffic on the network.