Think I might be able to help you out with issue 3, the slowing down of the network.

Firstly if you can do this, unplug the connection and plug it back in. Then it'll tell you what connection type it is connected at. 10/100mb's etc.

Just say you want to force the port 'qfe1' 'qfe2' to 100MHz Full Duplex. Add the following near the end of the '/etc/rc2.d/S72inetsvc' after the '&' it's near '/usr/sbin/route add default xxx.xxx.x.xxx 1'' (Well that's what is in my file)

ndd -set /dev/qfe instance 0
ndd -set /dev/qfe adv_autoneg_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/qfe adv_100fdx_cap 1
ndd -set /dev/qfe instance 1
ndd -set /dev/qfe adv_autoneg_cap 0
ndd -set /dev/qfe adv_100fdx_cap 0

That will change the 2 ports qfe 0 & 1 to 100 Full Duplex. After the '_cap' the 0 or teh 1 you can change them around that will slow the network down or speed it up depending what way you change it. All this is done from a console window. the 'qfe' is a example, if you have 'hme' or 'le' or whatever change it to that for it to work.

If you have more ports just add another instance, you can take it to as many instances you want, providing you have the ports there. Say you have 8 ports (2 quad fast cards) you can force them all to whatever.

The only thing that changes is the port names. I.E;
ndd -set /dev/qfe
ndd -set /dev/hme
ndd -set /dev/le
etc etc


Well that's how I change the port speed. It man seem hard or maybe it is teh hard way of doing it but that's my way of doing it. Worked everytime for me when done correctly.