eth1394 interface and network stalls

Hi all

Using kernel 2.6.31.5 on two computers connected by IP over FireWire
400,
I observe sporadic but complete stalls of network traffic passing thru
the interfaces
(one workstation is used as a distcc node for the other workstation)
after some time
(1 minute to 2 hours).

There's no remedy to the problem except to reboot or unload/reload the
eth1394 module...

The hardware used are two G4 Macs (Mac Mini, 1.25Ghz and a Quicksilver
2001).

Anybody seen such a behaviour?

Peter