The onboard Atheros LAN (never heard of them) on my P5Q Pro motherboard was freezing if I transferred large files (a few gigs) over the network. My Windows Server 2008 Server x64 driver was WHQL and current according to the ASUS support site. I went directly to Atheros and found a more recent driver that was also WHQL. I thought that would fix it but the problem persisted!

So I opened up my box-o-old-PCI-cards and I had an Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop LAN adapter in there. After uninstalling the Atheros driver and disabling it in the BIOS, I installed the Intel card and its most recent driver.

Now the server is solid again, and can transfer large files with ease. I moved a 5 gig rar at over 80 meg/sec! So I don't know if my Atheros experience is common or I just got a bad board, but I'd rather just use an old, reliable part than RMA this motherboard. The Intel Pro/1000 series rocks (I have several of them, single and dual port varieties, PCI and PCI-X varieties).