I tried to connect my two laptops using crossover LAN cable. They are are on the same WiFi with internet on addresses 192.168.0.xxx, but I want faster communication between them for my purposes.
I set one to address 172.16.0.1 with mask 255.255.255.252 (Windows 8.1) and the second one to 172.16.0.2 with the same mask (Fedora 22). The connection between them works fine for a while (tested with ping), but stops working after while. Then I observe this phenomenon with Wireshark.
Fedora 22 - 172.16.0.2
It keeps broadcasting ARP discovery packet and tries to know who has 172.16.0.1. No response seen on this machine.
Windows 8.1 - 172.16.0.1
I see the broadcast from 172.16.0.1, also I see the response to it, but there is a huge amount of MAC CTRL Pause packets coming from the other station. I have read on the Wikipedia, that this is sign of overwhelmed network.
I have just a basic knowledge of networks and I don't know how to fix this. I first thought it is a problem with routing, but it seems like something on link-layer. Would you please somehow help me? Any ideas?
EDIT: Routing table from Windows system
IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 On-link 172.16.0.1 266
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.8 25
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
127.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
172.16.0.0 255.255.255.252 On-link 172.16.0.1 266
172.16.0.1 255.255.255.255 On-link 172.16.0.1 266
172.16.0.3 255.255.255.255 On-link 172.16.0.1 266
192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0 On-link 192.168.0.8 281
192.168.0.8 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.8 281
192.168.0.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.8 281
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 172.16.0.1 266
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 On-link 192.168.0.8 281
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 127.0.0.1 306
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 172.16.0.1 266
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 On-link 192.168.0.8 281
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
Network Address Netmask Gateway Address Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 172.16.0.1 Default
===========================================================================