freebsd stable - May 2017 - Problems with re(4) Ethernet driver in 11-STABLE and HEAD

I remember having problems with Realtek 8111E Ethernet on this Intel Ivy Bridge
computer a couple years ago, and now the problem has resurfaced.

I am fresh from updating FreeBSD to 11-STABLE and HEAD on two partitions, and in
both cases can not connect with onboard Ethernet.
>From NetBSD 7.99.1 /var/run/dmesg.boot :
re0 at pci2 dev 0 function 0: RealTek 8168/8111 PCIe Gigabit Ethernet (rev.
0x06)
re0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 17
re0: Ethernet address d4:3d:7e:97:17:e2
re0: using 256 tx descriptors
rgephy0 at re0 phy 7: RTL8169S/8110S/8211 1000BASE-T media interface, rev. 5
rgephy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT,
1000baseT-FDX, auto

NetBSD 7.99.1, an old build, and NetBSD going back to 5.x, worked well with this
Ethernet, but the bug has come back in FreeBSD.

Before giving up hope on FreeBSD 11-STABLE and HEAD on this computer, I have
Hiro H50191 USB wi-fi adapter, driver rsu, haven't used it recently but see
where I will try to bring it back.

"dhclient re0" on HEAD (amd64) gave a couple lines of screen output
before crashing into debugger (db>), whereupon I simply did
"reboot".

On 11-STABLE, also amd64, I got some lines before it gave up ,
"sleeping".

On an old FreeBSD-current, svn r286653M, Aug 12, 2015, this Ethernet starts
properly with dhclient.  Now I am afraid to update except by installing onto a
separate partition.

I have plenty of space on 3 TB hard drive with GPT.

I am not completely sure on which FreeBSD list is most appropriate for this
issue.

Tom