I have a lan/ethernet card by Realtek Semiconductors ltd. I updated its drivers while working in windows and it worked fine but when I logged in Linux( fedora 7 to be exact), my ethernet won't work.I tried searching on google for the solution but didn't find any. Finally just on a hunch I rolled back the drivers by logging onto windows and when I logged in fedora again and it worked! I am not able to understand as to why would updating the drivers in windows will cause problems in the working of the lan card in linux? None of my friends who have been using linux for sometime now have been able to give a convincing answer. Also does this mean that some other hardware may give similar problem if updated in windows?

Normally it has no impact .
But give it a try start windows
go to the device manager
check the energy control tab of your network card. (power management)
disable all checkboxes

try again in linux.

I tried what I was told to do in the above reply but still it didn't work
I think I didn't mention the actual problem
The problem is that the network card is not picking up IP address, the hardware is being detected but it is not working
I am studying in a college and use the Lan provided by the college, does that have anything to do with it? I don't think so.

so what is the output
of ifconfig ?
does it say that i got a link?
is there a dhcp server running (...Lan provided by the college)?
check with system-config-network if everything matches.
maybe delete the settings and save them
issue service network restart
then configure your card again with system-config-network
and restart the network again service network restart

check the route -n command to the if the default gateway is present.

i have a similar difficulty....
i assign a ip address then service network restart...
when i view ifconfig it shows something like
127.0.0.1 but not showing the ip adress i issued....
i have a silan90231 nic....and i have
windows 98 running as well....in the same system.
and its working fine.....what may be the problem....plzzzz suggest....
thank u........

@carnage85

check
ifconfig -a

that command will listen you all devices also the once that are not in use.

127.0.0.1 is alright, this is your loopback interface, some service need it.

You should look for eth1 or eth0.

Which Distribution do you use?
How did you try to assign the IP Address ?

is the "driver" for the lan card loaded?
What shows
lspci
regarding Ethernet?

If silan = sis then
lsmod

should show a sis module loaded