Suse10.2 - NetgearDG834 DHCP problem
 

Help!
I have a suse10.2 desktop with 3Com 3c590 network card + cable to netgear DG834 ADSL wired/wireless router.
Wireless connection to my Lenovo notebook (ubuntu 6.06) always works.
Wired connection to my notebook also works.
Wired connection to the desktop sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.
The give away that it's not working is that the light for the wired port on the netgear does not come on.
Suse /var/log/messages has entries like:
Aug 3 15:52:38 Bilbo ifup-dhcp: no IP address yet... backgrounding.
Aug 3 15:52:38 Bilbo ifstatus: eth0 device: 3Com Corporation 3c590 10BaseT [Vortex]
Aug 3 15:52:38 Bilbo ifstatus: eth0 configuration: eth-id-00:a0:24:79:f1:9b
Aug 3 15:52:38 Bilbo ifstatus-dhcp: eth0 dhcpcd is still waiting for data
Aug 3 15:52:39 Bilbo ifstatus: eth0 device: 3Com Corporation 3c590 10BaseT [Vortex]
Aug 3 15:52:39 Bilbo ifstatus: eth0 configuration: eth-id-00:a0:24:79:f1:9b
Aug 3 15:52:39 Bilbo ifstatus-dhcp: eth0 dhcpcd is still waiting for data

I thought this was a netgear problem, but log in to suse as root and
ifdown eth0
ifup eth0

Fixes the problem. That is the light comes on, and it works :)
However even this sometimes takes two attempts.
I've tried:
Another network cable.
Using a different port on the router. (its got 4 wired ports).
Using the 3COM setup disk to tinker with the card setups.

Has anyone else seen anything like this?
Any suggestions appreciated (while I still have hair to tear out).

Bootsy.

Try switching the ports between the notebook and the desktop (or use a different port for the desktop). Also, check the cable. The light off means a problem on hardware level: broken port, cable or NIC.

Thanks Mara.
Have tried the other ports, and different cables. But it's no better.
I'll try a different NIC next.
One thing does occur to me. The netgear is 10/100 Mbits/s. The current NIC is 10 only.
Could the DHCP transaction occur before the speed has been resolved and be lost by the slow NIC?

The netgear manual doesn't really say what the lights mean other than:
green=100Mbits/s
Orange=10Mbits/s
off=no link

What constitutes link in this context?