I have a Compaq laptop connected to a Thomson cable modem thru a Realtek clone ethernet card, running Suse 9.1.

I can't get an internet connection. This is despite the system apparently finding the PCMCIA port, finding the ethernet card, and indicating that DHCP is working fine.

My question:

What commands can I type at the command line to check that the ethernet card actually works? So far it has never worked under Linux or Windows, with or without DHCP. I have tried setting up a static connection, pinging still gets no response - is the next step throwing out the ethernet card?

I ask this on the basis that I have the values for <ipaddress>, <netmask>, <gateway> etc which work fine when the computer is connected to the modem via USB (in Windows).

All ideas sorely appreciated!

I'm not sure exactly what you mean but the command ifconfig -a will show all interfaces you have, configured or not. ifup <interface> and ifdown <interface> (ie: ifup eth0) is same as ipconfig /release and ipconfig /renew.

su to root to run these commands or type '/usr/sbin/ifconfig -a | more' as a user

Thanks for that. It wasn't what I meant but it doesn't matter because on reboot...

The DHCP made a connection at last! Don't know why or how - something must have changed at the ISP end.

After weeks and weeks of stabbing around in the dark, I can finally access the internet... and move on to the next issue which needs resolving...

Cheers.