Hi, I just installed Fedore Core 4 on Dell Dimension 9100. Fedora was not able to recognize my NIC and I downloaded the drivers from Intel and after some trouble with Make I was able to install it.
Upon restart fedora created a new ethernet connection and it is configured correctly to obtain an IP via DHCP. The computer is able to ping to the gateway, but is not able to ping to any other machine on the network. But anyother machine on the network is able to ping to the linux machine (I assume this is because the gateway is configured properly so anyother machine is able to reach it .. atleast that is my idea).

My NIC is Intel Intel(R) PRO/100 VE (82801G Controller). I see in other forums that is supported by module e100 in the FC4 kernel, but FC4 couldnt recongize my device.

I would like to note that my

Here is some information I could gather on my linux machine.

================================================================
output of /sbin/ifconfig
================================================================

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:12:3F:71B:3C
inet addr:170.140.22.146 Bcast:170.140.22.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::212:3fff:fe71:db3c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2116 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:18 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:187459 (183.0 KiB) TX bytes:2022 (1.9 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1323 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1323 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1196170 (1.1 MiB) TX bytes:1196170 (1.1 MiB)

/

================================================================
output of /sbin/route -n
================================================================
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
170.140.22.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
0.0.0.0 170.140.22.2 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

================================================================
output of cat /etc/sysconfig/network
================================================================
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=linux1
GATEWAY=170.140.22.2

Please help
Many thanks
Senthil

Strange problem indeed.

What is the error message you get? Is it a timeout? A destination unreachable or host unreacheable?
If it's a timeout, it is likely (but not certain) that the "router" is the problem. Otherwise, the problem is probably local.

What's the gateway? Is it a computer or a real router box? If it is a computer, it would be a good idea to run some network sniffing tools to find out what's happenm to your packets there. Maybe your router drops them for some reason.

For now, 3 tips :
1- Delete the 169.254.0.0 route from your routing table (route del -net 169.254.0.0 netmask 255.255.0.0), this is the ip (and so the route) you get when DHCP fail, for some reason Fedora had problem to reach the DHCP in the first time and assigned you this address. It may cause problem sometime I believe.
2- Set your MTU lower than 1500. Start with a low value (ex : ~1444) then increase slowly up to 1492 if it does something good. Some routers may drop fragmented trafic, having an MTU too high may cause fragmentation.
3- Install tcpdump or iptraf (or ethereal or ettercal or any network sniffing tools) and listen to your intercace while pinging, so you will know if something get out, and more important, if something get back in.

Hi

thanks for your reply. When I try pinging I dont get any response. the terminal justs wait and I press ctrl+C to abort ping. I have no idea about the gateway and the sysadmin is not around. I tried deleting the address 169.254.0.0 from my IP table but the network is restarted the line is added automatically to the IP table.
Please advice
Senthil

It's correct, I just wanted to see if it could help.

Have you tried to change the MTU yet? I forgot to give you the command, try "ifconfig eth0 mtu 1444".

Have you tried any network sniffing tools? It could really help, as it would tell us if the packet is ever leave your machine and if it come back, in other word, where exactly it is dropped.

I will try setting the MTU in a minute. I tried traceroute...,looks like my connection is totally dead..

my traceroute output is

1 * * *
2 * * *
...
...

Some one else suggested on a different website that the problem might be with the driver itself as I had trouble compiling it. Please let me know what you think on this one. Meanwhile I will try to reduce the mtu accordingly ..

Senthil

Hi, I just found out from other forums many people have been able to reproduce the same problems with Fedora Core 4 running on a Dell Dimension 9100. The problem seems to be the driver and module eepro100 is supposed to support it. I tried /sbin/modprobe eepro100 and that didnt produce any error message. I assume that the driver is added to the kernel now. But what should I do after this ? Meanwhile I did a clean install on my machine once again and currently my machine is not able to find any ethernet controller.

Thanks
Senthil

if the machine is not able to DETECT the card but that the drivers does work, it is just a minor error.
Once your modprobe the drivers on the fresh install, do you see your card if you type "ifconfig eth0" ? If so, it is probably working, you may want to try this one instead of the one you compile yourself... see if it works better.