Network suddenly stops working-- ifconfig reveals multiple errors

bruno321 · 06-02-2007, 09:00 AM

Hi. I'm having a weird problem: my network suddenly stops working, in a completely random fashion.

The only way to get it back working is to reset the PC (Kubuntu 6.10, by the way). Turning DOWN the interface and then UP doesn't work, neither does logging out and in. I've been having this problem for weeks now: I had some 10 days in which I didn't get the problem, and then maybe I can get it twice a day, or three times a week.

The last time it happened, just some minutes ago, I had the idea of reading carefully what issued ifconfig. Here's the result:

Code:

ra0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0E:2E:50:B4:17
          inet addr:192.168.1.4  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20e:2eff:fe50:b417/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:9953860 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10753686 errors:460 dropped:460 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:1085770 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1509472649 (1.4 GiB)  TX bytes:1987313798 (1.8 GiB)
          Interrupt:209 Base address:0xc000

Note the errors and the collisions.

Oh yes, and the card is an Edimax EW-7128g, Ralink RT61 which worked out of the box. Yes, it is wireless, but I don't think it was relevant to this error, so I wrote this on this forum. Please move it to the subforum if you think it is adequate.

The network is set like this:

This PC 192.168.1.4 connects to wireless gateway 192.168.1.254 (a Linksys WRT54G), which connects to Hawking router 192.168.1.253, which is connected to the internet. This is the only PC having these weird problems.

Thank you very much.

maroonbaboon · 06-02-2007, 10:03 AM

Could be hardware failure of course. You could try the card in a different computer, even with Windows if you have it.

Do you know the driver being used? You could try unloading/reloading it with rmmod/modprobe (after taking down the network interface).

But even if that fixes the problem I'm not sure what you do next, unless there is a newer version of the driver to try.

bruno321 · 06-02-2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maroonbaboon

Could be hardware failure of course. You could try the card in a different computer, even with Windows if you have it.

Do you know the driver being used? You could try unloading/reloading it with rmmod/modprobe (after taking down the network interface).

But even if that fixes the problem I'm not sure what you do next, unless there is a newer version of the driver to try.

Hardware failure? But the card is new... I bought it only a couple of months ago.

No, I don't know which driver's being used. How do I find out?

Thank you.

FMC · 06-02-2007, 11:29 AM

To find the driver use lsmod to list modules loaded into the kernel.

I think its a hardware problem, if the card is new or not does not matter. Try changing the NIC from one PCI slot to another, try the NIC on a different machine and have a look on lm_sensors to know if your voltages are ok.

[]'s, FMC!

maroonbaboon · 06-03-2007, 10:10 AM

I think maybe the driver is not in the standard kernel, but has been added by the distro maintainers (Ubuntu?), most probably supplied by the manufacturer. Here is a link describing how to install the driver on Ubuntu 5.10:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=132980

Ralink are pretty good at supporting open source drivers, but I never heard of this chip before. I'd suggest the following steps:

1. Use above suggestions to eliminate hardware failure.

2. Compile and install latest version of the driver. One place to start is at

http://www.ralinktech.com/ralink/Hom...ort/Linux.html

3. You could also try the Windows drivers with ndiswrapper.

Sorry if this is a bit brief. It's sometimes hard to guess the level of technical knowledge behind the question.