Here is my issue, and I have never seen this before. When I boot XP, the network connection does not work at all, using Firefox. When I boot Slack (slack-current), it works fine, using Firefox. Both connections use DHCP, which isn't an issue on this network.

I don't mean for this to be an XP question, I mean for this to be a dual boot question. Would dual booting cause anything different in the hardware? If it helps, it is a shuttle motherboard with onboard NIC. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Is this just another XP problem?

I am not sure exactly what the difference is. You mention you are using dhcp to connect to the network. I assume you mean the internet. It sounds as if you are using some sort of hardware router/access point to throw out the address to you. The problem is most likely the gateway. When you use dhcp, the gateway is, or at least should, be thrown out to the machine requesting the address. If you dhcpd daemon, is instead, running on a linux machine, I would examine the /etc/dhcp.conf file to make sure the router address, which will get translated into the gateway address, in coded properly. If you are using as I suspect the hardware device, use the address of the access point, as seen by the local machine, as the gateway address. Setting up the gateway address on Windows varies with the version of windows. Under XP, got to control panel network connections; right click on the interface in question, go to tci/ip and click on the proerties. You should be able to modify your settings

Dual booting would have nothing to do with your network.

Does that mean it might be an XP issue?

A DHCP server tracks a machine my its MAC, and the IP it assigns. Now the XP boot, and the Slack boot would both boot up with the same MAC, though perhaps a different IP, right?

you must setup your network in XP.
smth. 's wrong there.....

edit.: yip , you're right

egag

In my setups (Laptop and Desktop, both XP/Slack dualboot), both boxes are getting the same IP address every time. My DHCP server is assigning a 7-day lease, and the only way for me to change the IP address is to leave the computer off long enough for it to expire.

This definitely can't be dual boot issue. You have two operating systems installed, but they are independent. They can share file systems to each other. Any dependencies on hardware layer similar to your problem are impossible.

IMO, this is an XP issue. Check My Computer -> Manage -> Device Manager for hardware problem (e.g. missing driver) for first.

I have the exact same problem, and it was happenening before i installed linux and had a dual boot. The answer is stop using windows all together. Seriously, this problem will never stop. There is no reason for my internet to stop working at random times. Especially right after i formated and re-installed windows. I Installed linux to get away from windows and its bull. the only reason windows is still on my machine is becuase i goto school and there is windows software i have to use.

Just as an idea, do you have a proxy configured on the XP machine?

Check it out and see if that is the problem....

I don't know this is relevant or not ... forget it if not.

I used to have problem with XP/slackware dual boot on my eMachine notebook, the problem is one of the system with randomly loss the USB mouse on cold boot. Sometimes unplug and replug the USB mouse again will work, sometimes I have to do a reboot again (I called it "warm up" ).

One day, while browsing my BIOS settings, I found an item says "Legacy USB device support". As I don't believe I have anything legacy I immediately disabled it ... the mouse works perfectly from then on. Well, obviously I don't know the real reason.

My point is: could it be something in BIOS?