I've got a laptop running slack 8.1 (slacktop, get it? =P) and i've been hooking it up via usb/cat-5 directly to my RCA cable modem. It's been working fine both ways, but then I started setting up a network. I got so far as to have my linksys router act as a dhcpd and it worked fine. Then I blew up (seriously...bang, smoke, fire) my other computer and took the network down. I reset all the dhcd information so it wouldnt try to dhcp_request 192.168.1.101 on startup. Now I simply get the "timeout waiting for dhcp server response" error when I try and use my NIC and the USB doesnt seem to do a damn thing. I was thinking I could just run netconfig and use a static IP. I'd use the cable modem as the gateway, and I have the DNS servers it uses, but i'm not sure what the actual IP address I should use would be, or if that's even what I need to do.

I still have the linksys router, but i can't get a connection to my cable modem with cablemodem>>router>>slacktop...and i used dhcp with netconfig...

I've got a xircom NIC and an RCA USB cable modem(with cat-5 as well, which makes me wonder why USB is even in the name at all)

Thanks in advance

If you can provide a few more details, we might be able to help.

Why were you connecting both USB and cat5?

Was the 'other computer' connected to the network when it exploded? Did it possibly fry your NIC and/or your router in the process?

Can you still connect directly to the cable modem cat5 or USB?

What do you mean "I reset all the dhcd information so it wouldnt try to dhcp_request 192.168.1.101 on startup." Why would that be necessary if the linksys router was the dhcp server? If I am not mistaken, the dhcp server will not care if you request an address that it cannot serve, it will give you a valid address anyway.

What happens when you type "dhcpcd eth0"?
"ifconfig"?
"lsmod"?

Let us know,

-bbeers