My PC connects via wire to a belkin wireless router. It takes about ten minutes after I boot untill I can ping the router. Then for another 10 minutes I get huge % of packet loss. Once up and running, it is often okay for a long period of time. If the network is working, and I reboot, the network will come right up, unless I let it sit for a few hours of more.

I have no idea what's going on. I have connected other PCs to the same router via cable, and they work fine.

I am guess there is something wrong with my nic. So if I put in a new nic, will debian detect it? And what do I do if debian does not detect it?

It can be a buggy module for the nic on the kernel you are using. You can goto www.kernel.org and look through the changelogs on the version you have. Maybe it says there is a patch or you upgrade to the latest kernel if it mentions fixes to the module it uses.
Post the output of the following
/sbin/lspci -v ( info related to the nic )
/sbin/lsmod ( the module that is loaded for the nic )

Have you tried a different nic cable or plugged into a different port?

I don't know the inner workings of the debian to say what it does to new hardware. Usually for me I manually change the needed configuration files.

Brian

Odd's are it's the NIC. if you install a new one it should detect it, it will probably come up as eth1 instead of eth0 though .. which can be fixed if it bothers you.

I have tried a different patch cord, and it didn't help. I have also tried plugging in to different ports on the router. I dual boot, and the windows side is flaky also.

Didn't work. I but in another card, but it was not detected.

The interface that seems to be malfunctioning in a realtek 8139, it is built in to the motherboard. I tried putting another realtek 8139 into a pci slot, but second card was discovered.

I tried lspci and lsmod, they seem to be correct.

so it is, or isn't working now with the new card ?

I'm sorry: it is *not* working with the new card.

I have to learn to proof-read better. I meant to post: "but second card was *not* discovered."

do you have card form a different manufacturer ? say 3com, or Intel maybe ? they are both well supported..

I get the same problem. Debian 6.0 box.
I moved the HD to another computer that has a different nic.
The new nic shows up as eth1 instead of eth0.
What file do I have to delete or edit in order to make the new nic show up as eth0.

You will need to edit /etc/udev/rules.d/*persistent-net.rules