This isn't a linux problem what so ever, however I having from sometime ago, an odd problem with my integrated network card (VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet) and you might saw this problem before somewhere so maybe you could enlight me because it's a mistery for me.

A year ago or so there was a power failure, the power came back and suddenly my card wasn't getting its IP as usual from DHCP. I though it was a problem with my ISP (it isn't a very stable one) so I wait.

I'm on a shared network with a few friends and all of them had Internet access, I was the only one. Inmediatly I blame the card so I added another one I have which is a realtek PCI.

Connected the PCI card and I had internet again. I though the integrated card (via) died but few days later, just to check, I decided to test it again, connected the cable to the via card and suddenly it was working again like nothing happened.

Now, this problem had happened me few (like 3 or 4) times in the last year with this card and that never happened until that power failure I said earlier.

Today we had a power failure again, turn on the PC again and the integrated card isn't working again.

Is like it dies for just a few hours, since I have the PCI card is not a big problem for me but it's annoying not know what the hell is happening here, so, if anyone had seen this kinda problem before or have some theory I surely will like to know



Regards

...I've seen something like this before. It depends whether the card is configured for fixed speed/duplex and what its connecting to. Sometimes, when a card is configured auto speed, auto duplex, it will fail to negotiate right with the switch or whatever it is connected to. The classic example is a Cisco switch and a 3Com card, which is where I have seen the problem of broken communication most often. What happens is that both ends confuse themselves during speed/duplex negotiation, and refuse to talk. Leave them for a while, and one end may try renegotiation again and get it right, but this particular problem can cause all kinds of weird symptoms.

Try setting speed and duplex from auto/auto to 100/full or 10/half or similar, and see what happens

HTH

I've had issues with some of our AMD 64 Systems we had previously. I can't recall the chipset on the motherboards but I think they where ASUS motherboards. A power outage would occur and the NIC would die.. the system would start running really slow.. all sorts of wierd issues. Disabling the onboard NIC and throwing a card in fixed the network issue but not always the performance issue. I can't begin to recall how many of those motherboards I swapped out under warranty. The Distributor even said it was a common issue with that motherboard for some reason. Never did find out why that integrated NIC was so weak. All the network gear is on UPS and Generator so it was just the PC that was dropping during a power outage.

I never did get a clear response from the vendor of why those integrated NICs were such junk. and once dead mine never came back to life.

I'm just glad I got to buy all new hardware a year or so ago and replaced all those desktops.. Now the problem is finally solved for good

Thanks both

Regarding chipsets my motherboard is a PCCHIPS M925RL, I buyit in 2000 and it was discontinued in 2002 :P I haven't any problems with it actually, it's an old motherboard compared to technologies this days but it had done its job. At least it lets me do mine

I didn't though about speed/duplex to be quite honest, but I'm going to check that, thanks for the tip jimbo1954

Sadly enough, can't say I gonna test it now because, as spected, today the card is working again =/

Again, thanks jimbo1954 and farslayer, really appreciated

Just be aware that you can NOT force speed and Duplex settings on a NIC, unless you can do the same on a Managed switch.

When you force the SPEED and Duplex settings on a NIC you disable the Auto-negotiation that happens when the NIC is attached to the Switch. If the switch does not get the auto-negotiation option it will default to the proper speed, but it will always select HALF-DUPLEX.

Just want you to be informed before you start playing with those settings.


http://happyrouter.com/happyrouter/c...ismatch-primer

Hey thanks farslayer

Bookmarked

The NIC is connected to a linksys wtr45gs so is very handy to have that info at hand before playing with the settings

...Farslayer, I'm so focussed on Cisco (and therefore managed) kit, I sometimes forget that other stuff exists out there.

You raise an interesting point about the ASUS mobo; I have just built a media centre based on an ASUS M3A-H/HDMI (it has an HDMI and is full ATX, hence my choice) and it has a weird Gig Ethernet onboard NIC that works fine under Ubuntu, but is not recognised by the Debian installer which is why I used Ubuntu

I think that Asus issue was just that one particular model of motherboard, because I haven't heard other people complain about issues like that from Asus. At the time i was happy to get a whitebox system from a local company that was using name brand parts instead of some of the low end motherboards out there..

To get Debian working you could have used the Lenny Daily Build netinstall.. I bet it would detect the Ethernet on that system. I have had to resort to it on occasion for some newer hardware. another option that might have worked if you wanted to stick with etch is the Etch-n-Half install which uses the 2.6.24 kernel for the purpose of more hardware support


Yes I can understand how working with Cisco all the time, you might forget that most people just have the old $20.00 - 8 port 10/100 unmanaged switch at home. The rest of us twisted individuals, like you and I, have a rack of Cisco Gear next to their rack of PC's at home, Am I right ?

FarSlayer, you sussed me!:

"The rest of us twisted individuals, like you and I, have a rack of Cisco Gear next to their rack of PC's at home, Am I right ?"

My excuse for the rack of Cisco kit, PCs and a library of techie manuals is that it's what I do for a living, but ask my wife, she sees right through me and sees it as just my version of other guys golf clubs or Subaru or other "big boy's toy"

Thanks for the assistance on the install, I'll give it a shot.