broken / slow cable internet connection with Linux box.
 

solved.

I have a buffalo wireless router and I use Linux based "dd-wrt" firmware in it. I upgraded to a newer firmware recently and on the very next reboot of my PC, some strange problems started, Since then:


A. My desktop:

1. Wired- very, very, slow with Ubuntu or PClinuxOS directly wired to the router.
2. I can't access the router's web based administration page from my desktop at all.
3. **** With both Linux distros I deleted the network connection to the cable ISP, rebooted the modem and router, then re-established the network connection and had ....blazing fast internet UNTIL I rebooted, then it was back to the same broken / slow connection again with both distros ?!?!?!?. So, the NIC is not broken. It has something to do with Linux / the NIC talking to the router... beyond me, though....

B. My laptop:

1. Wireless- works great with both windows XP and PCLinuxOS
2. Wired to the router- works great with both XP and PCLinuxOS
3. I have to use my laptop, either wired or wireless to access the router's web based admin page.



I posted at the dd-wrt forum and pretty much got no help. Even though the firmware is essentially Linux, no one could help, and anyway, the problem does not seem to be the router/firmware as the laptop works beautifully. I have rebooted the computer, cable modem, router, dozens of times, by the way so that is not the problem.

Please help, I am frustrated and stumped.

B.

It MAY be the auto negotiation is being goofy. Try: ethtool eth0

(see man ethtool) as root (assuming nic is eth0). Making sure that your speed is not being throttled back to 10baseT. That would not explain not being able to connect to the router web page. You might also try a "route -n" to make sure everything is being set properly (gateway, etc.(

*bump. still broken. I have no idea what I am supposed to do with ethtool.

here is the ifconfig:

th0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:66:59:44:7c
inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::219:66ff:fe59:447c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:922 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:416 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:203107 (198.3 KB) TX bytes:49758 (48.5 KB)
Interrupt:20 Base address:0x6800

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:123600 (120.7 KB) TX bytes:123600 (120.7 KB)

In a terminal (as root) type in: ethtool eth0

Post back the results.

it says:

cannot get device setting: operation not permitted.
cannot get wake-on-lan settings: operation not permitted
cannot get link status: operation not permitted

It may be that your nic is to old for eithtool (you were root when you tried this, right?). You can also try (as root): mii-tool

It should provide you with most of the same information.

Thanks for your help. Someone at the dd-wrt forum was able to help. It is solved.