I figured it out First, I installed Mandrake 9.1 because it always seemed to do the auto config thing real well. From Mandy, I was able to ping the router, and access the web config interface. I never did get it actually on the internet though. I kept trying to figure out why Slack always gave me "network unreachable" so I dug through Mandrakes graphical config stuff for awhile. I noticed that Mandrake automatically used my linksys nic, but named it eth0. In slack, it's eth1. I should explain something: My A7N8X has two ethernet ports built in. nVidia's MCT, and a 3com905. Then, I have a linksys pci card, because at one point, I was having trouble with both the integrated solutions and I plugged in the linksys. It worked in Slack and Windows no problem, so I left it that way. The command 'adsl-setup' always selected eth1 (linksys) by default. Little did I know that netconfig didn't. The network was unreachable because it was always trying to use the 3com to access it. After resetting the factory defaults for the router, and doing netconfig choosing dchp I am finally online, in linux, through the router.

Thanks, g00$e for taking the time to help me out

Huzzah!

Glad to hear you figured it out and thanks for posting the solution.

Scruff,

Hang on a sec. I'm using the exact same setup: DI604 and a 3Com 905. I do not have any other ethernet connections but I am still experiencing the same problems you had. I can't ping the router or anything else. The setup works fine in Windows and I even got it to connect for a Gentoo install when I set a static IP. I'm trying to install RH9 not Slack but other than that, it seems we have very similar setups. I can't reset the router to factory defaults because I have a static IP from my ISP. Can you point me at some of the config files you checked? I'm begining to think the DI604 / 3Com905 is the problem but why just in Linux I can't say. I even tried shutting down the firewall in Linux to no avail. I KNOW I can get this combo to work, I just need to find the problem. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

I am sure it will work for you gandalf. First, have you ever had RedHat connected to the internet via the 3com? If so, let me know. That will at least tell me that your driver is loaded and the nic is working properly.

Just to warn you, I know nothing about redhat. RedHat is a completely different beast than Slack, but Ill help you best I can

I always post the solution Nothing irritates me more than finding someones post that exactly matches my problem, only to see them say "fixed it!" and nothing else... It happens wayyy more than I care to think about.

Scruff,
No, I've never actually had Red Hat connected on this machine. I have had both Windows and Gentoo connected though so I know the nic works and I know it will work under Linux. I'm pretty sure the nic itself is setup OK since ifconfig gives me an UP and RUNNING for eth0. I suspect that the routing is not right but, I'm afraid I know VERY little when it comes to networking. Thanks for your offer of help, this is really beginning to frustrate me

If you can ping the IP of the NIC itself (and localhost, of course) but nothing else on teh network, post the output of the "route" command

OK, output of route looks like this:

[root@localhost sbin] ./route
Kernel IP Routing table

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
default 10.1.1.1 255.255.255.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0
10.1.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0

I have no idea where the 169.254.0.0 is coming from. lsmod shows that the correct driver module for the nic (3c59x) is loaded

It looks as if you need to setup the proper gateway IP for your box. If I am not mistaken, redhat is now trying to use 10.1.1.1 for your gateway, while it should be using 192.168.0.1.

Type netconfig (as root) and go through its menu. Its easy. First it will ask you your hostname (whatever you like), then your domain name (make up something cool ). Then it should ask you for your gateway IP: 192.168.0.1. When it asks you for static, dhcp, or loopback, choose 'dhcp'. Then restart networking (or the whole box) and you should be ok.

When using DHCP, Windows will autoassign a number from the 168.254.0.0 network when it fails to obtain an IP from a DHCP server; perhaps Linux is starting to implement the feature as well. If you're using static IPs, you can delete the entry:

route del -net 168.254.0.0

PROBLEM SOLVED!!! (Well Sort of...) It didn't even occur to me to indicate that the ethernet connection was coming through a switch. To me a switch just "magically" shares bandwith among computers...never really had to think about it much...it just always worked. The main line from my router comes into my office and into a small D-Link DSS 5+ switch which then connects to my two computers. Apparently, RH9 doesn't like something about the switch. When I plugged the main line directly into the RH box, it took right off. The minute I plugged it back into the switch, it died. So now I know WHAT the problem is, I just don't know if there is any way to fix it. Gentoo was able to connect through the switch (although I had to assign a static IP). Any thoughts on why RH9 is having the problem? Is there anything I can try that might allow me to use this switch or am I going to be forced to dump it and go with another brand or perhaps a hub? I'm not really sure how it works but, it doesn't have an uplink port. Documentation says something about Auto-MDI or some such.