Hang in there, this one will get licked sooner or later. To be honest, I think the best use of your time at this point is to make sure you've got full admin access to your router. Comcast should be used to dealing with routers, and once that gets an IP address, everything else should be downhill.

Last time I mentioned "router" to Comcast, they sacrificed a small newborn in the background, hollered in some foreign tongue, then asked me to disconnect said router.

After re-reading this thread though. . .South. . .did you disable PPPoE on your Linux side?

when this was first posted I explained earthlink uses a PPPoe and comcast has a deferent setup I believe it is a static.if it is static manual config if it is auto dhcp then try that. But stop the roaring penquin that is the programe the PPPoe uses when you connect to a DSL modem none static is dynamic. but if and when you boot linux keeps tryng to find the gateway in your old modem. you need to reset your network config. I trust you will up grade to the newer mandriva some day it is a better system. in your, what is that harddrake or the program mandrake uses I think it is control center. in the you will see configure your card and your net work tell it to stop using dslppoe. then reset to use your etho and your new configuration. make sure you use the host domain for your static or dynamic dhcp. all this will be put in there even your password.

Comcast does not use static; they are DHCP as are most ISPs.

All that needs done is removing of PPPoE, then the network "restarted". No passwords, no host or domain or anything.

Well folks...

Accomplished all I wanted to...got back on the internet on both sides of my dual-boot box, so now I'm back 'folding' for Abit Team (Folding@Home). Learned nothing useful, but at this juncture-hey! It's Super Bowl Sunday anyway!

I ended up calling Linksys support (I have a Linksys BEFSR41) when I was unable to enter the default user ID into my box, and they pretty much took over from there, were able to correctly install a MAC address (my thanks to 'farslayer' for helping me understand the concepts-that's how I at least new where to head next), and once the router was correctly configured, with my now two (and soon to be three) boxes connected (all thru linux-so's all can 'fold') I am back in business.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on this issue.

Unfortunately, as I say, I didn't learn a great deal here, and now there is no further incentive to do so, but the problem in solved. So now I can take a breather and go to a sports bar somewhere in downtown Baltimore to watch 'THE GAME'. Thanks again, all.

Internet connections come in a variety of manners with different connection methods and protocols, and some ISP's do some really weird things with the connections. Expecting to hit the correct issue right off the bat is a bit unrealistic. Yeah we would all like connection you can just plug into and be online.. but then again we would like the internet to be 100% secure as well.. Unfortunately neither is the case and not everyone is a networking expert. The fact remains that after the right questions were posed a response was found that solved the issue. That is what we are here for after all cause it certainly isn't the paycheck.. speaking of which my monthly LQ check hasn't arrived yet..

We all started somewhere, and if everyone knew everything there wouldn't be a reason for this site. that being said the more I learn about Linux the more I realize how little I know.

Here, have a slice of humble pie.. it's good for the soul.

That is the reason I visit this board on a regular basis. Every single time I'm here, I learn something new. Every. Single. Time.

I have it on good authority it is in the mail, along with all the others!

I've sorta resisted the urge...up 'til now, to return to this thread for one last comment, but I feel some things have gotta be said. Oddly enough-to my surprise-the forum 'weed eater' has swept thru and cleaned out some unpleasant postings in the meantime (all of which had kinda stuck in my craw).

Firstly, not only had a lot of folks spent some time looking over and responding to my plight, but in the very end those same people came to my defense when the thread took an ugly (and complete unnecessary) turn. For that, I was very thankful. I realized the depth [then] of the quality of folks who lurk in these halls.

The (now deleted) chunk of thread that spewed a wad of senseless, gratuitous complaining into an otherwise very productive discourse wasn't, I'd decided, going to dictate how I thought or responded to quality input. This [person] just wasn't going to get my permission to take over the discourse, and reduce it to his level. I ignored him. (Actually, some folks were actually much better than I at interpreting what he was trying to say.)

But the bottom line is...I found a lot of solid, good people here who helped me-in more ways than one-and yes, I will make an effort to dig into and understand what happened with my router issues, after the dust has settled. Curiosity compels me to do so. And I know that, when it has me scratching my head in disbelief and wonder, I will be able to come back to this same rock and talk to the same folks, who're all gonna have plenty of useful feedback to inch me along.

Thanks to all of you.

Well, in your defense, you didn't want your hand held, and you showed some self-motivation to fix the problem. It was more of "what could be wrong, and how could I fix it", never "please hold my hand through every little step."

You didn't assume it was the OS's fault, but something you'd done to the OS. You weren't demanding, demeaning, or in any other way unpleasant; you'll find the lack of these qualities (ie, being like you were in this thread) will get you far with the open source community and its denizens.

Oh, and I for one can say feel free to email me any time. I believe my AIM and YIM names are around somewhere, so feel free to hit me up there, too.

Hm. This is really strange, and to the best of my knowledge shouldn't have happened without leaving fingerprints. I'm glad those posts are gone because some of it was WAY outta line, but usually stuff just doesn't disappear from threads. If the mods delete something, the placeholder for the post usually remains.

I'm glad you were able to shrug off the nonsense. By and large I've found LQ to be a well behaved and knowledgeable place to visit. Of course with over 200,000 members there are bound to be a few annoying folks, but that just enhances my appreciation of how well the mods keep the garbage out.

[QUOTE=ARC1450;3051453]That's an invitation I'll take you up on sometime in the future. But, I've really got to get into linux in a more serious level than just 'dabbling' before I start bothering others with questions. I spend some time going thru online newbie tutorials, got a bunch of books here strewn around the floor, but with a long hours work schedule (in construction) finding the time and energy can be a real challenge.

Also, I get a kick out the instant-and distant-nature of these forums. I ask-I get a response [in two minutes] from somewhere in the UK-halfway around the world. In contrast, little more than a tunnel and a neighborhood separates your digs from mine.

There are DARK FORCES out there that we don't truly understand. Best not to question them...

I'm gonna throw my 2 cents into the mix here and tell you the problem I had with a dual boot system.

I believe I have a realtech ethernet card (spelling on that one) and windows ME (yeah I know).

The problem I had is that when I'd restart from windows to go back to linux (opensuse 10) the ethernet card wouldn't connect at all. It worked at one time and I thought my card was going out. Nothing I did would get it to come back to life - but it always worked in windows - no prob.

I finally figured out that I had updated the drivers in windows for my ethernet card. Apparently the new drivers told (or allowed) windows to shutdown my ethernet card when windows shutdown (or restarted). This completely powered down the card so when I would go into linux the thing would be dead in the water. If I did a cold boot it would work fine.

I rolled back the driver in windows and everything has been fine since (actually I also pretty much stopped using windows too).

I don't know if this will help - but information never hurt nobody.

Actually, once you've got something of Windows (your ME), why bother ever upgrading? do you really gain?

Any information helps. What it teaches-and reinforces-is that you've gotta always watch for the most arcane, unimaginable little thing that will blow you out of the water.

Thanks for your input. Every little piece adds to the 'body of knowledge'.

To make a long story short...I short-circuited my Linksys router this past week-end [while re-arranging furniture], and-of course-it went south on me. Would not come back to life when I reconnected everything. The solution was simplicity itself.

This time, I went to the Linksys website, delved into the support sections (narrowed down to my *41) and downloaded the appropriate configuration files. Result. Bang! Instant regeneration, and the necessary [support] files are now a permanent part of my toolbox archives.

I've kinda mainly taken the time to 'update' this narrative for the poor soul who happens across this thread while researching to solve his or her own [similar] dilemma. In the end, it was all very simple and perfunctory, but in the meantime, the discourse and feedback had given me a pretty darned good education, which I have, once the dust settled, begun to backtrack on, and learn more of the innards of routers. Cool stuff.

Maybe someday, when I think I've actually learned something worth sharing (and bothering other folks with), I'll come back here and do just that.