configuring eth0
 

I have a Sony computer with a Netgear NIC. It is dual booted with Windows XP and Linux. My NIC is already operational on Windows. I am now trying to make it operational on Linux. When I look in the file called /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0, I see that MAC address configured in this file matches the MAC address of my NIC. When I do an ifdown eth0 command I get an error message. The message says that I have an unexpected MAC address and that the command is being ignored. What am I doing wrong here?
Sincerely,
Ralph A. Brandt

As a test you may want to configure the device manualy with a fixed address then ping something.

Here is an example.

ifconfig eth0 up
ifconsig eth0 <some address 192.168.1.2>

Does it work?
 

I notice that with a wireless card I have with Fedora Core 3 now. Even though it says the MAC address is unexpected, activation is ignored, and "Failed" is reported during bootup, I can still activate the card using the Network Device thingamabobber via the desktop menu. Everything works fine after that.