I asked for help a few days ago and I didn't get any and I have been playing around with my network a lot since then and I have narrowed down a few things. I installed MDK 9.1 on another computer of mine and booted up, set eth0 to get the IP from DHCP, restarted the network, and I was able to use the internet. Feeling that maybe a frsh install would work for me, I did a fresh install on my laptop, which has two nics; one ethernet and one wireless. When I booted up and tried to assign the ethernet nic an IP through Road Runner's DHCP server, nothing happened, instead when I ran ifconfig, I discovered that eth0:9 had been assigned an IP. The same thing happened with my wireless nic, eth1; eth1:9 was assigned an IP address. The two computers share a cable connection through a regular HUB. Why is it that my one MDK 9.1 computer can obtain an IP on the correct device and my other one can't on either of its devices?

Just curious... Most isps only allow 1 ip per customer (unless you have ordered more). Do you have a wireless access point? Can you explain your network a little.

In the summer, when I am home from school, I bring along a router and put all of my computers behind it so this is the first time that I have tried to share a connection with only a HUB. I do have a wireless access point which is set up to obtain a DHCP address. So, from the cable modem I have a HUB which the Wireless AP and the other computer are connected to. I tried to plug my laptop, the one that isn't working, straight into the cable modem and the same thing happened. I will try to contact Road Runner and see if they only allow one IP per household.

In my area I have heard of cable companies actually assigning ip address to certain MAC addresses. This may not be the case, but is a possibility. Try booting you the box that is working with dhcp and writing down the ip address and info. ifconfig should give you just about all you need. Then set the notebook eth0 statically to those settings. (disconnecting the other box from the network.) This may help troubleshoot a little further. I'm haven't done a lot with Mandrake so I'm not sure if there is a netconfig type wizard that may make this easier for you or not. Good luck.

there is a pretty good netconfig with MDK. The only thing I would need to know is the gateway info. It does seem to me that Road Runner assigns IPs to MAC addresses so using the DHCP address as a "static" address would sort of work.