Internet connection timeout on Fedora Core 5 using USB connection
 

Hey guys,
I've experienced possibly the weirdest problem that I have ever run into on linux. Basically, the best way I can describe it is that my internet connection just times out after a varying amount of time that depends on (it seems) what I am doing. For example, if I boot up the computer and run Kopete, it seems I can use it for a while with no internet problems. But, if I start LimeWire or do to much browsing on the web, suddenly the connection to the internet drops (It seems that google has been the biggest culprit to this. Almost every time I go to the google homepage half the google image loads, and then it just stops, and that is all, my connection dies).

Now, this isn't like an error message pops up saying the connection to the internet has been terminated. Instead its like, nothing gets sent or received through the internet. Occasionally I'll get a Error: no known host warning under Opera browser after the first occurance of the internet timing out like this. Under Kopete, it still says I am online, but I cannot receive messages nor can I send them (as far as I know, I have no way of knowing if they actaully got out or not). Under limewire, the bar at the bottom is at 1 out of 5 saying its trying to connect to the network, after dropping out from 5 bars after a couple of seconds when the connection times out.

Under the network settings, everything still says eth0 is active and working, and if I disable and reenable it, it works fine and sometimes I can get a couple more minutes of internet this way, but usually not that much. I connect to the internet directly through my cable modem through USB (my computer doesn't have an ethernet port), and use Comcast as my internet provider. I don't think its an internet problem though because my work computer (which runs red hat enterprise linux 4), works on the same connection and is actaully what I am using right now to send this.

Before Fedora Core 5, I tried out Suse 10.1, and that worked perfectly (internet wise). Unfortuantely it was way to slow on my computer, so that is why I switched to Fedora Core 5. The connection worked fine on suse, and on FC5 I was able to do a yum update and yum install kde (get get all the kde packages using kde-redhat's website) before I started noticing any problems. I wish I knew exactly what I did before this problem started, and for all I know it started right when I installed Fedora Core 5, but honestly I'm not sure. Usually I can get through a couple yum operations, some IM, and some browsing before it the connection times out, and I am forced to disable and reenable the network, or even sometimes that wount work and I need to reboot the computer.

I am on a gateway solo 2500 laptop, 366mhz, 288mb ram, kernel version 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5. I use the default usb ethernet driver (i think its thompson CDC USB ethernet device), and I have a wireless usb mouse that works perfectly on the USB, and I've tried plugging in the internet to all the USB ports and they all have the same problem.

In all honesty, I have no idea what the problem is and its pretty frustrating because there are no error messages and no way to track what the problem is! Anyway, if any of you have run into this problem and have any ideas on how to fix it, your help would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and if you need any more info to help out, just let me know.