Hey Guys and Gals,

I have recently installed Mandrake 10 on my Toshiba laptop, running 192MB Ram on a PIII processor, and have been trying to install internet access using a PCMCIA Netgear FA410TX ethernet card.

On several occasions I have been able to install and configure the card, and browse the internet, collect mail, ftp etc. however several problems seem to persist, highlighted below

1) after having been connected to the net for a period of time, logging on as a new user (through gnome) produces the error "unable to look up internet address x1-6-00-e0-98-89-3d-f9 gnome may not function correctly, trying adding this address to /etc/hosts" and given the option to try again or log in anyway. I have added this address to the /etc/hosts file and written the new version to disc, however it appears that mandrake overwrites this file after a reboot, removing the line i added

2) because the machine is a laptop, it is obviously moved around and the internet connection is not always present. When it is not present the machine seems to lose all knowledge of the ethernet card, also making it hard to reinstall

3) rebooting the machine with or without the internet connection present often prompts me to reinstall the network card but does not actually manage to find the device, even after the PCMCIA devices have been started

What I want to be able to do is install the ethernet card so that if I am at home, I can just plug my internet connection in and surf the net, but at the same time, login normally and without hassle if I am on the move with no network present without having to reinstall the card each time I change location/reboot etc

FYI the internet connection is a direct link to a broadband modem and is not a shared connection through a router/XP machine.

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give