I think I'm having trouble with the forcedeth driver for the ethernet chip RTL8211BL.

Ocassionally after a boot, the ethernet works. When the ethernet is working, it seems to work for the duration of the boot. However, this
is the exception. Almost always after a boot, the ethernet does not work. When the ethernet is not working, pinging the computer itself works, but pinging another device or computer on the lan doesn't work, and pinging a computer on the internet doesn't work.

When the ethernet is not working, the output of the following commands suggest that it is working.
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#ifconfig -a

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19B:6D:70:57
inet addr: 192.168.128.2 Bcast:192.168.128.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
...
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#lsmod

Module list includes:
forcedeth
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#lspci -vv |grep Ethernet

00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
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Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI Platinum
Northbridge: nVidia nForce 650i SLI (C55)
Southbridge: nVidia nForce 430i (MCP51)
Ethernet chip on Motherboard: RTL8211BL, 6B539S1, G709 TAIWAN
I believe the Motherboard Ethernet chip is accessed through the Southbridge.

Slackware 11.0
Linux burba 2.4.33.3 #1 Fri Sep 1 01:48:52 CDT 2006 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
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My short term solution has been to install my 8 year old RTL8139 PCI Ethernet Card. This card works on my new system reliably. Of course, I would rather use the new Ethernet Chip on my new Motherboard.

sorry to kinda go off topic here, but did your mobo drivers come with the distro or did you download them from somewhere else?

For Linux (Slackware 11.0): The devices were identified and assigned drivers (in particular, the motherboard ethernet was found and assigned the driver forcedeth) automatically during the Linux installation.

(One minor exception: I configured a cd writer to use scsi emulation manually after the linux installation, but the ide-scsi driver was already set up. However, this is irrelevant to the problem with the ethernet.)

For Windows: A "Drivers and Utilities" CD came with the motherboard that includes an "NVIDIA Ethernet Driver." Windows couldn't handle the motherboard ethernet by itself. I had to install this nvidia ethernet driver before windows could find the interface.

I have to admit I'm a little disappointed that out of 163 sets of peepers, I only got 1 reply.

I'm going to put this thread to rest myself. There is simply something incompatible with the combination of the kernel 2.4.33.3, the ethernet driver forcedeth, and the hardware (MSI P6N SLI Platinum). I compiled and installed a custom 2.6.17.13 kernel for reasons unrelated to the ethernet problem. Since I did this, however, the ethernet problem seems to have gone away (fingers crossed).

It's not going to help, but I've seen this problem both on my desktop & laptop (using Suse 10.2). Bugs the hell out of me. And I've never seen a response to this. Good to know I'm not the only one suffering. Let's hope someone has both seen this problem and knows the cause / solution