Not sure I have anything useful to add but I've had a very similar problem and it appears we have similar systems: I'm running F13 _64 on a Dell XPS 8100. I've had problems with intermittent connections both on a wlan0 and eth0, and in diagnosing I removed the wlan0 completely (even the card), and still have up to a few hours of internet before (without any apparent reason) the eth0 connection drops. In my case, I've been trying to figure out why restarting it with "/sbin/service network restart" hasn't worked. Nothing has: once it's down, only a restart will get things working again.

I've been using Linux since Red Hat 6.0 (1999, I think) and have never found an issue that's been this frustrating. Worse, it's obviously something fairly obscure because not a lot of other people are having this issue.

Do you have full disk encryption on by any chance? Anything else "funky" that we might both have configured that is causing it? I kept assuming it was a simple bug that would be quickly fixed but clearly that's not going to happen -- and I also have no issues in W7...works like a charm for days, if you can stomach thinking that anything Windoze might "be a charm."

I was thinking perhaps I'd reinstall using the 32 bit version and see if that helps, but I'm loathe to do that because the primary reason to have this box is to do 64 bit video editing with Cinelarra and Kdenlive. Not having 64 bits is really a handicap.

And call me stubborn, but I've used Linux long enough to scorn reinstalling and take it as a matter of pride that I should be able to fix it...of course with the kind help of people out there in the cyberblue who know more about the hardware and processes than I do. I'm not even a coder/programmer.

Anyway...sorry to jump on the thread if we're NOT having the same issue, but I'm thinking maybe we are. Are you using a Netgear router? Have other computers in the house? (I've got 7; the others work fine). Do you have a high memory system (mine's 8Gigs)? Not that these should make a whit of difference but...you never know. Maybe there's something in common and it will help narrow the issue down. I'm able to get an hour or sometimes hours of use before things bork.

Good luck...and if anyone out there knows anything, there's at least two of us with our fingers crossed who greatly appreciate your help!!

I had the very same issue (Fedora 13 x64). The solution is to completely disable NetworkManager and switch to wicd instead. My connection is stable again.

I will be sooooooooo happy if indeed this is the solution!

What steps did you take to disable Network Manager? Will:

yum remove Network Manager
yum install wicd

work?

Thank you again for taking the time to post. I really appreciate it! This has been plaguing me for weeks!

Update: Scratch the request for instructions. I did exactly that (wisely yum installing wicd BEFORE removing NetworkManager!). wicd worked out of the box and I am now waiting (fingers crossed) to see if that's the solution...I should know by tomorrow morning.

I've been successfully using my old router for several days now.
Goemon: It was a netgear router causing issues. I'm not using full disk encryption, though this is a fairly high end system (Core 2 duo, 8GB DDR2, XFX Mobo with 3 PCIe slots).

I'll try using wicd with the Netgear router and post the results.

Yep, I've got a Netgear router too. Sounds like we have similar systems, but I will see if plugging my old router into the Netgear helps. Then maybe I'll axe the whole Netgear router completely if indeed it's causing the problem.

And yes, even with wicd, the problem continues. So I'm guessing it IS the Netgear router. Grrrr.

Unfortunately, using Wicd didn't really solve anything.

Seeing as I'm able to use my Belkin router, I'll mark this thread as solved (though it's hardy the outcome I was hoping for!).