What Happened?
 

I recently installed Fedora Core 4 on an old computer I had laying around. The reason for Fedora Core 4 is that's what I had laying around. Everything installed and I set the system up the way I want it run. It was working properly. I was using kernel 2.6.11.something. I upgraded to the latest kernel version 2.6.17.something. After rebooting my computer, my internet connection, samba and everything network related is lost. What happened? I check the network card in the back of the computer first to see if the light is green which it is. I check my network card drivers and it appeared to be working properly. Where should I go from here? Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance.

If you were using something like ndiswrapper or something like that, then you will probably have to reinstall ndiswrapper, or whatever you used.

You may have had something compiled into your the 2.6.11 kernel. Replacing with a new and 'default' 2.6.17 kernel has wiped whatever it was that you might have had compiled into your old kernel that supported the hardware component that has now stopped working.

If this is the case, you will have to hunt down whatever modules it was that you had compiled into the old kernel before you did the kernel update.

Also please note FC4 is way outdated. It's no longer supported which means you miss out on all the new goodies, fixes and security patches. If you want to stick with Fedora you'll have to get F8 (may be included in magazines if you don't fancy another D/L) or else settle for a distro with a longer upgrade cycle.