NetGear FA511 Unable To Connect

[meh101]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a NetGear FA511 PCMCIA NIC (wired) installed in an old Toshiba 2140XCDS laptop running the 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5 #1 kernel. I can ping other machines on my network as well as the D-Link DI-524 router, but can't get beyond the LAN. The firewall and SELinux are both disabled. The card and Tulip driver both appear to be properly configured since I can navigate the directory structure on a Windows XP machine on my Windows network, and move files between machines. I use the same network cable on a PC running FC5 and that machine has no trouble getting to the internet. Appreciate any insight into this...many days with no success.

--Portions of the dmesg output:

Linux Tulip driver version 1.1.13 (May 11, 2002)
PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:00.0 (0000 -> 0003)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:01:00.0 to 64
tulip0: MII transceiver #1 config 3100 status 7869 advertising 05e1.
eth0: ADMtek Comet rev 17 at cc860000, 00:09:5B:8D45, IRQ 11.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0c.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
es1968: clocking to 48000
radio_maestro: Unknown parameter `index'
.
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
.
0000:01:00.0: tulip_stop_rxtx() failed
eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII#1 link partner capability of 41e1.
.
eth0: no IPv6 routers present

--Output of /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:

DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
IPADDR=192.168.0.0
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.0.254
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes

--Output of /sbin/ifconfig eth0:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:09:5B:8D45
inet addr:192.168.0.100 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::209:5bff:fe8d:c4c5/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:159542 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:156566 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:21848181 (20.8 MiB) TX bytes:19544501 (18.6 MiB)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x2000

--Output of /sbin/route -n:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
169.254.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0
0.0.0.0 192.168.0.254 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0

--Output of lspci -v:

01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Linksys 21x4x DEC-Tulip compatible 10/100 Ethernet (rev 11)
Subsystem: Netgear Unknown device 511a
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 1000 [size=256]
Memory at 12000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 10000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

[giulix]

Routing and IP address seem to be fine. What about DNS servers ? Have you checked that /etc/resolv.conf contains the IP addresses of any DNS servers ?

[meh101]

Thanks guilix for responding. I've compared the contents of /etc/resolv.conf between the Toshiba laptop and the PC running FC5 that can get onto the internet and they are the same:

; generated by /sbin/dhclient-script
nameserver 192.168.0.1
search localdomain

I circumvented the D-Link router this morning and hooked the output of my cable modem directly to the laptop. Still couldn't reach the internet.

[giulix]

Your router and DNS server seem to be on two distinct IP addresses (192.168.0.254 and 192.168.0.1, respectively). Or do you have another box which acts as a DNS server ? Is there some configuration to be done on the router in order to enable Internet access for a given IP address ? I am sorry, but I am blind guessing here, since your configuration does not show any apparent glitches...

P.S. Actually, BOOTPROTO=DHCP and IPADDR=<static IP address> sound contradictory to me: I'd try to reconfigure the NIC as well...

[meh101]

You may be on to something. The IP routing table on the laptop exhibits an inconsistency compared with the table on the PC that has the working internet connection. On that machine the gateway is 192.168.0.1; on the laptop it is 192.168.0.254. All other entries in the two tables are identical.

I don't know why I didn't notice it before you pointed it out, but the IPADDR=192.168.0.0 does look odd, particularly in light of the fact that "ifconfig eth0" lists an "inet addr:192.168.0.100". This potential problem concerns me less than the gateway issue, which would explain why I can't get out. The laptops IP address is probably OK since I can ping it from a Windows box on MSHome.

My question guilix, is why is the gateway coming up with the wrong IP in the IP routing table, and how do I reconfigure the table on the laptop to use 192.168.0.1 instead of 192.168.0.254? Thanks again for your help.

[giulix]

I have a Linux box that acts as a router. On this box, DHCP is configured so that it feeds the gateway address to all the machines it serves. I suppose your router should do the same. The contradictory information in your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 suggests that something went wrong during NIC configuration.
If you want to try to manually override your routing table, you can do the following:
Open a terminal and switch to root

su -

enter root's password and replace the wrong gateway route entry with the correct one

route del default
route add default gw 192.168.0.1

[meh101]

Victory!! Thanks for ending nearly three weeks of hair pulling! (I didn't tell you about my miserable experience with a 3Com 3CXSH572BT NIC I never got to work.)

I added the new default gateway and it worked. Then I edited the gateway IP address using the Network Configuration application and it now boots with 192.168.0.1 as the gateway.

Is this the default gateway commonly used on public LANs, like those found in hotels?

[giulix]

It depends, sometimes is the first available IP address in the subnet, sometimes the last (e.g. xxx.xxx.xxx.254) or xxx.xxx.xxx.100...

[meh101]

OK giulix. I can't thank you enough for your help. I'm never sure why people such as you devote your time to helping folks you don't even know, but I'm glad that you do.

[giulix]

...boredom ?

[pablos]

I did a search on in this forum and the only result was to this thread.Though this thread deals specifically with Netgear issue, the log file printed at the beginning has the following information in it, which is exactly the issue I am dealing with:
-------
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0c.0[A] -> Link [LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
es1968: clocking to 48000
radio_maestro: Unknown parameter `index'
.
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
------
The "es1968: clocking to 48000
radio_maestro: Unknown parameter `index", I believe relates to the sound card. and I when the system boots up, this same message appears with a message of FATAL ERROR. Does anyone know how to resolve this?

thanks
pablo

[meh101]

I still get the same FATAL ERROR in dmesg, although it doesn't seem to effect the operation of the sound card on my laptop. I take it you don't have any sound. I spent a few minutes the other night searching for information on the "radio_maestro" audio driver, but didn't turn anything up. My sound card works, although I wonder if MPlayer's poor performance on my laptop my somehow be related to this driver problem. I've read that this can be a problem with video. Maybe I'll do some more digging.