Connecting to net, Inspiron 8600, FC2

TheEnquirer · #1 11th January 2005, 10:10 AM

Google has only told me that connecting to the net in Fedora Core 2 should be a relatively simple task on this machine, and that the ethernet adaptor should work out of the box for kernel versions 2.6.x.

Well, I'm using 2.6.5, and FC2 recognizes the ethernet hardware as a bcm4401. I'm using dhcp and automatically querying for dns info. However, should I unplug my windows box from the cable modem and plug in the linux machine, eth0 won't activate; it just times out trying to get its IP. This happened when I plugged it in to an ethernet port in the lab, too.

I guess I'm missing something really obvious... any help is appreciated though. Sorry if this is a stupid problem or in the wrong forum.

terr9898 · #2 11th January 2005, 11:13 AM

Try rebooting your cable modem before you plug into the linux machine. Cable modems tend to log the MAC address of the machine they are connected to and hence when you switch machines, the MAC address changes which the cable modem doesn't like. A power off/power on clears the cable modem's memory.

TheEnquirer · #3 11th January 2005, 06:17 PM

Thanks. That worked... I can't believe it was so simple. I was ready to try recompiling my kernel.