Hello,

I have an IBM Pentium III 663MHz PC (desktop) which I've been trying to
get a Linux Distro to work on with Networking successfully. I know it
can be done, because this box has been loaded with an early version of
Redhat and operated as a web server.

I wanted to start fresh so I wiped the system clean with Redhat 8 -
which was able to come up quickly and correctly detect the network card
that was installed. However it could not "initialize" the card. I knew
that Redhat 8 had some issues, so I installed Redhat 7.2. The results
were the same.

So know I've taken out the "big guns" - as it seems that Knoppix (4.0.2
in my case) will work with just about everything. But the results,
sadly, are not much different.

PCI is my only choice as the IBM only has PCI slots. I have two NICs
that I've tried - and the results are pretty much the same:

Card #1: This was the card that has been in there when the box was a
web server -
3Com 10/100 TX Fast Etherlink XL PCI 2 - 3c905B-TX NM

All three distros are able to probe the card correctly and select (what
I would guess to be) the correct driver. I've tried toassign an IP
through DHCP and also by assigning it a static IP - neither case
worked.


Card #2: (Test individually - not at the same time as card #1) -
D-Link DFE-530TX REV-A1

All three distros were also able to select the correct driver for this
card. I tried both DHCP and static IP. When I assigned the DLink an IP,
and tried to ping my router, I could see the transmit light flash on
each "ping".

In both cases when the I assigned the IP, ping reported that the
network was un-reachable. When I tried to configure them for DHCP they
would time-out.

The router/DHCP server that I'm using is a Linksys Etherfast cable/dsl
router - which works great as I'm going through it now to post this
message.

While I wait back for some suggestions on how to get either one of
these cards to work I am installing Win98 just to veryify that the NICs
still work. (There is something wrong with the fact that a win98 box
would be able to network more easily than a linux box)

Thanks!
CF

In message <1132508697.924075.80450@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>
deja@chronofish.com wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have an IBM Pentium III 663MHz PC (desktop) which I've been trying to
> get a Linux Distro to work on with Networking successfully. I know it
> can be done, because this box has been loaded with an early version of
> Redhat and operated as a web server.
>
> I wanted to start fresh so I wiped the system clean with Redhat 8 -
> which was able to come up quickly and correctly detect the network card
> that was installed. However it could not "initialize" the card. I knew
> that Redhat 8 had some issues, so I installed Redhat 7.2. The results
> were the same.
>
> So know I've taken out the "big guns" - as it seems that Knoppix (4.0.2
> in my case) will work with just about everything. But the results,
> sadly, are not much different.
>
> PCI is my only choice as the IBM only has PCI slots. I have two NICs
> that I've tried - and the results are pretty much the same:
>
> Card #1: This was the card that has been in there when the box was a
> web server -
> 3Com 10/100 TX Fast Etherlink XL PCI 2 - 3c905B-TX NM
>
> All three distros are able to probe the card correctly and select (what
> I would guess to be) the correct driver. I've tried toassign an IP
> through DHCP and also by assigning it a static IP - neither case
> worked.
>
>
> Card #2: (Test individually - not at the same time as card #1) -
> D-Link DFE-530TX REV-A1
>
> All three distros were also able to select the correct driver for this
> card. I tried both DHCP and static IP. When I assigned the DLink an IP,
> and tried to ping my router, I could see the transmit light flash on
> each "ping".
>
> In both cases when the I assigned the IP, ping reported that the
> network was un-reachable. When I tried to configure them for DHCP they
> would time-out.
>
> The router/DHCP server that I'm using is a Linksys Etherfast cable/dsl
> router - which works great as I'm going through it now to post this
> message.
>
> While I wait back for some suggestions on how to get either one of
> these cards to work I am installing Win98 just to veryify that the NICs
> still work. (There is something wrong with the fact that a win98 box
> would be able to network more easily than a linux box)
>
> Thanks!
> CF

To me this sounds as though both NICs are working and there is a problem
between the NIC and the router. I see you're posting from Windows - is that
on a different PC? Must be, I guess, or you'd have used it to test the NICs.

I'd suspect the cable - does your router show a light when you plug the
cable in? If so it's seeing the transmit side of the NIC. Does the NIC show
a light? I think the 3C905 has a pair of LEDs vsible through the backplate.
If so it's seeing the transmit side of the router. You need both checks for
a physical link to be present.

If you try to ping the router, do you get an ARP entry for it? arp -a will
tell you. If you do, then you have a working physical link, and something is
blocking traffic. Most commonly this is the WinXP firewall, but it would be
something else in this case.

Can you ping the NIC in this box from something else - one-way pings are a
symptom of firewall issues.

--
Alan Adams
alan.adams@orchard-way.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/

Thanks Alan,

While I was waiting for a response I installed Windows - on the way to
doing that I setup a lapton on the same line. I discovered that the
connection was extremly poor. While Windows would connect, the
connection (web-wise) was not usable.

There are three cable in question - cable from NIC to wall connector -
cable from wall connector to second wall connector, and cable from 2nd
wall connector to router.

Yes that third cable was bad. When I swapped it out the connection was
pure. I booted with Knoppix and the web came up right away.

So your deduction was 100% right on - if only I had posted earlier.

The sad thing was that I tested the line earlier and it seemed to work.
Lights on both the NICs and the Router all looked good through-out the
entire process.

Thanks!
CF