Ok, I've been trying to figure this out on my own for several weeks now, but I just can't get it working. I have my Ubuntu Hoary machine set up through a Sonicwall SOHO router on a cable internet connection. The networks fine, runs fine but anytime I run usenet downloads it will stop working. Basically the network just becomes unavailable. It sit trying to resolve the DNS for several minutes. This is across the board, just not PAN or Newsbin or whatever I'm using, there's no access to the network at all. Running /etc/init.d/newtork restart or anything does nothing. If I try connecting directly via the IP address I get a rejection error. I can't connect to my router either. Only way I can get the network back is to reboot. I originally thought this was a PAN error and even upgraded to the CVS upgraded version of PAN, but same problem. Running Newsbin through WINE also duplicates the problem. I have not duplicated the problem with HTTP or FTP downloads, but I don't really download things through either much. Any ideas where to start to troubleshoot this? I'm clueless. Thanks.

Are you doing this via a wireless connection? I had an issue like this went I was using a linksys wireless card on my laptop. It seemed realted to the amount of bandwith that i was using through the card. If I kept things below 150k everything was fine. When the linksys card exceeded the 150k my connection dropped and I had to restart my laptop to get it to see the wireless network again. Sorry to day that the way I resolved the issue was to puchase a Proxim a/b/g Gold card.


-G

Nope. Hard-wired.

bump

I wonder if you are actually having a problem with your router instead of your install? Is it possible to bypass the router and connect directly to the cable modem to test if it is a router configuration problem?

I doubt it's the router. I have 3 computers hooked up to it and only the ubuntu box has this problem. I can connect to the internet with the other 2 even when the ubuntu box stops working. I can give it a shot tonight though and see.

Nope. Not the router. I duplicated the problem connected directly to the internet.

Well, I was figuring it wasn't particularly after you last post about other computers not having the problem. When it quits working, are you able to ping any of the other computers on the local network? Also, are you using the stock kernels or did you compile your own?

Does this computer happen to dual boot? If so, does the problem exist under Windows or is it Linux specific? If Linux specific, or if it doesn't dual boot, do you know if the network adapter is sharing a interrupt with something else? (I ask, because I once had a sound card and the ethernet card sharing an interrupt. All work well until a sound was played during a download. It broke the connection, but didn't require a reboot).

You might also try turning off the plug and play detection in your bios and/or from the kernel when it boots and see if that makes a difference (noapic setting)

Why don't you try bumping down to the physical layer. This sounds like symptoms I had when my cable was bad.

Once it stops working I can't get anywhere. Opening Firefox gives errors about not being able to lookup the DNS. Ping or other net operations gives an error about network being unavailable.

The mach 1f40 ine does dual-boot. I don't really use the Windows anymore, but the problem is linux specific. Never had the problem in Windows before. I ran newsbin for 2 hours to check it in Windows and no problems. 5 minutes in Ubuntu-no network.

To my knowledge the LAN card is not sharing an interrupt with anything else.

It's DHCP. It shouldn't be duplicating the address. I have it on auto on all the machines. Checking IP address on all machines now shows Ubuntu as *.2, and my other 2 computers as *.1 & *.3. The router is *.200.

bump

This is a long shot, but are you using DHCP or manual IP address on all of your computers. In otherwords, is it possible that you have a duplicate IP address and the nic is shutting down, but when you ping it from another location, some one else is responding? I ask, because your address ends in ".2" which is a pretty low address if you are regularly having to reboot the computer. It's possible that it could just be retaining it's lease on the address, but it would be something to check out.

If you are using DHCP, all addresses should be DHCP, if manual, all should be manual (there are ways to mix DHCP and manual, though, but for testing, it's easier if they are all the same).

and the output after the net goes down:

root@mshome:/home/taddy # ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:29:33:0C:05
inet addr:192.168.168.2 Bcast:192.168.168.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:29ff:fe33:c05/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1444 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1262 errors:49 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:109 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1655960 (1.5 MiB) TX bytes:122624 (119.7 KiB)
Interrupt:19 Base address:0xb000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:3960 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:3960 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1106146 (1.0 MiB) TX bytes:1106146 (1.0 MiB)

root@mshome:/home/taddy #

**bump**

Hmm, why did you bump without responding to the last question?

Sorry, I didn't notice anyone had replied. My bad. I just have the one NIC card. It's a PCI card, Realtek if I remember correctly.


Here's my ifconfig with the net working. I'll get it locked up and see if it shows anything different:

root@mshome:/home/taddy # ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:E0:29:33:0C:05
inet addr:192.168.168.2 Bcast:192.168.168.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2e0:29ff:fe33:c05/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:568 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:486 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:2 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:605681 (591.4 KiB) TX bytes:47495 (46.3 KiB)
Interrupt:19 Base address:0xb000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:1833 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1833 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:508252 (496.3 KiB) TX bytes:508252 (496.3 KiB)

root@mshome:/home/taddy #

what does "ifconfig" return?

How many network adapters are in your computer? I'm wondering if somehow the default route is getting messed up and your outgoing packets are going to neverland (this could happen even with only one adapter).

I played around with a bit tonight. I figured out I can actually ping the Ubuntu box from another computer. It doesn't seem to have any problems receiving connections, but outgoing packets error out. Not sure what that means, however.