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[tonyappuk]

I had a problem with accessing the net yesterday and the solution maybe of interest. I'm using Win XP  and a Foxconn A6VMX motherboard which has an onboard Realtek NIC. For a few days I have been getting an intermittent warning that a "network cable was unplugged" and Netmeter said "nothing to monitor". It always cleared after a few seconds so I didn't pursue it. Yesterday it came on solidly and so I had to investigate.
Lots of Googling and poking inside the case failed to resolve it. I was thinking of new motherboards or a separate NIC when I decided to try Linux. I can dual boot and surprise surprise Mint found the net with no problems. At least that proved the hardware was OK. I then tried something that I had seen in my searches, I switched off the PC and unplugged it from the mains killing the maintained 5v which presumably powers the onboard NIC and Lo! all was well again on a Windows reboot.This may be generally well known but it was new to me and so I thought it was worth posting. I'm just pleased I haven't got to buy and install a new motherboard. It could always come back which is the way with intermittent faults but fingers crossed.
Tony       

[tickmike]

Interesting .
I often re-boot first, then if that's no good then I shut down, then if that does not cure my problems I do as you say, shut down and turn off the mains supply and wait about two or three minutes and boot up again and hope the problem as gone.

[roseway]

This does seem to be an occasional problem which affects network interfaces particularly, although I don't know why this is. It's certainly worth keeping in mind when diagnosing this sort of issue.

[tonyappuk]

Yes, I had rebooted, done a normal shut down and even rebooted the router before I remembered to use my lap top to prove the router. My normal shut down is from the Start button in XP. The mains switch is accessible but not as easily. I thought it was worth remarking on.
Tony

[roseway]

I thought it was worth remarking on.

It certainly was.

[geep]

I get something somewhat similar with my Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R onboard NIC.
About once every 3 weeks it can't find the Internet when I reboot from a complete power off state.
If I look in the BIOS whilst rebooting it shows that the Ethernet cable is either open circuit or short circuit - I can't remember which.
Changing the network cable or using a different router/router port doesn't solve it.

Power down, wait one minute, and restart and all is well. It's been doing this since I bult the PC about 3 years ago.

Cheers,
Peter

[tonyappuk]

Geep
Join the club! Luckily this is the only time I have had to unplug the PC and I don't really understand why Mint Linux could find the net whilst the fault was solid on XP. Seems to suggest that the XP drivers had been corrupted and that there were replacements in the Linux kernel. So far my system has been OK with no faults so perhaps dismiss it as one of those things.
Tony