[CVALE] Ethernet Port

[Terry]

Hi,

I've been using a 2.6.13 kernel for my desktop since January of this year.  Occasionally my ethernet 
connection "disconnects" and can't be restored unless I physically unplug the cable and plug it back 
in.  A minute or two later it's working again.

Sometimes it works fine for a week or two at a time (no shutdown). Other times it will fail after 
only 5 or 10 minutes.  Lately it's been happening more frequently so it's getting harder to ignore it.

I'm always plugging into the same router so it's possible it's a problem at either end of the cable. 
I'm rebuilding my computer software in December so I'll check out if it's broken hardware then.

I do use Hotplug.  Can this cause problems for the ethernet port if Hotplug is having problems?



 From a software standpoint for educational purposes...

What items could I look at to check out what the kernel thinks the hardware/software status of the 
Ethernet port is?

Are there some simple commands or utilities that I could play with to "reset" the port or socket 
used.  Something like an "echo xxx > /proc/xxx"?

Note that except for Nvidia all of my drivers are built into the kernel instead of loading as 
modules.  This system has Slackware 10.2 installed.

I thought I'd take the opportunity of this problem to learn a little more about Linux if it's not 
too much trouble for simple response from a knowledgable person.

Thanks.

Terry