Two Problems- One Network, One Input

[PKZip]

These are two issues I'm having with Mint 7 (which I just installed), though I had them in Mint 5 LTS as well.

The wired network connection will cut out after a period of time. I first noticed it while updating/downloading software, but it will cut out regardless of what I'm doing. I imagine this is some setting that needs to be changed, but I'm not comfortable enough in Linux yet to go poking around too much. As I said, this is a wired connection on an Abit VT7 motherboard, which I believe uses a VIA Fast Ethernet adapter.

The second issue deals with the keyboard and mouse. Sometimes both input devices are very sluggish and jerky, though it seems to be all or nothing- upon boot either the devices will work fine (and keep working fine), or they won't.Both are wireless (Logitech EX110). Nothing else is slow- everything else runs normally.

Let me know what other information I should post to help figure out what's going on, and thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

[PKZip]

UPDATE: I believe I fixed the problem with the mouse and keyboard. I just had to do with the how the device was connected to the computer- originally I had both the USB and PS2 plugged in, but when I took out the PS2 everything worked fine again.

Still not sure on the network problem, so any help there is appreciated.

[kei84]

About your connection, this problem happens all the time or just sometimes? If the connection is cut and you unplug and plug the cable, do you get your connection back?

[altair4]

Also, are you connected directly ( to a modem ) or trough a router ? Do you have access to any of the modem or router logs?

[PKZip]

Yeah, I should have given more info on my connection.

First of all, when I first log on my connection is fine. Its only after a period of time (which seems to vary) that my connection will stop working. Logging out and then logging back in doesn't fix it, and neither does removing the Ethernet cable and then plugging it back in. Only restarting will restore the connection.

Secondly, I connect via a Netgear router (WGR614) to an ADSL modem. When the connection is down I can't log in to the router either. When I get back from work I can check about getting info on the modem. My laptop, which runs Vista and connects wirelessly, doesn't have any issues, and neither does XP when I boot into that rather than Linux.

I'm pretty certain that dynamic IPs (which I have) refresh themselves periodically. Could there be something that is interfering with that process, and preventing the network from getting assigned a new IP address?

Thanks for the help so far.

[altair4]

When the connection is down I can't log in to the router either

You should be able to connect to the router even if the modem is turned off so it's not likely that the problem is with the modem or router.

I'm pretty certain that dynamic IPs (which I have) refresh themselves periodically. Could there be something that is interfering with that process, and preventing the network from getting assigned a new IP address?

You could force the router to assign the same IP address to the same box on the LAN using the MAC address of the specified box. Netgear calls it "Address Reservation" ( I think ). This way regardless of what's happening to the router the ip address of the Mint box will always be the same. It seems unlikely though that the IP address that the ISP is in effect assigning to the router is changing within the same day.

It seems to me to be something in the Mint setup that's the cause. Have you done anything beyond the default network settings or maybe the firewall?

[kei84]

You can also try using the LiveCD to see if your connection works fine there.