Debian Network Problems

[llessur]

Hi there.
Hopefully I'm in the right place for this. I'm running a Knoppix HD install, which I gather is pretty much Debian anyway.
I'm a bit of a Linux newbie so bear with me

Anyway, yesterday I did an `aptitude upgrade`. Gave it half an hour or so to finish off. Then rebooted my box.
Now I can't maintain any sort of TCP connection to anything.

I can send and receive ICMP packets (ie. I can ping), and I can, it would seem, make TCP connections. But I don't appear to get any sort of response from them, or at least, not for a significant amount of time.
HTTP just dies straight off. Even using lynx/elinks as opposed to firefox. Links gets as far as 'Request sent' and just freezes, waiting for a response from the server.
Telnet will make connections. They'll go for about 30 seconds, then I'll stop being able to receive or send data. BUT the connection is still there! Only when I force the host to disconnect me do I get a 'Connection closed by foreign host'.

I'm perplexed. There is nothing in any of the logs that might lead me to the problem. The only two inklings I've had are NIS telling me there was an 'RPC Timeout'? I originally thought this (NIS that is) was creating the problem so removed it. The other inkling I have is that tcpdump seems to be telling me theres an awful lot of ARP requests bouncing back between me and my router.

I should point out this ISN'T a problem with my network. Windows works fine. The other 3 computers in the house are working fine... So I'm 99% sure it's Linux.

Does anyone have any ideas? Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[unicornrose]

Hey there!

I am a little bit new to the Linux world myself but I might be able to help you. I do have some questions for you though too. Which knoppix-HD install did you pick? I am guessing with the way you worded your inquiry you picked the Debian-like one.

When you say

"Anyway, yesterday I did an `aptitude upgrade`. Gave it half an hour or so to finish off. Then rebooted my box."

Are you saying you just rebooted after a half an hour because you figured it was done even though there was no indication that it was done?

If that is the case there may be a possibility that the system hung while doing the aptitude upgrade and/or you did not give it sufficient time. If that is the case you may have some unfinished changes. That can cause problems.

Since you mentioned that you are on a network I am guessing that everyone's computer's are going though a router and you are sharing a broadband connection. Which means you should be using a ethernet card of some sort. The hotplug module should pick it up.

I know when I was using knoppix I only had to configure the thing once and it loaded after that. I believe it uses DHCP to connect the card to the hub and directly connect you to the internet. It should when connected to the hub find the assign ip address that your router has assigned to your computer. I am assuming that you are able to get to the desktop correct? Go into the system menu and run ADSL/PPPOE configuration. I believe its run in a terminal so you will have to had made a root password when you hd installed knoppix. Anyway it should find your ethernet card. Just follow the prompts and it should reconnect you and hopefully you will be able to connect to the internet again.

Let me know if this worked for you.

Beth