Hi

I am trying to set up a local network using the Class C addies
192.168.xxx.xxx.

Initially I am starting simple and adding a laptop to what was a standalone
machine. (I intend later to add a simple router device and then connect
laptop and eventually other boxes to the router which will be connected to the
box. I just want a simple network to monitor and play with for the moment.)

I have a Cat 5 x-over cable to connect between my box and my laptop

I have managed to succesfully configure my ethernet card on the laptop with
it's own static IP address and a route to my box's eth0.

The box has an SMC1244TX card installed which I had previously
configured to a static IP 192.168 address.

I have a ppp0 connection to the Internet which gives me a different fixed IP
address.

Initially I connected up the laptop and the box with no routing info set up on
either. All that was set up was the IP addresses on the respective eth0's.
(And they were different IP addresses ).

The main box froze. Couldn't get any response except from the on off button.
So I powered down and spent some time fscking and checking system integrity.

I have since set up the laptop to have a default gateway of the box's eth0 IP
address.

I have not yet tried to reconect the laptop to the box because I seem to have
lost the eth0 interface on the box.

Using the /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o I get a failure
insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.20-4GB/kernel/drivers/net/rtl8139.o: insmod eth0 failed

in my syslog and my eth0 interface doesn't come up.

So my first problem seems to be to find out what's wrong with the eth0
interface on the box.

I'm using SuSE 8.2 and YaST2 shows the eth0 card with the previously
configured IP address; all sound and correct. ifconfig eth0 gives

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

I need to work out what's gone wrong so that I can fix it but I am not getting
much help from anything.

Would someone say what module I am meant to use with the SMC1244TX?

The next thing I need to suss out is how to maintain the lan info in the
resolv.conf and routing info so that the Internet connection stuff is appended
rather than overwrites the lan info.

Any pointers to further good reading or help in pointing out what's going wrong?

Regards, TIA and apologies for a FAQ

Lesley