I have a strange problem that keeps re-occuring. I purchased a small
peer-to-peer network kit from Linksys last year. Set it up on a
Toshiba Infinia (pentium 166) and a home built system with FIC-2007
board and AMD K6 200. Worked fine for months. In the past 2-3 weeks,
I have had three occasions when the Toshiba disappears from the
network. It I double click on Network Neighborhood (on the Toshiba),
I get an error message that the network is not available.

I have physically removed the network card from the Toshiba,
re-booted without the card and made sure everything is working. I
then power down and re-install the card and re-boot, re-installing
the software info from the disk. No go! Same problems.

Now is the (at least to me) strange part. If I physically switch the
two NIC cards between the two computers, I can re-boot, re-install
the software and everything works fine, until some (seemingly)
random time in the future when I will try to access the network and
it will not be available. It can be several days or more without a
problem.

Other, perhaps, pertanent info. I use the Toshiba for my internet
connection. I think PERHAPS that the problem is occuring after random
lock-ups when logging off my internet connection. I had the lockups
before without losing my peer-to-peer network. The FIC based home
built has never presented a similar problem when I have switched the
cards. It will always show the local system in network neighborhood
whereas the Toshiba will show nothing.

Any ideas/solutions would be welcome. I know little about networks. I
have been happy with the setup because it was easy to install and
use. After switching the hardware and re-installing 3 times in the
past several weeks, it is beginning to be a pain!

Jim

Jim Maki
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