Strange networking problem, network appears disconnected

[AtomAnt]

Hello folks!

 

This is my first post here on Insanelymac.com, so sorry for any stupid mistakes i might make in advance. I tried to search around the forum before posting but the search apears to be broken, so i try to ask, maybe someone can help.

So...my problem: i installed Kallyway's great "distro", it works fine, but...i have a motherboard-integrated network card (Realtek RTL8168/8111) which works with OsX (Leopard), i have net access, mostly. I also have a windows (XP Pro) install on the same computer. Now, after using windows if i shut it down and boot into OsX i no longer have net access, OsX tells me that the network card is disconnected. I tried to disconnect-reconnect it, i tried to run the network assistant which told me there's nothing it can do since the card is disconnected. The only workaround i found was to power off the computer completely, that is, shut down OsX and then switch off the little switch on the back of the PSU, wait a few seconds, switch it back, boot into OsX and tadaa, i have net. This is quite annoying at least... Under both OS-es, the card is set for static IP, both OS query for the same IP (i also tried it with different IPs, doesn't seem to make any difference).

Any ideas what might be the cause of this and what i might try to fix it?? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[EDIT] Ok, i googled around some more and found on some BSD forum that Win leaves the network card in an unusable state when shut down and you either have to powercycle the machine -as i did- to fix this or there is some app written for *nix (it was called forcekill i think) to force the card to reset itsef that needs to be runned before trying to use the net. Knowing this, i rather wanted to fix the problem on the Win side so i went to the Realtek site and looked for -and found- more recent drivers for the network card. Seems like installing these did the job, now i have net under OsX after Win, so the problem is -i guess- solved, but i thought i share this with you all, maybe it can be helpfull if someone else runs into this too. Thanks.