PC is connected via UTP to an central ethernet switch. If the switch is rebooted the PC can no longer use the network, any attempts block/timeout. Win32 clients on the same switch do not see the same problem, once the switch is up they may continue - ie the previous connections are restored. I've tried restarting the network using '/etc/rc.d/init.d/network' but this doesn't help, so far the only fix I've found is a reboot. The PC has a static IP address and a static route, ethernet card is a Digital PCI card with a tulip chipset (same as the Win32 boxes), config is pretty vanilla I think.
We have a switch located in our test lab and I was unable to cause this to occur, I am just guessing but it could possibly be hardware related and would suggest trying a different card.
Thanks for the comment. FYI all client PC's have the same make/model ethernet card, and the one in the Linux box has been swapped for a new one just in case. Don't think I get the problem if the same PC runs win95 when the switch reboots. Also, I never saw this problem with some 'simple' ethernet switches, so it could be specific to the Digital switch firmware too. Will maybe raise this with ethernet code author. Thanks again, Simon