How to reset a network/network card

Prodigy,

I believe the issue is strictly software, not hardware, as long as the Ethernet card has not failed. These third-party utilities can sometimes do more harm than good and other than running the maintenance scripts and emptying caches, I would do nothing else with them unless you are having serious software problems.

You mentioned re-installing the software...did you erase the HD and install an all-new OSX, or perform an archive & install? If the latter, try this procedure: Create a new user account:

- open System Preferences > Accounts and create a new user and name it Test;

- log out/log in to the Test account;

- go to your System Prefs > Network and set up the network with the correct settings.

If you have your Internet connection back, the original problem lies in your Home (user) account. I would log out/log in to your Home account, go to System Prefs > Network and establish a New Location using your settings...see if it will work.

You can try the last suggestion first, but you do want establish whether the problem lies in your Home account or is in fact a system-wide problem.

Prodigy,

Not knowing your networking hardware, have you disconnected the Ethernet cable from the Wallstreet, then turn off the router or modem for a few minutes, then reconnect everything?

You can also boot to your 9.x CD and see if you get any network activity as a test; these MacOS CDs have basic networking software so an OS can be installed via a network.

Prodigy,

I have little experience networking but I did find this bit of info:

"A positive link light almost always indicates that the Ethernet ports on each device are working properly, and thus a positive link light makes it very unlikely that an Ethernet port failure is causing the issue."

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106749

There may be something in the above article that is helpful. I am wondering if its time to contact your network administrator.

Prodigy,

There is not one reset that does it all, but if you would like to try those that are available:

Reset PRAM:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Reset power manager (least likely to be helpful):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

Reset Open Firmware:

Boot into Open Firmware by holding down the 'Command-Option-O-F' keys from a cold start while the chime is being played. You will see a command-line screen...enter these commands:

1. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
2. Press Return.
3. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
4. Press Return.
Example:
0 > reset-nvram
Press Return
0 > reset-all
Press Return

The reset-all command should cause the computer to restart. If this occurs, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings.