Thanks Billy, I found my problem, I was missing the line 'auto eth0' in /etc/network/interfaces and, unfortunately no, if I try and connect to the corporate n/w and the external ADSL simultaneously, I will no longer have to worry about the corporate side of things. My association with that entity will be terminated :-( Mike <div>On 1/24/06, Billy Verreynne (JW) <<a href="mailto:VerreyB@telkom.co.za">VerreyB@telkom.co.za</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Mike Kenny wrote: == I occasionally need to switch my ethernet cable to a direct (ADSL) connection rather than going through the corporate filrewalls (or not as the case might be :-). With windows the configuration of eth0 it update automatically when I switch cables, with various linuxes it may be update automatically otherwise /etc/init.d/network restart accomplishes this action. With Ubuntu 5.10, first there is no /etc/init.d/network, it seems to ahve been replaced by /etc/init.d/networking and secondly this does not bring up eth0. I am left with just lo0. A reboot with the same cable connected brings the system up on the non-corporate n/w. Any ideas how I can accomplish automatically or at least without reboot? == ADSL usually runs over a PPPOE driver and interface Mike - which is separate from the eth0 interface (yes the access concentrator if found via eth0 cable, but the o/s creates a different network device in the /dev tree for it, usually /dev/ppp0). Conversely, you can configure multiple Internet protocol stacks on a single interface, e.g. eth0:0 eth0:1 etc. Each additional config can have different details. You can also have both the eth0 and ppp0 devices up at the same time. I'm not exactly sure what the problem is... If you want to start an ADSL session, you use the 'pon' command, followed by the config filename to use (this file will be /etc/ppp/peers). The 'plog' command shows you the status (success or failure) of the ADSL connection. The 'poff' command turns it off. So if I read this correctly you can, after unplugging the standard network cable, down the eth0 interface as that network is no longer reachable, e.g. # ifdown eth0 Then you plug in the ADSL cable (which goes into the ADSL router/modem/whatever) into the network card. Now the ADSL network can be brought up using: # pon adsl-provider It would be much easier running both at the same time though and not muck about with plugging/unplugging cables. Surely the ADSL router can be cascaded from your existing ethernet port (cross over UTP likely needed) - and then you run a normal UTP cable from the ADSL router into your PC. -- Billy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This e-mail and its contents are subject to the Telkom SA Limited e-mail legal notice available at <a href="http://www.telkom.co.za/TelkomEMailLegalNotice.PDF">http://www.telkom.co.za/TelkomEMailLegalNotice.PDF</a> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- ubuntu-users mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users </a> </blockquote></div>