Possible to confuse IRQ's?

[subnet_rx]

My USB controller and my network card are on the same IRQ, and when my eth0 interface is coming up in boot, it starts up my cd-writer (external USB).

The installation found and installed the correct driver for my card, and Control Panel says there are no conflicts. But I cannot get my internet connection up through @Home. Should I be worried about this or is it a regular occurrence?

[Malakin]

You can try moving your NIC to a different slot.

[Timbo]

Normally, IRQ sharing is not a problem, infact, it's required for most systems. PCs only have 16 total IRQs, some of them already used up before you add anything to the motherboard. As a result of this limit, devices and device drivers are supposed to share IRQs. Unless there is specifically a IRQ conflict, it should be fine. You should check to see if your ethernet card is working. Just type

ifconfig

If there is some info about eth0, then it's working, and you have to look at other problems that might be the cause of your Internet access failure.

[subnet_rx]

in that case, I know it is working. it's pump that comes up with an error message, and everytime I set my DHCP info in Linuxconf, the program times out trying to get the network to restart, and I have to skip the operation.

Then when I reboot, it can't find my IP.

[bdg1983]

If you are not using both serial ports, then you can disable com2 in the bios and that will free up another irq for use by another device.

I often do this myself.

[subnet_rx]

I got it working, but I don't think I use either COM port, so this may be important info for the future. I know COM 2 is my modem, what does COM 1 do? I may be able to disable both if I need an IRQ.