Running a Linux, Windows NT, WIN 98 mixed network . When I Ping from the latest machine in the network (Mandrake 7.0), it claims to connect to all the IP addresses in the system. The only problem is that the HUB lights show no activity and the time is 0ms. No other machine in the network can ping to this machine. They give a "timed out" response. All appears normal on ifconfig. I have tried changing the IP address, replacing the cable and rebooting - with no change in the response. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

of course you might have guessed the light on the hub is a link light if no lED is lite then there is no link, will the linux box run an internal loop ping 127.0.0.1 if all is ok change ports on the hub reseat the NIC if it is not intergrated put the Nic in a windows p/c and see if it runs there you said you replaced the patch cable (but does your network have a cable ran to a punch panel?) if so the cable run could have bad ends and or an open pair in the cable

Thanks for the suggestions. Actually the Linux box is in the machine room so I can watch the HUB LEDS. The LED is lit, the problem was not mechanical. Pinging 127.0.0.1 gave the identical response as all other addresses. All packets sent, all received in 0ms. I eventually gave up after trying every change in ifconfig and route that I could think of. I wiped the hard disk, did a clean reload of MANDRAKE 7.1. Set the network connections and gateway and voila, it works. Still, as a matter of curiousity, I would like to know what in the world could cause it to believe that it was pinging other machines (instantaneously) when everything else says there was no connection. thanks again