inconsistent behavior: network during liveCD install

[florestan]

gentoo n00b -

I have a Netgear FA311 and I'm trying to do a LiveCD-basic install. I've been through the beginning parts of the install numerous times, and I'm confused by some inconsistent behavior in my network connection.

Let me start by saying that I have a small home network using a Comcast cable modem, a D-link router/firewall/hub/thingy, and some Windows boxen owned by roomates. I've had other linux distros and windows versions on my machine. It is improbable that the inconsistency lies in the router, modem, NIC, or physical layer.

Sometimes I boot from the LiveCD and everything works, and that's great.

Sometimes I boot and I can't ping Internet sights. It immediately replies with something like `host unknown: google.com' (can't remember exactly, I'm at work right now) as opposed to timing out. I run ifconfig, and only loopback is listed. I run `ifconfig eth0' and I see eth0, but no IP address obtained from DHCP. (The router is supposed to assign 192.168.0.something addresses to the NICs.) I run net-setup. It says something like `eth0 link up' but still eth0 is not listed when I do ifconfig.

I can't tell what makes it work sometimes and not others. I've only had it actually quite in the middle of something once, but it was because I downloaded the tarball, left it for an hour, unpacked the tarball, did some other stuff and it was down when I went to get a kernel source. Any suggestions? I think I've included everything. If you need more info let me know.

thanks,
florestan