eth0 not working - fine in Windows

[Chris]

Hi,

A couple of days ago whilst running F10, a friend was inserting a USB
stick and the physical connection on the front panel of my PC broke.
The machine immediately powered off. When I booted again, everything
seemed fine except that the network connection had stopped working.
When I try "service network start", it says it's unable to determine
IP information - check cable.

If I boot into Windows it works fine. I'm doubtful that it's a
hardware problem because (a) it works in Windows, and (b) the problem
USB connector is on the front panel and connected via a lead, i.e.
it's not directly attached to the motherboard.

Any ideas on where to start investigating?

As a side question, when I look in system-config-network, I've got a
device called pan0. I don't recall it being there, but it may have
been there and I just didn't notice it. I'm not using NetworkManager
as I've found it can just cause problems. Maybe I could give it a go
anyway but I suspect the problem is deeper than that.

Thanks, Chris.