@Harry

Harry I am sorry I am on another machine and the two can't talk so cut paste is not possible.

This machine has been my Linux distro try machine .. I had Kanotix and Suse on it .. and bootem them alternatively .. never a problem. This one though is very strange.

I did look at the router, the MAC address is fine .. nothing is blocked on the router (it's Belkin)

I get IP address 192.168.0.7 .. Broadcast mask is fine .. Net mask is fine.

Only thing (was) that eth0 didn't have RUNNING flag on .. "lo" interface did.

After I plugged the cable in/out .. I still had to ifdown/ifup and it started pinging locally .. but still doesn't go outside.

Thank for the response .. any suggestions are welcome.