>All I did at my end to set this up was to change /etc/network/interfaces to >the following: >auto lo >iface lo inet loopback ># The primary network interface >allow-hotplug eth0 >iface eth0 inet static >address 10.97.14.253 >netmask 255.255.255.0 >gateway 10.97.14.1 >auto eth0 Have u tried putting the auto eth0 before the lines specifying the static ip?