It has just started doing this after 2 years NEVER doing this.

Nothing has changed, except for a new modem / router combo (which is OUTSIDE the USB LAN connector).

I'm running 10.04.

/etc/init.d/networking restart does nothing.

Restart computer does nothing.

Restart recovery kernel does nothing.

After 5 minutes or so, it connects automatically..

How do I 'ping' on-board devices?