Full reset of network interface

Question

I have a Raspberry Pi. If it's connected to a network, and cables are changed, IP numbers changed, and what not, it sometimes stops working. A simple reboot solves the problem.

Is there any way of doing a full reset of everything that has to do with networking, without rebooting the whole operating system? How do I do that?

Solution

You have not stated the operating system used. Depending on the operating system, you should run the disable and enable commands for the network card.

Example:

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 up

Example 2:

ifdown etho
ifup eth0

That will reinitialize network without the need of a reboot.

Comments

[DavidPostill]

Try asking on raspberrypi.stackexchange.com

[Giacomo1968]

Should be moved to the Raspberry Pi specific site: raspberrypi.stackexchange.com

[Paolo]

Thank you for your answer. Does this fully equate to a reboot netwrokwise? I mean, is there anything else related to this being done at a boot compared to ifconfig down and up?

[Overmind]

It is a full 'reboot' wince the network interface is actually shut down and reinitialized. Other applications that use the network may still run independently of the network state, but the important thing is that the network subsystem reloads.

[Paolo]

Overmind, it didn't work. Makes no difference. I've tried to restart init.d/networking, but I don't get it up and running again after that.

[Overmind]

Do you get any errors on no error messages/nothing happens ?