Richard and Jared:
-----------------------
Thanks for the pointers.  Ubuntu 5.10 seems to have both tools (though
they could have come in with some other package I added - will have to
check that).  Both tools seems to not like my eth1 (wireless) but
frankly that might be operator error as I have had little time to
explore it.

Oh and Jared thanks for the tip but I will have to research that as I
have no idea what the "metric" is/means and whether/how to adjust it. 
NTL, see below for info as to why I am not yet pursuing that.

der.hans:
------------
My /etc/network/interfaces is:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
        script grep
        map eth0

# The primary network interface
iface eth0 inet dhcp
#       pre-up [ -f /etc/network/local-network-ok ]

iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless-essid mariewilliam

auto eth0


Note that the commented out pre-up line was from an experiment based
on a suggestion I found on the web which was not helpful.
=============================
New Information for everyone looking at this and especially for the
folks trying to help.  This is a new discovery and what I did as a
result which did not help but maybe would suggest a new approach to
understanding this issue.  Please recognize that it would seem the
best solution would be to find a way to make the wireless eth1 not
come up if the wired eth0 is functional.  But I would also like to
understand why it is a problem for both to be active (beyond the
wireless being slower).  The symptoms do not make sense and I believe
are indicative of a deeper underlying issue which probably should be
corrected and not just for me.
==============================
Quick recap.  Toshiba 5105-S701 laptop running Ubuntu 5.10 has
built-in ethernet and wireless 802.11b when powered up connected to a
wired LAN which also has a wireless AP used when the laptop is in a
different room activates BOTH interfaces and NEITHER is usable for
internet access until the other is deactivated.

While trying out some of the suggestions, I was displaying properties
from right clicking the Network Monitors for each interface which I
had added to a Gnome Panel.  When doing the ping yahoo.com tests I
noticed there was regular TX and RX activity on eth0 although the ping
command never display ANYTHING.  I also noticed some occasional RX
activity on eth1 but suspected that was some betwork broadcat stuff
and there was corresponding TX activity.

Now the truly FASCINATING part is that after a lengthy time (maybe
20-30 minutes), the pings suddenly started working and the related
activity was now on eth1.  I rechecked all the status commands folks
had been advising me to use and noticed no changes to the results.

I then began a series of reboots where I tried each of those commands
before and after a ping test in case one of them was having a side
effect.  None seemed to fix the problem except the passage of time. 
Hence I suspected some scheduled or regularly repeated event and
decided to see if I could find it.  I used logger to insert findable
messages into syslog describing what the step I was on and/or test
results.  The theory being that I MIGHT see a significant event in
syslog or in one of the other log files in /var/log which I could look
at based on the timestamps of my added messages in syslog.  After
doing this for about 20 minutes, pings started working but I learned
NOTHING from the logs.

I could post some of that here but it would be quite voluminous and I
thought it better to see if anyone has any suggestions about specific
logging, logging configurations, and/or any test with a simple enough
output to feed to logger and loop it.

What do you think?  Ideas or should I abandon the quest for knowledge
and just find a way to make the wireless not come up or to shut down
if the wired interface is functional?
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