I have a desktop machine running Ubuntu 7.04. It is an older machine
(vintage 2002 or so) with a wired ethernet connection. The DSL
connection and the main router for the house are in another room. I
have brought cat5 cable into the room where this pc is located. The
problem is that when I connect this PC to the cable, the connection is
very poor at best. If ping test the router from the PC, it drops most
if not all the pings. I have an extra linksys router that if I
connect it to the cat5 cable and the PC to the router, every thing
works normally. The second router connects normally to the main
router where the PC cannot. If I move the PC to the other room and
plug it in with a short cable to the router, it works fine as well.

Any thoughts on how get the second router outof the picture? It seems
like a waste of electricity to have the second router just for one PC,
plus it puts the PC on a separate network and makes printer and file
sharing difficult.