I was using NoMachine to access Ubuntu 11.10 when suddenly the internet on Ubuntu stopped working. Now Ubuntu doesn't recognize the internet at all (including locally).

Symptoms:

• Doesn't recognize the fact that there is an ethernet cable attached. (I've tried switching cables, didn't work.) GUI says "No network devices available"

• Can't ping external IP addresses.

• Tried changing /etc/network/interfaces to eth1 instead of eth0 but it didn't work.

• ifconfig provides no output relating to eth0.

• When I type "/etc/init.d/networking restart" it tells me "Cannot find device 'eth0'/Failed to bring up eth0."

The network settings had used a static IP address prior to the crash. I don't know why it won't recognize the ethernet (I think this is the fundamental problem, but I might be wrong) and why it stopped working so suddenly--I haven't installed any updates lately.

Any ideas? Any more information I should provide?

EDIT:

lspci recognizes the Ethernet controller; netstat does not. lspci calls it "Intel Corporation Device 0000"