if I look off the network settings for the G5 Tower that auto-connects, is there a way i could manually enter that info in on the G4 MDD?

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If I recall, in automatic, the Network Control Panel doesn't display what it's actually using. In any case, open the Network Control Panel, click the "Advanced" or "Configure" button depending on what version of OS X you have, select the "Ethernet" tab, select "Manual", then start with the most basic which is "10base-T", "half-duplex". If that works, then try progressively faster connections, 100base-TX, and full-duplex. If your wiring closet has a repeater instead of a full switch, full-duplex won't work. If the wiring is less than top notch, 100 Mb may not fly. It's trial & error. If nothing works, and it still reports the wire is unplugged, then there is either a bad ethernet port or flaky wire which might work with one machine but not another.