Laptop freezes upon network initialization

[Norman Khine]

Hello,
I have a very strange problem and was hoping someone can help me.
I have an old Toshiba 7000ct which I have rebuilt and is running FreeBSD 
4.5-RELEASE

As this laptop does not have a network card, I have a Linksys 10/100 USB 
Network Adapter.

Here I get the problem:- when I boot the machine without the Linksys it 
boots fine, but when I try to boot it up with the Linksys attached the 
machine simply freezes on the screen

Doing initial network setup: hostname.

disk stops responding and I have to force reboot the machine.

When I boot the machine boots fine I will then plug the Linksys and the 
machine sees it and gives a message on the screen...

auo0: Linksys Inc. LINKSYS USB Adapter, rev 1.10/1.01, addr2 aue0: 
Ethernet address: 00:e0:98:7f:b2:83
miibus0: <MII bus> on aue0
ukphy0: <Generic IEEE 802.3u media interface> on miibus0
ukphy0: 10baseT, 10baset-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto

#ifconfig aue0
aue0: flags=8802<BROADCAST, SIMPLEX, MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	ether 00:e0:98:7f:b2:83
	media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
	status: no carrier

When I plug the network cable, the green light comes on the Linksys and:

#ifconfig aue0
aue0: flags=8802<BROADCAST, SIMPLEX, MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	ether 00:e0:98:7f:b2:83
	media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
	status: active

I have tried to manually setup the card, but this simply freezes the laptop

#ifconfig aue0 inet 10.0.1.181 netmask 255.255.255.0

I also manually configured /etc/rc.conf

sshd_enabled="YES"
usbd_enabled="YES"
ifconfig_aue0="inet 10.0.1.191 netmask 255.255.255.0"
defaultrouter="10.0.1.1"
...

but no luck, everytime the USB Linksys is plugged or I try to bring the 
interface 'up' the machine simply freezes.

I tried even using

#/stand/sysinstall

with DHCP, I get a message looking for DHCP server.

Is there a way in which I can trace what the problem is or to manually 
force a connection?

My setup:

[10.0.1.1] Apple Base Station - DHCP

on my apple here is my ifconfig output:

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
         inet6 fe80::211:24ff:fe90:6fff%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
         inet 10.0.1.199 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.1.255
         inet6 2002:522b:2a5c::211:24ff:fe90:6fff prefixlen 64 autoconf
         ether 00:11:24:90:6f:ff
         media: autoselect status: active
         supported media: autoselect

Any thoughts and ideas on this?

Cheers

--Norman

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