Networking :: Ethernet connection dies when I try and SSH

I've got DSL up and running so that when it boots, the ethernet connection is activated, and the SSH server is running. When I ping from my windows machine, it works fine. When I try and use PuTTY to SSH, the connection instantly dies, however if I login on the DSL machine, restart the connection with ifup eth0, and logout, SSH works fine. Is there anyway I can fix this so that I can SSH on boot without having to even touch the DSL machine? Cheers.

Ok it turns out its not just SSH, its samba as well, trying to do anything but ping the connection seems to drop it.

So it turns out that even ping dies eventually...

original here.