[CentOS] eth1 - Centos 6.2 - changing names of network interfaces

Thu May 10 16:50:34 UTC 2012
Gregory P. Ennis <PoMec at PoMec.Net>

Everyone,

Can anyone refer me to a tutorial as to how to rename the network cards,
ie I have one that ended up being system-eth3, that I want to be
system-eth1?

I am setting up a new CentOS 6.2 system that I plan to use as a gateway
and e-mail server.  The original machine had only one nic card, and to
my surprise the vendor did not have a 1000/100/10 card that would fit in
the pci-e slot.  I ordered a pci-e network card, and while waiting for
it to arrive I purchased a Sabrent usb 1000/100/10 to finish my
development.  I was able to get CentOS 6.2 to recognize the usb ethernet
adapter which had been assigned system-eth1, but I could not get data to
go through it (in or out).

The pci-e network card came in, and after it was installed, and upon the
next boot it was assigned system-eth2.  I tried to delete the usb eth1
and reassign the pci-e to eth1, but have managed to really mess things
up.  I deleted references to eth1 and eth2 in :
 
/etc/sysconfig/networking
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts

hoping that the next boot would reassign the pci-e network card as eth1,
but now the system will not even recognize the new card.

Is there any way to reset the numbering sequences of network cards so
that I can have the the desired names.  I wish now I would have left it
alone, and just changed references to eth1 to eth2 in my iptables
firewall.  

Thanks much,

Greg Ennis