So far your IPCop router has been working flawlessly, and all of a sudden you suffer probably the worst case scenario for a router - a port dies. Luckily, since IPCop is running off of a beige box the port is nothing more than a standard network card and can be replaced. How do you activate it once you've swapped them out? Read on.
Depending on the NIC, you may or may not need to be at the console for the machine. For example, if your GREEN network card died, you will need to plug in a monitor and keyboard into your IPCop box to run the following commands. For other interfaces, SSH should be fine.
What to do?
SSH into the box
Run /usr/local/sbin/setup
Select 'Networking'
Select 'Drivers and Card Assignments'
Select 'OK' to the question of 'Do you want to change these settings?'
It should find the new card, assign it to the empty color, and load the modules
Select 'Done', and then 'Quit'
Restart the IPCop box
When the router comes back up, the new card should be operational.