how to silence error output from NIC

[Mike Wright]

Hello, list users,

Running FC4.  Don't think this is specifically a Fedora issue but I know 
this is where the brains are ;)

I recently added some AirLink 10/100/1000 network cards with the RealTek 
8169 chips.  They appear to function well with the exception of one 
_very_ annoying trait.  If there is no carrier, i.e. no cable attached 
or the other end of the cable is down, they spew:

     ethX: r8169: PHY reset until link up".

This is not a problem in runlevel 5, but in lesser runlevels this is 
output directly to the console every few seconds, more or less making 
the console useless for a workspace.

I've tried redirecting output to /dev/null in /etc/modprobe.conf but 
that didn't do anything or I didn't do it correctly.

Does anybody know how to silence these beasts, or at least to direct 
their plaints to the bit bucket?

Thanks for any help!
Mike Wright :m)