Can't get PCI Network Card to Work - Knoppix 4.0.2/Redhat 7.2/Redhat 8.0

Hello,

I have an IBM Pentium III 663MHz PC (desktop) which I've been trying to
get a Linux Distro to work on with Networking successfully. I know it
can be done, because this box has been loaded with an early version of
Redhat and operated as a web server.

I wanted to start fresh so I wiped the system clean with Redhat 8 -
which was able to come up quickly and correctly detect the network card
that was installed. However it could not "initialize" the card. I knew
that Redhat 8 had some issues, so I installed Redhat 7.2. The results
were the same.

So know I've taken out the "big guns" - as it seems that Knoppix (4.0.2
in my case) will work with just about everything. But the results,
sadly, are not much different.

PCI is my only choice as the IBM only has PCI slots. I have two NICs
that I've tried - and the results are pretty much the same:

Card #1: This was the card that has been in there when the box was a
web server -
3Com 10/100 TX Fast Etherlink XL PCI 2 - 3c905B-TX NM

All three distros are able to probe the card correctly and select (what
I would guess to be) the correct driver. I've tried toassign an IP
through DHCP and also by assigning it a static IP - neither case
worked.


Card #2: (Test individually - not at the same time as card #1) -
D-Link DFE-530TX REV-A1

All three distros were also able to select the correct driver for this
card. I tried both DHCP and static IP. When I assigned the DLink an IP,
and tried to ping my router, I could see the transmit light flash on
each "ping".

In both cases when the I assigned the IP, ping reported that the
network was un-reachable. When I tried to configure them for DHCP they
would time-out.

The router/DHCP server that I'm using is a Linksys Etherfast cable/dsl
router - which works great as I'm going through it now to post this
message.

While I wait back for some suggestions on how to get either one of
these cards to work I am installing Win98 just to veryify that the NICs
still work. (There is something wrong with the fact that a win98 box
would be able to network more easily than a linux box)

Thanks!
CF