Internet Connection Problem

Hi,

We wiped our old Dell XPS m200s clean and re-installed Windows 98 SE today.
Now we cannot connect to the internet. The computer connects to a LAN via a
PCI NIC card.

Upstairs, we have an Actiontec DSL router that is connected to a switch. The
switch is connected to two computers upstairs and, through a cable, to a
switch downstairs. The computer in question is connected to the downstairs
switch as is another downstairs computer. The 'other downstairs computer'
runs Win2K and can connect to the internet just fine.

By fiddling with the Internet Explorer settings, my husband was able to get
connected for just one IE session but then it went dead. He used it to
download and install AVG Anti-Virus.

In trying to get the thing to work, I have changed all the TCP-IP settings
to just about every possible combination of settings. I have unhooked the
NIC card from the downstairs switch and connected it directly to the cable
coming from the upstairs switch (the one that is directly connected to the
DSL router) and that changed nothing.

Of the 3 computers that can now access the internet, 2 run Win2K and their
DNS settings call for obtaining a server automatically. The other one runs
WinXP Pro and specifies IP address of the DNS server.

Thanks for any ideas.

Puangpen