Network problems on installation with Super Stack II 3000

[Hara]

Hey all,

I know there are lots of networking problems on installation. But I think my problem revolves around the switch (so it deserves special attention ). So I'm wondering if anyone is in a setup similar to mine.

Ok. Heres my situation. I'm in my college apartment on charter cable internet (gold). The cable modem connects to a supposedly business level switch with built in dhcp. (3com Super Stack II 3000 12 ports) The switch then connects to 3 laptops and 2 desktops. Everything has win xp. Mine also has some linux distros but I have never been able to get the network to work on linux (at least in my apartment). I think my problem has something to do with my switche's dhcp server, but I can't access it because it requires a null modem cable or some wierd vt100 terminal thingy.

Some things I know that might help solve problem.
-My ip (using ipconfig) is the same as the ip on the internet (found on webpage) so no NAT
-The dhcp server seems to give us different ips all the time. We used to all be able to share files on the windows shared folder. Now it doesn't work. (No clue how that happend) However, if I hardcode the ip's (so we are on the same local network), than it works, but than the internet is down.
-The dhcp server USUALLY (but not always ) gives us ip adds that match with the first two numbers
66.215.xxx.xxx
but than it randomly chooses the next too (or it seems like)
the gateways are the same first 3 numbers followed by a 1 on each comp (but not the same for everyone) and subnet mask is
255.255.255.0 (as it should be according to the installation guide)
-All of our DNS servers are the same (3 of them total)
-On XP, our WINS server is 127.0.0.1 (which is a loopback ip I believe)

I can't get my laptop to get recognized on the network when I'm using the live cd basic. (I've tried hardcoding and dhcp). Can't ping or anything. But it works fine under windows.

Any help is appreciated (I really want to install Gentoo )!
_________________
Hara

(Mandrake->Slackware->LFS(Never Finished)->Gentoo)

[dpi209]

Google a bit.
From what I can see the Switch is accessible both with a serial connection (either 9600 or 19200 Baud, 8N1, Xmodem, VT-100-Mode, of course per null modem) or - if enabled - per Web Interface / Telnet Interface.

[Hara]

Haven't back here in a while,

Anyways, Yes I've googled for quite a bit. I got the pdf file for the Super Stack II 3000. Thing is null modem connection is out of the question. I don't have access to any of that, and webinterface is not enabled by default.

I have tried Knoppix to see if their network protocols would work, but they don't either. The network card seems to be recognized with the e100 module. That should be all that is required.

Things I discovered though,
If i disable dhcp on start, and switch the modele from eepro100 to e100. Than make my /etc/resolv.conf the DNS servers that everyone else in my apartment have (I assume the DNS server must be on the switch), than the command

dhcpcd eth0

works, but I can't ping anything except my loop back ip.
_________________
Hara

(Mandrake->Slackware->LFS(Never Finished)->Gentoo)