getting network going after livecd install

[jarro_2783]

I installed gentoo with the livecd. But I had no network, and I couldn't work out how to get a network. So after hours of fiddling around I downloaded the kernel, burnt it onto a cd and compiled it on my gentoo install with networking. Fortunately this worked and it all seems to be going now.
However, this doesn't seem right, surely one shouldn't need to download the kernel from another computer and burn it onto a disk just to get networking going.
I also need to do all this again on another computer. Is there a better way to do things?

I'm thinking the minimal install cd would be better, but is there a way with the livecd?

Is it possible to make emerge download packages while it's compiling other ones?

[makton3g]

To my knowledge, all the Gentoo CDs have automatic networking in them. the only catch is that your computer would need a network card that is compatible with them. How new is your computer and the computer you are about to install next? This would effect the driver situation for your network cards.

[jarro_2783]

it's a compaq presario v4000, it uses the realtek rtl-8139 network drivers. What I thought was the most strange was that /lib/modules/kernel/drivers had no "net" folder. I tried all the stuff about networking in the documentation and nothing worked.
But as soon as I compiled the new kernel with the driver enabled it worked fine.

The other computer is an AM2, the network card is the card built into the gigabyte motherboards (it's less than a year old, can't tell you what it is because I'm not anywhere near it right now). It works fine on fedora. It's just that the livecd doesn't appear to actually have any networking drivers at all.