first time kernel recomile - module questions

I'm in the midst of my first kernel recompile (2.4.26) and I'm having moderate success. I have the kernel successfully compiled and installed and even booting thanks to a great HOWTO at http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ild-HOWTO.html

I have hit one stumbling point so far (i'm sure there will be more to come) and this is my Netgear 802.11b wireless PCI Adapter (MA311). Going through xconfig I thought that I had selected everything necessary to get this thing to work (orinoco_pci, orinoco, and hermes modules) however the device cannot be activated once the system boots. All three modules are loaded, but my NIC still work work. I shouldn't say that it doesn't work at all, the GNOME wireless link monitor shows that the NIC is getting a signal, but I cannot activate the device. Could this be an iptables problem?? Any thoughts for a fix ???

Thanks in advance
- flip

what does "ifconfig eth0" output? (as root)

ifconfig eth0 on my rpm kernel and the kernel that I compiled from source are identical except for one line. The rpm kernel has a line "inet addr:192.168.0.3 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0" where the compiled kernel does not have this line at all. No IP address info makes me think that the iptables modules are either not loading or are not present but I'm not really sure. Ideas?

thanks again
- flip

It has nothing to do with iptables.. you can set the ip adress, gateway etc with the ifconfig command, type "man ifconfig" to find out how.