EEK! sudden network failure!

[PracticeSafeHex]

I have a Dell Inspirion 3500 Laptop with Mandrake 7.0 which is networked to a WinXP server via a 3com Megahertz LAN card. i had internet on the computer before when it was a dual boot with Mandrake and Win98 but upon seeing that i had internet and could function without Windows i reinstalled Mandrake and completely wiped out my Fat32 partition. after i had mandrake set up i reistalled my network tools (name ISC's DHCP software.). i ran dhclient in order to get assigned an IP as i did before in the dual boot and it looked to work. when netscape did not run i tried it again and the thing said "no active leases (on the IP adress) in database----sleeping". needless to say internet didn't work at all after this. i installed all the stock mandrake DHCP rpm's and tried again but to no avail. i tried setting my DNS gateway, which didn't work before, and it was no different this time. alas, i am at a total loss as to what i might be doing wrong, any help would be GREATLY apreciated.

[jasonlambert]

do you have a DHCP Server on your local network?

[sunnylearns]

Hey HEX,

Try this out:

1. Uninstall all the DHCP CRAP from your Mandrake.

2. Set the IPs of your Windows and Linux Boxes Manually.

Windows:
IP: 192.168.1.1
Netmask: 255.255.255.0

Linux:
IP: 192.168.1.2
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1

3. Your Boxes SHOULD be in Network NOW.

[PracticeSafeHex]

i tried setting IP's manually when i had the fat32 partition but the server wouldn't recognize the box unless it got the adress from DHCP. and yes there is DHCP on the network.