Hi I'm not sure I'm an expert here, but nobody else seems to have jumped in so let's try a blind-leading-blind approach :-)
2) How the hell do I set up my NIC for DSL?
From what I gather, I needed to remove the PnP settings on the card, which I did with a DOS utility supplied by D-Link. I then insmod'd the ne.o module for my card. I ran ifconfig eth0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and got no errors.
You do not say what is connected to what. Two main cases come to mind: This 486 is part of a personal network (192.16.n.m) in-house or it is directly connected to the DSL modem (then you would give it the IP number from the ISP). I realize this is not a very profound distinction, but bring it up as a trivial explanation of why you might not be able to ping anything through this NIC.
Then, things get wonky... I can't seem to get the gateway set up per the instructions I've been reading.
Again I would need more information. What gateway (again is the 486 talking to the DSL modem through a second box --- a gateway or is the 486 connected directly to the modem --- in which case the sense in which "gateway" is used is not clear.
I'd happily post the result of any diagnostics I could run, but since I'm not online I'd have to retype them from a hard copy or something. I'm not even sure which ones would help. Ifconfig? Route? Others?
As you may have gathered by now :-) , I'd be more interested in knowing what is connected to what first.
Is there a definitive methodology for getting a NIC setup? Or are things so different based on distro, kernel, NIC that it's useless to follow generic "instructions"?
My experience has been that it is, in fact, better to take the generic route; you become less dependent upon the vagaries of distro admin tools. When the latter work life is good; when not, then you have to fall back on basics. :-) Do you have a second box with an ethernet card in it? If so, you can break down the problem and exclude the DSL issue temporarily by connecting the two boxes (crossover cable if no hub, regular cables if you have a hub), assigning IP numbers in the 192.168.0.n range and seeing if they can ping each other. If they can, then you know the NIC card is up and running. (I guess this is a good example of a generic approach; indeed I was using it several times just last night helping a chap set up a local network.) One more thing comes to mind. When I was setting up my daughter's cable connection that particular cable modem required a crossover cable (!) between it and a router box I had. I discovered this by going to the cable modem manufacturer's site and reading manuals. This is a last resort I suspect. Lastly, my experience has been that the DSL/Cable people come in and want a Windows box to set things up and then, after they leave, you switch over to penguins. Am I correct in assuming that you did get something working originally over the DSL connection? doug