3c905b-tx help needed

[vortex@draper.net]

Hi, I am struggling with a 3C905B-TX nic and am hoping that the
collective wisdom on this list can lead me to a solution.  The hardware
configuration works ok under Windows98.

The environment 
---------------
Recently manufactured Dell XPS-R400 400mhz Pentium II
Phoenix BIOS 4.0 Release 6.0, Dell Version A03
RedHat Linux 5.1, kernel 2.0.34
Driver 3c59x.c v0.99F 8/7/98
10mbs Lan, Dayna MiniHub-5
		 
The problem
-----------
[root@kasandral /root]#insmod 3c59x debug=3
3c59x.c:v0.99F 8/7/89 Donald Becker http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/vortext.html
loading device 'eth0'...

Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel: 3c59x.c:v0.99F 8/7/98 Donald Becker http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/vortext.html
Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel:   The PCI BIOS has not been enabled for this device!  Updating PCI command 0000->0005.
Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel: loading device 'eth0'...
Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel: eth0: 3Com 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at 0x1000, 00:10:4b:67:9e:8a, IRQ 11
Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel:   8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/Autonegotiate interface.
Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel:   MII transceiver found at address 24, status 782d.
Aug 27 05:22:37 kasandral kernel:   Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receivers.

[root@kasandral /root]#ifconfig eth0 206.96.231.18
[root@kasandral /root]#ifconfig
eth0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:10:4B:67:9E:8A
           inet addr:206.96.231.18  Bcast:206.96.231.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0
           Interrupt:11 Base address:0x1000

[root@kasandral /root]#ping 206.96.231.18
PING 206.96.231.18 (206.96.231.18): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
...

[root@kasandral /root]#route add 206.96.231.18 eth0
[root@kasandral /root]#route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway	    Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
kasandral.drape	*	    255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 eth0

[root@kasandral /root]#ping 206.96.231.18
PING 206.96.231.18 (206.96.231.18): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: wrote 206.96.231.18 64 chars, ret=-1
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: wrote 206.96.231.18 64 chars, ret=-1
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: wrote 206.96.231.18 64 chars, ret=-1

--- 206.96.231.18 ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

TIA