how to join a linux pc into Win network?

Second Question:
Also, i have this msg shown during the system bootup: "Bringing up interface eth0: 3c501 does not seem to be presentm delaying for initialization". When i key in this command "dmesg | grep etho", the result is below"
divert: not allocating divert_blk for non-ethernet device eth0
divert: no divert_blk to free,eth0 not ethernet

What is that mean? Is that mean the ethernet faulty? Btw, when i type ifconfig command , i can only get lo result but no eth0. Pls help, thanks!

to communicate with windows you will probably want to use samba.
install the clients on the linux ox and server on the network servers.

as for the ethernet config, do you have linux conf installed?
if yes you can use it to choose kernel module for the nic.
3com501 is the tulip module if I remember correctly.
when configuring, you have to chose if dhcp or static ip, depending on your network configuration.
if dhcp you will need dhcpd also.
if static you have to specify the ip number and domain data.

With regard to your second question, I had a similar problem. It seems 3c501.o is not the right driver module. I replaced it with 3c59x.o which seems to be the generic driver. That will get the nic running. You can do this by modifying /etc/modules.conf.
Good luck
Reza