3com 574 NIC PCMCIA and WIN2k

I have one of the aforementioned cards in my inspiron 7000, on which i’m running w2k. I have netbui and tcpip loaded. I can browse my internal network through netbui, but cant get outside, nor am i receiving an IP address from my freesco router. I know this port CAN receive an IP as my toshiba w/ win/me and my vidserver w/ XP all get ip’s if i release it goes to all 0’s if i dhcp it comes up w/ the 169.x.x.x if i assign a static IP it will maintain that ip but STILL not allow internet browsing.to test the static ip i used VNC to view the laptop. i have stripped out the drivers for the nic and the protocols to no avail. the NIC drivers (per 3com) are the native win2k drivers HELP!