rr setup problems

[Charles Zachary Lockhart]

Hiya,  I recently (like a week or so ago) installed RH7.1 on my machine and
am having a really wonderful time trying to setup for roadrunner.  I used
the network config tool to setup eth0, and I think I did it right (it wasn't
real complicated), but on boot I keep getting eth0 failed, and no
connectivity.  I'm guessing that the ethernet card isn't setup right/at all
(I guess I've be spoiled/soiled by windows).  I'm using the 3Com Etherlink
XL TPO ethernet card that Oceanic installed.  I went to 3Com's site and
downloaded the driver stuff that I needed, but of course it didn't run:
it's wanting a 2.2x kernel, rh7.1 is using a 2.4x kernel.  It just dies,
with it's last words being that I'm not running the right kernel for it, and
that I need to build the module myself.  So, I tried building the module
myself (they provide you with a couple of scripts with everything in it),
and of course that failed.  Interestingly enough, one of the errors it
sounded off about was in spinlock.h, which I thought would have pertained to
an SMP system (mine is a single up system, which is what I was compiling
for), but I get a bunch of other errors/warnings as well.

So can somebody throw me a bone here?

Thanks for your time,

-Charles