usb debian boot

[Matt Funk <mafunk@nmsu.edu>]

Hi,
first of all i hope this is the right list to write to. If not i am sorry and 
maybe someone could point me to the right one?

i am trying for the first time to install a fresh debian stable from a usb 
stick. So i followed the instructions from:
http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/i386/ch04s04.html.en#id2534621
which is:
zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sda
where i got the image from:
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/

after that i copied the stable netinst image (.iso) onto the stick.

That all seems fine. However, when i boot from the stick dhcp starts but 
doesn't seem to get anything. After a while i get:
No boot file name received. 
and
operating system missing

So, i have no idea what i did wrong. Does anyone else?

thanks
mat