Can't talk to network

["Rod Price" <Rod.Price@AUC.TRW.Com>]

Forgive me; I'm a newbie at this.  With luck, I've found the
right list for this question.

I've just installed Debian potato from floppies successfully,
except...  I can't talk to the network to download any packages.
Here's my configuration:

Dell Latitude CPi D300XT
128 MB memory
10 GB hard drive
3Com fast Ethernet card 3CCFE575BT (on the list of working hardware)

I can ping 127.0.0.1, but pings to anything outside the laptop
itself are unsuccessful.  I've checked to see that
/etc/pcmcia/network.opts
has the right information in it; it does.  I'm stumped.  Where do
I go from here?

Thanks,

-Rod Price