no network access to or from server

["Brian Street" <bstreet@clearsightnet.com>]

Hello everyone,

I'm faced with an issue that I don't understand; I hope someone can help me.

I have a dedicated server at 1and1.com that will be our company's new web
and mail server running Debian 3.1.

I have installed Postfix, Dovecot, and Apache2 to name a few, and everything
was working as expected and so I decided to try to install Shorewall and was
unable to connect to the box via the internet (at least I still have console
access) after following a how-to for a stand-alone firewall.

So, I decided I would remove the package and try something else instead.

Now, when I reboot the server I am unable to connect to the server from the
internet, or to the internet from the server. My eth0 interface does not get
configured with it's IP address (82.165.180.103).

I tried rebooting, and restarting /etc/init.d/networking to no avail.

What the heck went wrong that I can't bring up my interface now?

/etc/networks/interfaces file:

auto lo eth0
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

DHCP? Wtf? On a dedicated server? Shouldn't it be a static IP address?

1and1 Support said, yes, I had a static IP address. But that's as far as
they will help since I have a dedicated server. They said I am configuring
my interface wrong and they won't help, but that it works just fine when set
to dhcp....except in this case.

I tried to change the last line to the following (information provided by
1and1 tech support):

Iface eth0 inet static
	address 82.165.180.103
	netmask 255.255.255.255
	gateway 10.255.255.1

I presume I should also add:
	network 82.165.180.103
	broadcast 82.165.180.103

but they haven't volunteered that information when asked.

I must be overlooking something, but I can't figure out what it is.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Brian.