don't know router

[debian <debian@benburb.demon.co.uk>]

Sarge and:

Linux knoppix 2.6.15-1-686 #2 Mon Mar 6 15:27:08 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

The college I work in is strictly M$ only.

When I bring in my notebook (as above) and fire it up I get allocated
an ip address of 172.16.2.8, by a dhcp server someplace 192.168.2.23.
(I don't have the exact boot message to hand.)

I can ping 172.16.2.* addresses and 192.168.2.* addresses.  But I
cannot access the internet.

As I understand it, I need the ip address of a router and then specify
that as a default gateway.  But the technicians cannot or will not
give let me have the information.

Is there anything I can do, other than getting another job ?

Thanks.

Joe Mc Cool