networking: fixed ip address and dhcp

["John O Laoi" <brianolaoi@gmail.com>]

I have a dell laptop on which I have just performed a basic install of
etch using netinstall, on which I installed xfce.
(I did have gnome, but I needed to repartition, so i decided to try xfce.)

The problem is now with my networking
At home, I use dhcp  - no problem.
When I bring the laptop to work, I use fixed ip addressing.

I used to have a file which contained

ifconfig eth1 XXX.YYY.ZZZ.WWW  netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw  XXX.YYY.ZZZ.1
cat "seach <domain>"   >> /etc/resolv.conf
cat "nameserver  AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD"  >> resolv.conf

which I would simply sudo when I get to work and I got my static ip
address networking to work.

This does not work now  - I can't ping out.
When I run ifconfig at the command line, it gives me the correct ip
address, and tells me that it is up.

The /etc/network/interfaces file is

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
allow-hotplug eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp


I did a very basic install – maybe something is missing.
any ideas?
John