Unable to connect to network after installation

Thank you for taking the time to consider my question.

I have installed FreeBSD 5.1 but I am having trouble connecting to the network. I notice that on the switch that the machine is connected as the machine begins to boot, but somewhere along the way the NIC stops talking to the network and the switch indicates no connectivity.

Here is some environment and history:

1 - Because I could not get access to the CDRom during installation, I used the method of booting from a floppy and then FTP'ing from an installation site. In order to get the NIC to properly connect during this process I had to enter the following during boot loading:

set hint.xl.4.irq=11
set hint.xl.4.port=0x6000

2 - The machine is on a LAN that uses a LINKSYS router that provides DHCP but I did not use DHCP during installation and I did not attempt to install DHCP client. Since I was successful reaching the internet during installation, I wonder how installing DHCP client will help.

3 - Here is the output from dmesg:
Copyright (c) 1992-2003 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE #0: Thu Jun 5 02:55:42 GMT 2003
root@wv1u.btc.adaptec.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
Preloaded elf kernel "/boot/kernel/kernel" at 0xc0689000.
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz
Timecounter "TSC" frequency 200455349 Hz
CPU: Pentium/P54C (200.46-MHz 586-class CPU)
Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x52c Stepping = 12
Features=0x1bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8>
real memory = 33554432 (32 MB)
avail memory = 25726976 (24 MB)
Intel Pentium detected, installing workaround for F00F bug
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
pcibios: BIOS version 2.10
pcib0: <Host to PCI bridge> at pcibus 0 on motherboard
pci0: <PCI bus> on pcib0
isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <Intel PIIX3 WDMA2 controller> port 0xf000-0xf00f at device 7.1 on pci0
ata0: at 0x1f0 irq 14 on atapci0
ata1: at 0x170 irq 15 on atapci0
xl0: <3Com 3cSOHO100-TX OfficeConnect> port 0x6000-0x607f mem 0xe4000000-0xe400007f irq 11 at device 9.0 on pci0
xl0: Ethernet address: 00:50:da:17:f2:87
miibus0: <MII bus> on xl0
xlphy0: <3Com internal media interface> on miibus0
xlphy0:
pci0: <display, VGA> at device 10.0 (no driver attached)
orm0: <Option ROM> at iomem 0xc0000-0xc7fff on isa0
pmtimer0 on isa0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x64,0x60 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> flags 0x1 irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model IntelliMouse, device ID 3
fdc0: <Enhanced floppy controller (i82077, NE72065 or clone)> at port 0x3f7,0x3f0-0x3f5 irq 6 drq 2 on isa0
fdc0: FIFO enabled, 8 bytes threshold
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
ppc0: Generic chipset (NIBBLE-only) in COMPATIBLE mode
ppbus0: <Parallel port bus> on ppc0
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
sio0 at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
sio0: type 16550A
sio1 at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
sio1: type 16550A
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
ata2: <Generic ESDI/IDE/ATA controller> at port 0x36e-0x36f,0x168-0x16f irq 10 on isa0
unknown: <PNP0303> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0c01> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0f13> can't assign resources (irq)
unknown: <PNP0501> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0700> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0400> can't assign resources (port)
unknown: <PNP0501> can't assign resources (irq)
Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
ad0: 2006MB <SAMSUNG WNR-32100A (2.1GB)> [4077/16/63] at ata0-master WDMA2
acd0: CDROM <CD-532E> at ata1-master PIO3
Mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
cd9660: RockRidge Extension

4 - Here is the output from pciconf:

hostb0@pci0:0:0: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x12508086 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '82439HX System Controller (TXC)'
class = bridge
subclass = HOST-PCI
isab0@pci0:7:0: class=0x060100 card=0x00000000 chip=0x70008086 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '82371SB PIIX3 PCI-to-ISA Bridge (Triton II)'
class = bridge
subclass = PCI-ISA
atapci0@pci0:7:1: class=0x010180 card=0x00000000 chip=0x70108086 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = '82371SB PIIX3 IDE Interface (Triton II)'
class = mass storage
subclass = ATA
xl0@pci0:9:0: class=0x020000 card=0x764610b7 chip=0x764610b7 rev=0x30 hdr=0x00
vendor = '3COM Corp, Networking Division'
device = '3CSOHO100-TX Hurricane'
class = network
subclass = ethernet
none0@pci0:10:0: class=0x030000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x88115333 rev=0x54 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'S3 Incorporated'
device = '86C732 Trio32, 86C764 Trio64, 86C765 Trio64V+ Rev 01'
class = display
subclass = VGA

5 - Finally, here is the output from ifconfig:

xl0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
inet 192.168.1.111 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
inet6 fe80::250:daff:fe17:f287%xl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
ether 00:50:da:17:f2:87
media: Ethernet 100baseTX <hw-loopback> (100baseTX <full-duplex,hw-loopback>)
status: active
lp0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000

I will continue to research what I must do, but I am beginning to run out of ideas. Here's hoping that it is something obvious I am missing.

Thanks for your time.

Jim

Have you tried typing this:
set hint.xl.4.irq=11
set hint.xl.4.port=0x6000

when your machine is booting up from the hard disk as well. If this fixes your problem, then you can make it permanent by editing /boot/loader.conf and adding those two lines there.

Thank you very much for your suggestion. No, when booting from the harddrive, entering the hints manually does not fix the problem. However, desparate as I am, I went ahead and entered them into /boot/loader.conf anyway. Of course, I had no luck with that! Do you suppose it is a conflict with other PNP or with how the OS and the BIOS are interacting? Can you suggest a next step?

Thanks again for the reply. It was a psychological boost.

Jim