> > For some reason, the installation program is not
> > able to ifconfig the network interface (3Com905C)
> > (I am able to install Debian with the appropriate
> > 3C9xxx drivers)
>
> Strange. What error exactly do you get? Does it find the
> card at all?

The installation program fails silently (tells me the nameserver
is not accessible by ping).  If I break out of the installation
program, run ifconfig -a, the interface is configured correctly,
but I cannot ping my gateway or nameserver.  I originally thought
this was an auto-negotiation issue, but I've tried all possible
combinations of setting the media type via ifconfig and setting
the switch port itself.  No go.  So I've eliminated media type
as the problem ;-D

> The general opinion was that very few people still used them,
> and that they are easy to create if needed, so they're no
> longer there.

Oh.  How does one create them?  Must be related to "split".
I'll take a look at man split and see if I can figure this out.

Is there a specific order/size/configuration to the split command
to get what I need?

Thanks much!

Nancy