I dimly remember having this problem as well: I found that 
hardcoding the IP address of the netbsd repository solved it. for 
whatever reason, DNS was not happy, but I only needed the one 
address anyway.

doc wrote:

> NetBSD Install Problem:  
> 
> The pcmcia nic 3Com 589c dongle lights up and appears to be 
> recognized but when NetBSD goes to access via the Internet 
> using the Verizon (Westell) ADSL box it fails with this error:
> 
> "There was a problem in setting up your network.  Either your
> gateway or nameserver was not reachable by a ping."
> 
> The ADSL box shows Power, Ready, Link, but no flickering of the
> Activity light when NetBSD is supposed to be trying to ping.
> 
> My IBM Thinkpad has two pcmcia ports and I have tried both of
> them, just in case.  They are ep0 and ep1.
> 
> The install stops at this point.
> 
> Thanks!  doc
> 
> 
> 
>