Unable to connect to netgear router and internet

Question

I've installed Solaris 10 1/06 (x86) on a system running an intel mainboard model D865PERL. This has a built in ethernet controller ( Intel 82547EI gigabit lan controller) and the mainboard appears on the bigadmin hcl as being supported. The OS recognizes the built-in NIC as e1000g0 but during initial installation it attempts to configure e1000g0 first thing then responds with "skipped interface e1000g0" then proceeds with the installation.
I choose Networked and run through the installation (or following a sys-unconfig) selecting to enable DHCP but it returns "Could not contact a dhcp server on the network interface e1000g0." I then have to set it up staticly to resume the configurator. I specify the e1000g0's ip address as 192.168.0.5 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. I choose not to enable IPv6 (ive tried it with IPv6 enabled) and no Kerberos. I attempt to specify DNS for name service and use my internet providers domain name (both the name and the resolved ip address associated with it) with the two DNS server ip addresses resolved by the WAN setup on the router (Netgear FR328S), selecting no search domains. But it is unable to locate my hostname on the provided DNS's i entered. dunno why it would say that, it really doesn't matter does it? Anyway, I specify no name service to proceed. i choose no to the question in regards to overriding the system's default NFS version 4 domain name to continue.
It knows it has a cable connection but I'm unable to see the router, even though ive specified 192.168.0.1 as the default route (ive also tried setting it to detect the default route on reboot but it fails). The router doesn't see the NIC as a connected device either (im setting here on another computer running xp :() Ive tried disabling the DHCP server feature on the router and I still cant see it. Ive tried setting the NIC's ip address and MAC address as reserved in the LAN setup on the router (this works for my winXP drive where I need a static IP address and also have access to the internet). I've tried leaving the reserved IP address assignment (attached to the NIC's mac address and host name that i specified) with DHCP enabled but I'm still unable to resolve an IP address from the dhcp server. I made sure the router had the latest firmware and went through the configuration with a fine toothed comb, so to speak. nothing seems to work.
I tried to connect directly to the internet device, removing the router and it still fails to resolve an ip address via dhcp. what am i missing here? Ive run through this multiple times now and im at a loss. Ive also referenced sun's System Administration Guide: IP Service to try to resolve the issue but im now all I'm doing is going in circles.
# ifconfig -a
lo0: flags=2001000849<UP, LOOPBACK, RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
e1000g0: flags=1000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2
inet 192.168.0.5 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.0.255
ether 00:13:20:47:6c:48
# netstat -rn
Routing Table: IPv4
Destination Gateway Flags Ref Use Interfacd
192.168.0.0 192.168.0.5 U 1 0 e1000g0
224.0.0.0 192.168.0.5 U 1 0 e1000g0
default 192.168.0.1 UG 1 0
127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 UH 4 85 lo0
# prtconf -pv
Node 0x000019
compatible: 'pci8086,1019.8086.301f.0'.....etc
model: 'Ethernet controller'
subsystem-vendor-id: 00008086
subsystem-id: 0000301f
vendor-id: 00008086
device-id: 00001019
name: 'pci8086,301f'

Answer 1

Couple of suggestions:
Work first on seeing the router, using a static IP and pings.
Forget about DNS, DHCP, etc for now. If you don't see the router, nothing is going to work.
You don't need to reboot or do sys-unconfig every time. Just change your settings using ifconfig and route add. Actually, you don't even need to set the route to be able to ping something inside your subnet.
By your output of ifconfig, it seems that the NIC plumbed correctly.
In the Solaris machine, try pinging your own IP address to make sure it responds and you don't have any issues with the NIC/driver.
Make sure the cable and port in your router work. If you can use them with Windows, you should be able to use them with Solaris. Unless...
Try using a crossover network cable to connect the Solaris computer to the router. This is personal experience: I had a Blade 100 that would not see my router. After a couple of hours of trying just about everything, I used a crossover cable and voila! it worked. Why? I don't know :) , but it worked...