Force netwotk IP address

Having just rebuilt a mini-itx PC using a 1.6G Gigabyte motherboard, I find either XP Pro or the Realtek network driver generally incapable of sustaining the LAN IP address for more than one in ten sessions, result: no network and a message on searching that the driver is "looking for an IP address" which it never finds.
I've forced it to what it should be for a home network but will it now remember this and why wasn't it able to find an address easily like all the other network devices I've used in the past?

If by "forcing it" you mean you set the IP manually, it will stay.

Sometimes NICs get all goofy trying to negotiate speed and such automatically.

So turning off the "auto" settings may help. This is a wired NIC, right?

Normally your local network router is automatically set up to automatically issue each device that is connected to it a local IP address via DHCP. What are you using for a router and, is DHCP set up properly and, have you adjusted the settings on your machine so that it will act as a DHCP client and automatically grab an Ip addy from DHCP ?

In my home network here I have a Linux box set up as the LAN Router, server, etc. All my wired network machines are set up with static ip addresses. That includes desktops and workstations that are directly connected to the hard wired network. However, anything additional that is connected wirelessly to the local network gets assigned an IP via DHCP. That includes laptops, portables, my niece's iPods, etc.

Yes, it's a wired network and the router is a "BT Voyager 205" using a Conexant Viking IC. I have all the info for the router.
The router has always worked OK before with 3 PCs on a home network, previously it supplemented the last figure in the IP address of individual PCs by one each time I rebuilt the PC. I have now set the address manually and it stays if I look at the NIC properties but the connection is still sporadic. It would be nice to know if the info is all in the registry somewhere.
I'm just trying automatic DHCP and DNS settings from the Control Panel administration setup, they were all set to manual, and so far it's OK but we won't know until it's been on a few times.
There is space for one PCI card in the PC case so in the worst case I could always abandon the on-board NIC.

After trying all sorts of settings I noted that the network software supplied with the motherboard, although having the correct filenames for the chip used, was dated 2006. I now have the 2009 files from Realtek's website and, so far, it's done the trick.

It'll teach me to look for the simplest solution.