workstation can't connect to server

I'm wondering if anyone has seen this issue..

I'm running ZFD 7.1 + HP5 on NW6.5 + SP6.
My workstation boards have the Reaktek 8110SC NIC.
After more than a little effort, I've gotten to the point that
I can get the NIC driver loaded (r1000.ko), get an address
from DHCP, and ping everything locally..

When I start an imaging session, the process fails, indicating
"can't connect to the server".. If I look at the Image Safe Data,
the IP is 0.0.0.0, mask is 0.0.0.0, gateway is 0.0.0.0...

It appears to me that the driver and the img engine aren't
communicating about the IP address..

I have two other workstation configurations with different NICs
working correctly, and the ISD is consistent with the "ifconfig"
results...

Any ideas??

Thanks in advance... B.Warren