I have a similar issue, but I will be using a cable modem and will have to use DHCP. Perhaps it will work when the service is hooked up...but I cannot get the 3-Com NIC to work on the local side. The "activity" light is on, but there is no link on the hub. This was the case when I was running Mandrake 8 on the box as well.
At any rate, if there are any suggestions or a definite answer that it will work once the cable modem is attached (because of how the 2 NIC set-up works in Linux), it would be greatly appreciated. I am a newbie to Linux, so this may end up being a stupid newbie question.
Thanks,
Derek