Hi, the proxy of my job block all trafic generated by apt-get, so I can't get to the repos and update my system, the way I do upgrades is to seek the packages at packages.debian.org and then download them from the repos, doing this way sometimes is harder because of problem dependences but after fix them all works.

But at his moment I need to update my kernel (currently 2.6.17), my questions are:

1. is there another way to do the process automatically but without use apt-get? (I've tried several ways of configure it, with the proxy information, user, password and nothing)

2. If I choose to download the packages and install them with dpkg, is there a risk to crash my all system and even get a kernel panic?

3. if something goes wrong, like problem dependences for example, will I be able to work at least in console mode?

4. what are the packages necessary to update my kernel, at least tell me the most important

regards

if you leave your old kernel available in your boot manager, you should be able to boot it also, no matter how you mess up a new kernel.

Sounds painful, have you played around with /etc/apt/sources.list?
Try ftp and http and regional servers.
Failing that, shout your network admin a beer or three...

If for some reason you do need to build your own kernel, have a look at make-kpkg.
There's heaps of debian howto's out there:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...+howto&spell=1
but I can't vouch for any of them personally, it's been a long while since i had to build a kernel.

This should help you if you decide you need/want to compile a new kernel. Ignore the stuff about installing patches, and just download the kernel you want from kernel.org. The current kernel is 2.6.27.6, and I'm running from it. Click on the "F" on the line saying latest stable kernel or something like that. That will download the full kernel. Pay special attention to the config file. You should do both of the following steps within the directory of the unzipped kernel, no matter what the instructions say.
Instructions on compiling:
http://howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_debian_etch

Location of linux kernels:
http://www.kernel.org