I'm sure I've just messed up the network configurations, but I need help. I haven't been able to hook up to the net from my laptop in over a month, so I'm a bit desperate.

The specs:
Laptop: latitude c600
Wireless: orinoco, I think silver
OS: RedHat 9.0 kernel 2.4

Description of the problem: It starts at boot- it takes over 5 min to Start sendmail and sm-client, whatever those are. Then, although the orinoco is activated, it doesn't show up on the network device control (is it supposed to?).
My wireless device configuration:
nickname: orinoco
"activate device when computer starts" and "allow all users to enable and disable the device" are both checked.
Hardware device: eth0
Hardware: eth1
"Bind to mac address" is checked, and the mac address is correct
Mode: ad-hoc
Network Name (SSID): it's currently Auto, since I plan to move around, but my home network has a specific name and such. Of course, the internet never come up when if was Specified, either.
Channel: 6
Transmit rate: auto
Key: blank

My network configuration:
DNS tab
Hostname: blahhhh
Primary DNS: 192.168.0.1 (my default gateway address)
Hosts tab
192.168.0.107 blahhhh

/sbin/ifconfig
eth1
Link encap: Ethernet HWaddr [got it]
inet addr: 192.168.0.107 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX Packets: 97 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns: 0 carrier:0
TX packets: 349 errors:10 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:11128(10.8 kb) TX bytes:46240(45.1 kb)
Interrupt:3 Base address:0x100

lo
Link encap: Local Loopback
inet addr: 127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets: perfect
TX packets: perfect
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:118446 (115.6 kb) TX bytes:118446 (115.6 kb)

Can someone please tell me where I screwed up? It'd mean soooo much.