ping: unknown host error when trying to connect 32 bit SME Server 8.1 to the internet

I'm new when it comes to servers.
I already have some Linux CLI experience, I have been using Linux on my laptop (so desktop distro) for about a year now. (or 11 months and a half, I don't remember it anymore. )

I'm trying to setup a dedicated server.
The purpose of the server is to set it up to act as a Minecraft server.
The distro I'm running is called "SME Server" with Linux kernel: "2.6.18-371.4.1.el5" and it's a 32 bit version OS.

SME Server is a distro based upon CentOS so it uses yum and RPM packages.
The primary reason I use this distro is that I had a lot of problems with my hardware, I couldn't get it solved, maybe I could but I just got along with the first distro that would actually boot up and do something.
Some distros showed a desktop and a mouse pointer but I couldn't do anything because my peripherals (mouse and keyboard) fell out after BIOS.
But in the end I do not need a desktop for my server anyway so I hope that this distro can serve my purpose.
Not what its name suggests (Small and Medium Enterprise Server) but it's still Linux and it's the only thing I can use...

The problem I'm having
-And I guess I will encounter a lot more because I'm a noob. This is the first time I'm setting up a server.-
is that when I try to ping to test my internet connection I get this error:

ping: unknown host and then the URL I'm trying to ping to

Sometimes when I have fiddled with the network addresses I get it working but when I shut it down I already kind of forgot how I got it working in the first place.
(I'm not planning to have it on all the time anyway to save on electricity of course.)

I have roamed google searching for clear answers and it usually seems to go somewhere to the

resolv.conf file

that I have to edit but to be honest,
I only know like 50% of what I'm doing.

It got so far that the internet connection was lost on some devices

-not on my laptop but on another (Windows, not mine) PC and on mobile devices- I solved it by turning the router off and back on.

I'm guessing it all has to do something with my netmask (192.168.1.1) but like I said I'm a noob when it comes to this part of computing and I need some guidance so I can get further to downloading the things I need to setup my Minecraft server which hopefully will give less problems because I have a lot of tests for school these days and my exams are on the way and I was wishing to have it setup before them.

my computer specifications
- processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
- graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 3450
- RAM: 3GB DDR2
- hard disk: 320 GB HDD

It is an Acer Aspire M3641 desktop about 6+ years old.

what is the ping command exactly you executed?

I used

ping gnu.org

or google.com, something like that.

Also I tried with 'sudo' and as root but it gives me the same message.

what will nslookup say (instead of ping)?

I get this when doing nslookup google.com or somehting else like linuxquestions.org

;; connection timed out; trying next origin
;; connection timed out ; no servers could be reached

so that is your problem, no servers could be reached. Either you have no network at all or not configured properly.
try for example ping 65.55.57.27 or ping 208.118.235.148

I get:

connect: Network is unreachable

.

what will ifconfig -a say? (as root)

It says:

bond0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr      00:00:00:00:00:00
          BROADCAST MASTER MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0      carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:92:96:61:D7
          inet addr:192.168.29.1  Bcast:192.168.26.255       Mask:255.255.255.0
          RX packets:12018 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0      frame:0
          TX packets:1083 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0      carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1881087 (1.7 MiB)  TX bytes:99369 (97.0 KiB)
          Interrupt:66 Base adress:0x6000

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:2887 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0      frame:0
          TX packets:2887 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0      carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:1993780 (189.2 KiB)  TX bytes:193780 (189.2 KiB)

looks like this configuration is not ok:
inet addr:192.168.29.1 Bcast:192.168.26.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
you need either use 26 or 29, but not both. I do not know which one is the correct

Somehow I managed to get them both to 29 but I'm still having problems.
I can still only ping to my own address.
Maybe this helps, this is what I have in my resolv.conf file right now:

search telenet.be
nameserver 195.130.130.1
nameserver 195.130.130.129

I honestly have no idea what DNS to use and what it all means,
these are DNS from my ISP but I also tried the one from google without succes.

yes, they are unavailable at this moment, therefore unusable. What will now ifconfig -a reply? and what will route say?

Ifconfig -a gives:

eth0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1D:92:96:61:D7
         inet addr:192.168.29.1  Bcast:192.168.29.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
         UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
         RX packets:199 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
         TX packets:160 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
         collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
         RX bytes:20236 (19.7 KiB)  TX bytes:10003 (17.6 KiB)
         Interrupt:66

And route gives:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination    Gateway    Genmask      Flags Metric  Ref    Use Iface
192.168.29.0    *       255.255.255.0     U     0    0       0  eth0

how did you configure that eth0? using dhcp or static address? I think you do not have default route, you need to configure it.