I've set up a machine with Mandrake Linux and it still needs to be linked to my LAN. The documentation tells to open Mandrake Control Center but after giving the password for root for appropriate rights to enter it, it doesn't start, starting it with root acces doesn't work either, so I guess we'll have to do it the hard way.

my friend mentioned two commands to help me on the way that were unknown dhpcd -h eht0 and pup -i eth. Any other suggestions?

man ifconfig is your friend.
ifconfig is generally used to setup your eth interfaces.
first type only ifconfig to see what interfaces are up, and info about them.
Then issue something like:
ifconfig eth0 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx broadcast xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
and substitute correct values for x's
Then bring the interface up, ifconfig eth0 up
then try to ping it from that machine, ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and use the adress you gave above.
If that works, ping it from another machine in the LAN and it should work. Now you can setup all the services you want.
HTH
-NSKL