Yes, I know there are howtos out there, but I'd rather work with people that will diagnose my problem.

I need to set up a DNS client, a NIS client, a DHCP client which is currently static, but will be dynamic in about a month, and a proxy client.

How do you do this?

Running Debian v2.2 and Mandrake 7.1 (two different CLIENT machines, servers I can't touch).

Thanks

Not sure what you mean by a DNS client... If you mean where do you specify your nameservers then the answer is put
in /etc/resolv.conf.
For the dhcp client do the following.
Red Hat:
1) Remove HOSTNAME and GATEWAY entries from etc/sysconfig/network (if they are there).
2) Set BOOTPROTO=dhcp in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.

Debian:
Last time I checked you didn't have to do anything because the dhcpcd package installs it's startup script as /etc/init.d/dhcpcd, and links this to the various /etc/rc?.d/ directories.

ok, thanks...

But the problem is still still in my debian installation; I cannot ping the DNS name of that computer, but I can ping its IP...

You can't ping the hostname of what computer? If you are talking about the DNS server that makes sense. You can't resolve names until you have DNS setup :)
Just put the word nameserver followed by the ip address of the nameserver in /etc/resolv.

oh, sheesh, in the MIDDLE of writing this responce I remembered that I should have restarted networking...OK!..

Now there's a DNS Server, NIS, how to set Static DHCP and change to Dynamic DHCP, and Proxy settings.

oops, wait, I still can't ping that computer's DNS Name from another computer...