i have two systems both are connected by direct cable.
now how to set up a ip address and route for better home networking ?

I think mandrake has a tool called netconf (or maybe netconfig) or if you just want to set it as a one off:
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1

run netconfig & give whtever ip & gateway or necessary info to it.

& after that do restart network service for your changes to come into effect.

are you using a router? or two direct connections?

two direct connection there is no router.

I got a slighty different problem (apart from beeing stuck in a french city where every keyboard is mixed up so it takes me hours for typing...)... or rather two:

First of all, I'm a new linux user and not yet used to the system. A friend of mine istalled a current version of Debian on my laptop which now works fine, but won't connect to the wireless lan (PCMCIA Wireless Card: Netlink DWL G650+, seems to work properly) at the college campus. I got the WEP encryption key and and changed the settings (on KDE, I'm not yet into console using) as I thought it should work. Yet, I didn't find an option to receive the IP automatically from the host, which seems to be required. How can I tell my system to do so?

Second problem is rather unimportant.... I'd like to connect my desktop computer (Win XP, shame on me) with my Debian laptop via wireless and I habe no idea how to do so.

By the way:The friend who installed Debain is now about 500 km away and won't answer my mails... so I thought I'd drop by here and see if anybody can help me.

Thanks a lot in advance!

JK

you better to start a new thread for unified approach.
but okey.As for a fixed ip address that u have asked..jus u have to look for a script ..
[staff@localhost staff]$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=10.25.240.1
ONBOOT=yes
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no
WIRELESS_ENC_KEY=""
NEEDHOSTNAME=yes
[staff@localhost staff]$

this is my file.U just modify to ur settings.

Just to into the Mandrake Control Centre - its all in there in the GUI