[ale] ethernet prob

[RHS Linux User]

Dear Sir  / Madame, 
I am a newbie at linux. I am using redhat 5.0 in a intel 486 ,66 compaq
machine with 32 mb ram and around 2.0 quantam fireball harddrive . 
Before I had installed redhat 4.2 and used it's x-windows i.e. free x to
configure my ethernet card i.e. readylink  which is non plug and play with
a irq =3 and io=300h or 300  i.e ne.o or ne2000 compatible .
I always used control panel and configure my ethernet connection through
x-windows Successfully . 
But now I have redhat 5.0 . I used to its free x-windows control panel to
configure my ethernet connection , in the same way as Redhat  4.2  but is
always shows a boot message as 
"delay in initilizing eth0'
and does not initilize my ethernet card even though , it is still in it's
old configuration & I have not changed anything . 
It doesnot seem to retain whatever configuration I put through Free X . 
I looked up the Ethernet Howto but still could not figure out  to solve
this prob .
This is what I did in command mode. 
insmode eth0 io=0X300 irq=3
plus other options written on the HOWTO but still it doesnot seem to load. 
How do I load a card that ie ne.o dependent with irq=3 and io=0x300
(actuall 300h), non pnp card from a command line interface (bash prompt)
rather than a Xwindows interface . 
Please do help me . I will be grateful for your help .
Thanks in advance .