Laptops :: NIC driver for Dell XPi port replicator?

I could use some help from the experts (I'm not one) ... Got an old Dell Latitude XPi P133ST laptop, with the Dell "advanced port replicator" that includes a 3Com 3C913B network controller. On autodect, DSL finds and configures eth0 (using the 3com 3c509 driver, which apparently is the right driver for this chip?), but when up and running I've got no DHCP connection to my router. So I tried this:

sudo su
ifdown -a
modprobe 3c509 irq=10 io=300h
ifup -a
pump -i eth0

... which fails. Perhaps the 3c509 driver is not right after all? Any recommendations? Any chance that I could make this work with ndiswrapper (about which I know practically nothing yet)?

Okay, got it ... I had to download the utilities from 3com.com, run 3c5x9cfg.exe (in DOS mode) and use it to disable Plug 'n' Play mode on the NIC. Then when I get back in DSL and do modprobe, pump, it works!

BTW, the utility is on the 3com "Etherdisk II" from
http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/nic/3c509/3c5096.1.htm

original here.