Problem obtaining network lease automatically

GPE 3.5.4.1.release C860 (boxer)

Hey all. I've noticed that I always have to run 'udhcpc -n' to obtain
a network lease when using either my wifi, nic or modem card. Is there
a reason that the network settings (ifup?) doesn't do that
auto-magically? Here's my eth0 section out of my
/etc/network/interfaces:

    iface eth0 inet static
        wireless_mode xxxxxxx
        wireless_essid xxxxxxx
        wireless_key xxxxxxxxxxx
        wireless_channel x
        gateway 10.0.0.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        address 10.0.0.199

Another annoying thing about this is that initially ifconfig reports
my address as requested (10.0.0.199), but after I run udhcpc it gets
reassigned my the gateway (currently 10.0.0.187).

I never had to do this in 3.5.4.1.rc4. What am I missing?  thks

-- 
GROG! \|/          Life is like an analogy.
thks  @ @          
--oOO-(_)-OOo--    

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security?
Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier
Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642