network problems

hello,
i have some strange network problems:

ifconfig eth0 $ip broadcast $bc netmask 255.255.255.0
brings up eth0, but pinging $gw says
"64 bytes from $ip" instead of "64 bytes from $gw".
this isn't happening when pinging other machines from
the network.

route add -net default gw $gw netmask 0.0.0.0 metric 1
says "SIOCADDRT: network is unreachable"

both commands are working in debian woody.

i've installed gentoo using the stage3-i686 tarball
(celeron processor).  i've tried gentoo-2.4.19,
vanilla-2.4.19 and vanilla-2.4.18 kernels with
CONFIG_UNIX and CONFIG_INET options.

any ideas?

tia,

	lucian