eth0 won't activate

[joe]

Just reinstalled rh6.2 on a pc where everything used to work fine
(except for
the hard drive going out) In configuring for the net, the eth0 hangs
then
fails when trying to activate .  In the past when this would happen
modprobe 3c509 would work, but now I get:
    init_module: Device busy
    insmod failed                            ------ the actual message
is a little more


Is there any recommended lesser expensive books that clearly explain
dhcp networking type stuff?  Or an expensive book might be ok too.

Thanks much