at the command line.......
# /sbin/ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.41 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255
that fixes the ip address, now route....

# /sbin/route add default gw 192.168.0.253

and now your dns..

edit /etc/resolv.conf should allready have some ip addresses but should look like this...

########
nameserver 196.25.255.34
nameserver 196.25.255.3
########

should be able to
# ping yahoo.com

if not try to ping your gateway

# ping 192.168.0.253
if that works you need to talk to your admin again

by the way i think those name server addresses are wrong.. you cannot use 255 as an address
its for broadcast only...
there are gui's for this but the shell will sometimes tell you more.
hope it helps.