first time networking- taking a beating from the RH4

Hi Folks-
I have a RH4 on a network. It is taking the IP from the router using dhcp regardless of Hognet or fixturenet. I've set the subnet to 255.255.0.0.
I cannot get the RH4 to recognize the 3 axons or the CMA or for it to be recognized. I have read some of the previous post and tutorials but I can seem to get beyond this point.
One thing I have noticed is the server, DP8000 and console stay at a different ip (127. ***.***.*) I do not know if that is relevant in a closed network.
My fear is that I am missing something small, but I wouldn't know the small from big