the thing is how would it pick up my DHCP, with out a domain.. its rediculous cause i cant skip that one prompt. its a standard PCI eth card. No other distros ahd problems with it.. Slack is not working right with audio either. umm.
DHCP uses the MAC address for leases, NOT a domain. It can also be configured to use hostnames to assign the IP leases, such as MCHSI, but in situations like those, if the MAC address doesn't match the lease, you get a new IP, or you get nothing (depending on their TOS.)
Since you're already behind a NetGear router, the NetGear is receiving a DHCP lease from your provider - not your Linux box. Your router is assigning your local LAN IP addresses, regardless of what hostname.domain the box is configured for.
I have OptOnline cable, using a FreeBSD firewall/router, which is also a DHCP/DNS server for one of my internal subnets. I can plug ANY machine into that subnet, turn it on, configure it to use DHCP, and it'll get an address, regardless of what the hostname or domain that box is already configured for.