According to figure G on this page, you don't need DHCP/BOOTP as long as you know how your local network is setup.
Yes, you are free to use manual settings.
BOOTP/DHCP is just the usual way to setup things, it's much simpler and less error-prone.
as long as you know how your local network is setup.
And what is my local network setup inside DOSBox? That's the information I am looking for.
VMware has also a emulated network card, but there it's easy, just load the packet driver and everything is configured thought DHCP. But the advice to switch to VMware is bad, I come from VMware and switch to DOSBox already because DOSBox has better compatibility for graphic and sound.
Bare with me, I have no clue how to go online inside DOSBox. I just need some documentation, a short tutorial for going online with any TCP/IP application, with that help it should be possible to adapt this for any other.