First things first.
The Powerbook you have is often known as a 'Wallstreet'. There are actually two different versions of the 233MHz.
First thing you can try is a PRAM reset. The PRAM battery is basically the clock battery, but also holds some of your OS settings. Since your clock is all over the place it could be something to do with PRAM, though if the battery needs replacing it usually causes the date and time to reset every time you reboot.
If that doesn't help get booted, you can try the reset button. This resets the power management unit. I believe its on the back with the ports, and if memory serves you usually depress it for a few seconds before releasing (could be as many as 30 secs, I don't own a Wallstreet). Its one of those tiny buttons you have to push with a paperclip or a ballpoint pen etc.
Not sure why the networking would be affected. Hopefully not a bad port.
If you have your system CD, you can try booting from that. put it in the drive and hold the 'c' key during startup (just until you know its booting).
Once booted, look for 'Disk First Aid', in a Utilities folder if I recall.
Running this might help your machine back to health. If not, you can try installing a 'clean' OS (it may be called 'Archive & Install' or something else, you have to click the options button in the installer) (if you can make space). This will put a new System Folder next to your old one, leaving you to scavenge any settings or things you may require from the old one.
You should think about trying a newer OS if you get it working, The Wallstreet will run anything up to 10.2.8. You have to get a bit more technical if you want to put 10.3.x on there. If you want to get one fairly cheap, try OWC:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/software/
For 10.3:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/osx-center/
Even if you prefer to use OS 8 or 9 for general use (they will likely feel snappier than OS X), you should at least have look at OS X at some point. Its a marvelous OS. And your Wallstreet, while it won't do it justice, will give you a good idea of what its like.
Before you try any of the above fixes, you should check the apple discussions:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...U7n.1@.ee6ba44
There are some knowledgeable people there who will be able to tell you lots more about your machine, give you better instructions for the techniques described above, and suggest a bunch more troubleshooting techniques as well.
Hope this helps.
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