WORKING: DE2-115 Simple Socket Server

Has anyone managed to get the SSS working on DE2-115 board? I'm using Quartus 16.1, I've read all the posts, I've used everyone's method to adapt the design to the DE2-115 board, watched youtube videos on what to change in the software... I get to the 'Created "simple socket server" task (Prio: 4)' in the Nios II Console window, but unable to ping or telnet. I've tried crossover cables, non-crossover cables, connecting directly to a pc, connecting to a network switch (which goes back to my router), manually setting the IP address, using DHCP (which doesn't work, my IP gets 0.0.0.0), manually setting MAC address, mods to get it to assign a MAC address (from the c code or via eeprom)...

My network switch is a managed switch, and I can see the TX counter incrementing, but RX counter doesn't increment. I've tried changing the clock frequency c3 to 2.5MHz, 25MHz, 125MHz...

Nothing seems to work. Would prefer not to have to go back to a previous version of Quartus, but I guess that's the next step unless someone has a suggestion? The last version of Quartus that seemed to work was 13.

As a follow on, if I ever do get this working, I need to add to the design a 2nd ethernet port (there are 2 on the DE2-115 board), and do simple layer 2 bridging between ports (and not sure how that is done or if it's already included in the OS/or IP stack used in the example).

Any help is appreciated...