Hi Tray1,
Sorry I'm a little late to the game, but I figured that I'd chime in and try to help, if I could. I was scouring the net trying to find some resolution on what to do with my WorkCentre 232 that I just inherited and yours is the only post that came up on the forums. Keep in mind, I only have the WC232...NOT the Pro version, but the machine is basically the same, just I have almost ZERO features on mine.
First of all, I read both of your threads, and while I can appreciate what you are trying to do, it can be very overwhelming if you're a beginner. The crossover cable that you made was not made correctly, but don't feel bad. It took me a while to get a handle on all of this stuff when I first started, too. Second, I read through everything you posted, and while you are on the right track, I think that you are missing a few steps. Let's just try to get you back on track...
Number 1: You do NOT need a crossover cable, a regular straight-through cable will be just fine.
Number 2: DO NOT just let your router assign an address (DHCP.) When you set the IP address on the WCP232 manually, you were spot-on. That means that no matter what addresses your router hands out to other devices, the WCP will always be the same, so all of the devices on your network know where to go to look for it. If you need clarification on how this works, I can give you an analogy if you'd like.
Number 3: Network is the best way to access the WCP. Don't worry about the USB, serial, and all that other stuff. And definately DON'T try to use Linux if you are not familiar with it. Windows will work just fine for you in this situation and any version will do.
Now, you said that you set the IP address of the WCP to 192.168.1.100 and your laptop to 192.168.1.101. That's fine, unless your router had already assigned the address 192.168.1.100 to something else. Then, you're trying to access the WCP, but when the request gets to your router, it might be forwarding it to the machine that has already been given that address, so your request is being denied. Verify the IP addresses being used on your network and make sure that you set the IP address on the WCP to something OUTSIDE of the DHCP range, then reboot your router, NOT the WCP.
When the router is back up and running, open your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, or whatever) and enter the new IP address that you just set on the WCP into the address bar. When you do this, you should see the web interface for the copier come up on your screen. If you do, you've got it! To access most of the features, you will probably need the admin username and password for the WCP, but we can cross the bridge when we come to it. Just getting you TO the web interface at this point will be the goal for the day.
If you're still interested in getting this thing to work after all this, let me know and I can help you get the rest of the way (hopefully!) Good Luck and let me know!