pike
(Michael Kicks)
25
If you prefer compiling your own the drivers, go for it.
IMVHO i’d go the route of kmod with yum install kmod-r8168, which according to this archived wiki
https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources(2f)HardwareList(2f)CentOS5(2f)RealTek(2f)r1000.html
should be the right kmod/driver for your NIC.
Elrepo might be a resource too