Ethernet not working

[texasnomad]

I am trying to breath new life into an old dell inspiron by running knoppix 6 off a thumb-drive.
The ethernet card is a Broadcom BCM4401-B0. The problem is that the machine does not even show up on the router. I am not sure where to start in getting this thing configured and online. Any ideas on how to get this working?

[Harry Kuhman]

You failed to cover the most basic question that could be asked when trouble shooting this issue, which is "Does Knoppix network properly on this system when booted from disc?" If it doesn't, then resolve that before trying to deal with the thumb drive. Unfortunately, if it does work properly when run as intended, you are just one of a long line of people who have seen networking fail after they tried to "install" Knoppix.

[texasnomad]

"Does Knoppix network properly on this system when booted from disc?"
Dunno. My cd-rom drive does not work. If it did I would certainly have preferred to do this with a disk. Although it is a different system, the thumb drive does work properly on another system I have...