I gave it another try last night and got my modem up and running in about 3 minutes. Just had to find the com port it was on. I went to the root terminal and entered the following:

setserial /dev/ttyS4 irq 11
ln /dev/ttyS4 /dev/modem

I went back in and configured kppp and was up and running! Thanks alot for all your help. I must say i really enjoy linux. ive been stuck in the windows rut so long i forgot what it was like to actually have control over your computer.....

Now for the sound card....
I messed around with it for a while and configured it, but still no sound. I have boston accoustic digital speakers connected to my sblive, does knoppix support digital audio out? I didnt try the analog out to see if that works, ill have to give that a try. I know in XP i had to enable digital out before they would work, do i have to do the same in knoppix (KDE)?

thanks again, my newbie linux experience has been great so far!
-jamie