Harry,

Am pleased to compose this reply in Konqueror courtesy Linux KURUMIN 5.0 first LiveCD session up and running. Keyboard doesn't work properly till can re-configure it to standard U.S. or intl keyboard layout but that is small potatoes. Not even sure I can recall all the KURUMIN steps I took to get to this point!

Clearly your questioning server name resolution was spot on. KURUMIN interactive Internet Connection problem solver for ADSL or cable modem that I found in K Menu opens a root window. A KEdit window opens as you step through after wizard mentions you will probably need to uncomment, then alter and save DNS values for your own telco web portal to log on to your ISP.

This file
etc resolv.conf (sorry, cannot type slash separating these two folders in pathname!)
seems to have been modified by KURUMIN author to list all known ADSL telco name servers in Brazil, commented out with a #. Luckily had found elsewhere two nameserver numbers 200.149.55.140 and 200.202.193.71 So I uncommented, changed the wrong numbers shown for my city ADSL telco, and then saved resolv.conf and quit KEdit.

Fired up Konqueror, typed in web portal and was off and running to log into my ISP to post you this. Here is my ifconfig now

kurumin@kurumin:/ramdisk/home/kurumin$ ifconfig
eth0 Encapsulamento do Link: Ethernet Endereço de HW 00:02:3F:3E:60:5B
endereço inet6: fe80::202:3fff:fe3e:605b/64 Escopo:Link
UP BROADCASTRUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Métrica:1
RX packets:5077 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5421 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
colisões:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3454386 (3.2 MiB) TX bytes:786815 (768.3 KiB)
IRQ:11 Endereço de E/S:0xa800

lo Encapsulamento do Link: Loopback Local
inet end.: 127.0.0.1 Masc:255.0.0.0
endereço inet6: ::1/128 Escopo:Máquina
UP LOOPBACKRUNNING MTU:16436 Métrica:1
RX packets:384 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:384 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
colisões:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:28799 (28.1 KiB) TX bytes:28799 (28.1 KiB)

ppp0 Encapsulamento do Link: Protocolo Ponto-a-Ponto
inet end.: 200.165.30.181 P-a-P:200.217.72.8 Masc:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1492 Métrica:1
RX packets:4595 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4854 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
colisões:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:3318959 (3.1 MiB) TX bytes:637089 (622.1 KiB)

from which I note in eth0 no more of the (external) IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway adressing entries in all those KNOPPIX Live CD 4.0.2 ifconfig outputs accompanying unsuccessful online attempts with KNOPPIX.

As an utter layman with Linux my conclusion is local Brazilian ADSL setups are each private networks controlled by a telco name server that, for some reason, do not respond appropriately to a Linux client using either un-modified (DNS list) KNOPPIX 4.0.2 or KURUMIN 5.0 unless the exact telco name server's address is used. How Ubuntu preview 5.10 edition of LiveCD does this without modifying anything at all is a mystery but I can assure you it does. KNOPPIX needs to do some catch-up on this as clearly my eth0 should never have been set up with any IP Address using ADSL in Brazil.

Believe I mentioned in an earlier post Brazilian law requires broadband users of ADSL to pay for an independent, non-telco ISP to access the Internet regardless of this being superfluous. Doubtless this silly requirement will be repealed within the next few years so I don't know if this DNS issue and solution is too specific to one geographic region for inclusion in a future KNOPPIX release.

In any event, your support and encouragement kept me going. That is, of course, the great strength of Linux. Harry, thank you so much for getting me to the starting gate.

Dave