what does this utility (network card configuration utility) do in cli terms?

i'm having an extreme amount of difficulty getting my second nic to come up in my debian install. but i booted knoppix, and had a knoppix router/firewall up and running in about an hour.

i've been farting around with debian for weeks trying to get it to see both cards at the same time. i just haven't found the right command line commands to send in order to make the card come up.