I can't account for a 255.255.255.255 broadcast address ever working; it shouldn't, as the system would never see real network broadcasts. However, the nature of the problems that are caused by that might be confusing and hard to spot.

If you're talking about Knoppix running under the VMware player you should be very clear about that. I didn't get that impression from your first post in this thread, and in fact the IP addresses used seem to contradict that. But you mention VMplayer in your last post. Of course. running under VMPlayer uses very different network connections. Any problem seen under VMPlayer should be tested under the real live CD. And, of course, working under VMPlayer does not assure that Knoppix will work with your hardware when not running under VMplayer.

If you're using ruymbeke's vmware appliance, I find it works pretty well but there is something about the ethernet port setup that is different from other VMWare setups that I have (such as Debian). Ruymbeke's Knoppix does not let me see eth0 under ethereal in VMPlayer, while my VMplayer Debian does. I don't yet know enough about VMWare to know what the difference is. If you do please let me know.