think I see the problem, I entered the command ifconfig -a, the return shows

Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00

I think this is my MAC Address (physical address) and the string of 12 zeros
shows it's missing, also, this was the only address that was NOT asked for when
I set up the connection, I'm sure this is it, but how do I enter the MAC address
manually, I have the 12 digit string.

here's the return for ifconfig -a

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
BROADCAST MULTICAST

MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:982 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0

overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:59790 (58.3 KiB) TX bytes:1710 (1.6 KiB)


Interrupt:3 Base address:0xd800

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0


UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX

packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:400 (400.0 b) TX

bytes:400 (400.0 b)

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$