I wanted to express my thanks to everyone involved in the creation of Knoppix for saving me a whole bunch of time and expense.

I've been trying to connect my home PC (running under operating software which I won't name here) to a broadband network. Total lack of success. Broadband provider unable to suggest anything productively helpful. Essentially no diagnostics. Where would one start?

A friend (thanks, Peter) suggested booting the PC from the Knoppix CD. This inspired suggestion has enabled me to sideline all issues of configuring the target operating software and its drivers, and to discover with certainty (1) that my LAN interface hardware is working fine, and (2) that my RJ45 extension cable is defective. Getting those variables out of the way has better than halved the original problem size, I reckon. I anticipate a complete resolution shortly.

I therefore thouroughly recommend the Knoppix CD as a diagnostic tool for circumstances like these.

Thanks again.