okay, here is the results of ifconfig -a, it may be a letter or two off as i had to copy it by hand and retype it here, as i couldnt figure out how to print it or save it to floppy. so here goes:

ETHO link encap: ethernet haddr 00:A0:CC:E0:36:A7
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU 1500 METRIC 1
Rx Packets:0 Errors:0 Dropped:0 Overruns:0 frame:0
Tx Packets:0 Errors:4 Dropped:2 Overruns:0 Carrier:4
Collisions:0 Txqueuelen:100

lo Link Encap Local Loopback
inet address: 127.0.0.1 Mask: 255.0.0.0
Up Loopback Running MTU 16436 Metric:1
Rx Packets:52 Errors:0 Dropped:0 Overruns:0 frame:0
Tx Packets:52 Errors:0 Dropped:0 Overruns:0 Carrier:0
Collisions:0 Txqueuelen:0
Rx Bytes:3464 (3.3 KiB) Tx Bytes 3464 (3.3 KiB)

and, I did look at etc\resolv.conf and, in fact, the nameserver only has 127.0.0.1

so i guess the next thing i need to do is find out the address of my server (would it be 192.168.1.1? as in my router?) and enter it into the resolv.conf and save. yes?

this is an edit:
well, i cant seem to do the above, cuz, i dont have permission to write. when i right clik the resolv.conf file and select properties, the option to enable writing is grayed out. i tried to log in as super user (su at konsole) but i dont know the password. i tried root and knoppix, neither work.
i will keep searching

this is another edit:
i loaded the cd into my sons puter which is on the same router as my puter, and it accesses the net just fine WTF?? i think i will try to boot to knoppix from the xbox (also on the router) and see if i can access the net from there. what the f*** can be preventing my machine from accessing?? help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance