4)i have a network with a windows xp machine on the other end how do i setup knoppix to see it and give permissions for the winxp box to see my Knoppix hard drive..
If you run the menu option K->KNOPPIX->Services->Start Samba Server, I seem to recall it prompts you for a few bits of info and then sets up Samba so that any Windows machines on the network can access the hard drives on your Knoppix machine (even if they are Windows partitions).

Going the other way - having Knoppix access the shares on a Windows machine - is possible, but I am not sure how easy it is to set up. There is a program K->Internet->LinNeighborhood that I think is supposed to do this, but I have not used it myself.