networking and linux

Why KNOPPIX, OVERCLOCKIX and suse can never set up my network?
I am on auto dhcp. I click auto dhcp when i set it up and it says network is down failed.
How do i proper load my netgear's ethernet card the drivers under linux?

it is my understanding that since i run linux off a CD i will not be able to install the drivers anywhere...........

What exactly is your NIC?

It's not impossible to load a dirver when running from a live CD, but it is sort of difficult.

Netgear FA311/FA312 PCI adapter

The only thing I could find on knoppix.net about that card is that it may be affected by a Windows XP security update that breaks functionality of several network cards in Linux by altering the firmware of the card.

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2164&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

i just downloaded the above update.
lets hope it works

it did not work

You need to download the sourcecode for the driver and build it yourself. Network adapter drivers are very distribution/version specific. I have an a7n8x with on board ethernet. To get mine to work I downloaded the source code, used rpmbuild to make a package, then installed it with rpm.

Here is at least one site with the source code for the driver. I don't know it well, I just googled it. I'm sure there are a lot, just google around for them.

http://www.scyld.com/network/ethercard.html