Alrighty. I purchased an external 56K Zoom 3049 modem and it started up like a charm in SuSE 8.2 Pro. After having Konqueror crash with a signal 11 error (SIGSEGV), I decided to perform my first Online Update on my new system. Running YOU found 1.4GB of patches it recommended to download! Is this normal for a first-time case? Also, how do I find out exactly my connection and transfer speed? I know right-clicking on Data Rate gives a nice time-dependent chart...but it's only receiving data at ~2.0 kB!!! Am I doing something wrong?

1.4Gb... a little nuts but appropriate for 8.2 Pro.
2.0kB... not sure why you'd be alarmed by this.. its a modem, its max speed is usualy 4, if not 5...