just which one you prefer...I prefer command line on tasks like this, because it just is the most efficient
"bringing up interface eth0" means that linux is starting your ethernet device (card) and other stuff..failed means there occured errors, which can be seen usually either from some logfile like /var/log/messages or /var/log/boot.log or by typing
dmesg | less
and scrolling...ip address and other stuff are configured from text-config files like /etc/host.conf, /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf.
