Paste the output found in /etc/sysconfig/hwsetup and from the knoppix file.
The outut from:
lsmod
and from:
ls -l /dev/modem

This is from lsmod:

Module Size Used By Not Tainted
uhci 24508 0 (unused)
ntfs 51360 0 (unused)
natsemi 15840 0 (unused)
crc32 2880 0 [natsemi]
usbkbd 3448 0 (unused)
usbmouse 2040 0 (unused)
keybdev 2052 0 (unused)
mousedev 4212 0 (unused)
hid 21092 0 (unused)
input 3200 0 [usbkbd usbmouse keybdev mousedev hid]
usbcore 59436 1 [uhci usbkbd usbmouse hid]

This is from ls -l /dev/modem:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 27 00:39 /dev/modem ->
/dev/ttyS0

This is from knoppix:

NETCARD_FULLNAME="National Semi|DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller"
NETCARD_DRIVER="natsemi"
MOUSE_FULLNAME="Generic 3 Button Mouse (PS/2)"
MOUSE_DEVICE="/dev/psaux"
SOUND_FULLNAME="Creative Labs|SB Live! EMU10k1"
SOUND_DRIVER="emu10k1"
XSERVER="XFree86"
XMODULE="nv"
XDESC="nVidia Corporation|NV10 [GeForce 256 SDR]"
FLOPPY_FULLNAME='3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive'
FLOPPY_DEVICE="/dev/fd0"
FLOPPY_DRIVER="unknown"
NETCARD_FULLNAME="National Semi|DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller"
NETCARD_DRIVER="natsemi"
SOUND_FULLNAME="Creative Labs|SB Live! EMU10k1"
SOUND_DRIVER="emu10k1"
XSERVER="XFree86"
XMODULE="nv"
XDESC="nVidia Corporation|NV10 [GeForce 256 SDR]"
FLOPPY_FULLNAME='3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive'
FLOPPY_DEVICE="/dev/fd0"
FLOPPY_DRIVER="unknown"

also no output from the hwsetup command.

The modem has been recognized on /dev/ttyS0 (COM1). Unless it is a so-called 'winmodem' it should use the standard serial driver and be accessible as either /dev/modem or /dev/ttyS0.
If you need DNS you'll have to use isp setup.
I have the yawmppp config files hacked to point to ppp-on/ppp-off for users 'root' and 'amigo', so yawmppp is used just to connect and disconnect. yawmppp has a GUI configuration utility that normally is available by clicking on the field of the DOCKAPP. I have it disabled by renaming it yawmppp.conf.disabled. You could try renaming it to yawmppp.conf, BUT the defaults that it set up are completely different from the pppsetup/ispsetup options -the chatscript is the real meat of what happens.

ok, i have tried everything! The ppp-on says connect script failed. The message file says terminated on 2, and when i try to use demand dialing, which probably isn't a good idea, it doesn't work. THe ISP has two I.P numbers, how do i set both of them into the options file, because that might be my whole problem...

oh, one other thing... windows is picking the modem up as Com 2, which is ttyS1 in linux, could that be it??

Of course, if it's on the second serial port, then the device name would be /dev/ttyS1.

However, the ethernet port was used for a cable connection some time back, and whenever I try and set everything to point at ttyS1, the connect script failed error appears right after i type ppp-on. But when it is set to ttyS0, it takes a little bit on the first try. And how do I insert two I.P addresses to connect to? Because in Windows I have a primary and a secondary D.N.S. nameserver addresses.

You can set the nameservers in /etc/resolv.conf

okay, so i would something like this:

nameserver 217.0.0.0
nameserver 217.0.0.0

REplacing with the correct i.p. addresses?

What else would be changed?