Friend's laptop:

NEC Versa E2000
1500 Mhz processor
256 memory
no serial port

Dick Smith Electronics external serial modem
Dick Smith USB to serial adaptor

It had a Windows failure which couldn't be recovered, so I'm putting Linux onto it for her, probably Pclinuxos Gnome, or maybe Suse 11.2 Gnome. Both recommended to me by a Linux user friend for this machine.

Will it be a simple matter of plugging it in, or will there need to be some configuration?

Many thanks.

There may possibly be some configuration required. Depending on the distro you choose, you should be able to get guidance from the relevant forum (or indeed from this forum) on how to get the modem going. The first step is to plug it in and take it from there.

Thanks. I should have looked at the installation instructions that came with the adaptor! But usually there isn't any for Linux so didn't bother. It tells me command to use to check it's recognised.

Hopefully, it will be as simple as just plugging in your adapter. If /dev/ttyUSB0 exists your device is recognized.
If not, post the output of the lsusb command. It will tell us the device's chipset.

Unfortunately didn't check for /dev/ttyUSBO, but lsusb gave me this:
on the second line, all other three lines the same-
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0403: 6001 Future Technology Devices International Ltd FT 232 USB. Serial (UART) IC

I assume I need to modify a file somewhere for it to be recognised.

Gnome PPP gave"
can not open modem
"Ignoring malformed input line "Do NOT edit this file by hand!"
WV Dial: Internet Dialer Version 1.60
Can not open /dev/modem no such file or directory.

I guess all that referes to its the fact I need to somehow point the computer to //dev/ttyUSBO

Many thanks.