Hi,

I am considering installing gnu/linux on my girlfriend's desktop. The problem is, the building she lives in has a really weird network. Kanotix 06/2004 (based on Knoppix) couldn't configure the network. I tried "DHCP broadcast", in vain. Also, she can't download files except for web pages or e-mail attachments, and she can't join P2P networks. I don't know much about networks, so I'd like to play with a live-cd before I really trash her NTFS partition, in order to make sure that I'll be able to configure her network. So here are my questions :

1) is there some Live distro specialized in difficult network detection ?
2) if not, i'll try Knoppix. So Knoppix Gurus here, when you have network detection problems, what do you do ? Once "DHCP broadcast" has failed, what can I try ?
3) a more general question. Is it possible for a network to be incompatible with linux? Are there windows-only networks?

Note that the machine considered here is a very standard PC with RJ45 network. No wireless here.

thanks in advance,
Ben

What type of nic is in the PC? is it detected?

Try setting a fixed IP address on the card and pinging it - this will tell you if the card is working ok.

There is a standard Ethernet 10/100 card. It must be detected, because the DHCP broadcast takes a long time before giving up. If it wasn't detected, it would fail immediately, I think.