I looked at the var/log/dmesg and found 3 lines with eth0 they said this:
eth0: Realtek rtl8139 at oxd0282400, 00:11:d8:a8:12:9e, irq 5
eth0: Identified 8139chip type RTL-8100B/8139D

then further down this:

eth0: Link down

Thats all I could see but it looks chinese to me. Sorry but I am very new to
all of this technical stuff, please bear with me, and again thanks.

A few other things I have run into and tried along the way so far.....don't know if this helps or confuses things.

I have a dynamic connection adsl modem, not usb, not static, I don't know exactly what does what but these are the things I have read about that I am sure must be my problem, however I do not know how to fix it................... eth0 pending realtek eth0 8139too umm what else oh ya I do route -n and get nothing but the titles of what I should see....I have tried etc/modules and added e100 and eepro100 and tulip whatever they are, and I run a lsmod after and they are there but all this of which I have no clue about and I still cannot connect.

The realtek 8139 ethernet cards are supported through standard kernels. I use pure Debian which uses a command "modconf" to install kernel modules. Not sure whether this is the case for Xandros.

The line of interest above is the fact that "eth0 link down" which means it has not initiated the network card and hence you have no network. Do as root ifup eth0 (instruction to initiate the card and bring up a network connection). It should tell whether this is successful or not. If successful then check your connections with ifconfig which should list eth0. If you get errors please post them.

The network card itself looks like it's working and "up" but just has no media detected?

Ok I did the ifup eth0 and got the following:

Listening on LPF/eth0/00:11:d8:a8:12:9e
sending on LPF/eth0/00:11:d8:a8:12:9e
sending on Socket/Fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
No DHCPOFFERS recieved.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping

So what does all that mean?....and what should I do next......thanks for the continued support Tiger.

It means that it has requested a lease from the router but has no offer and has gone to sleep. You need to check a few things now. Make sure that the network cable is functional and that lights, if present are active on the card. With the ethernet link up try rebooting the router and see if you get a connection. Failing all this read the manual for the modem/router and see if there is way of using a static address to get a connection.

I know that the network cable is functional because i am using my old laptop to make these posts and when i disconnect the cable from it and connect it to my new laptop with xandros linux os and try to connect i always get connection failed....do I need to have the cable connected to the new computer bfr i run the ifup eth0?.....sorry for all the trouble just like I said this is all new to me.

Expat, does your Router normally give your devices DHCP addresses?

Sorry my bad....I guess I had no idea what the ifup did....but i connected my cable to the new computer and then ran ifup eth0 and got this:

ifup: interface eth0 already configured

Sorry bout that.......but I still can't connect and I am in China and they didn't give me a manual for my modem....even if they had I couldn't read it in chinese.........

Yes it is dynamic and when i plug into my old computer running windows i just click the connection icon and thats it.....no ip addresses no netmasks nothing of the sort.

Expat, in windows, do you normally have to enter a username and password to connect? If so in Dial-Up connections?

This is the computer i have and instead of installing xandros as a dual boot with windows i erased windows to have only xandros.....and fortunatly I have this old ibm pentium 1 notebook with win98 or I would be really screwed.......I dont think this matters but it does show specs as to what i have to work with... http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...5&l2=26&l3=131

Ya I do have the user name and password and thats it.....and i have checked the properties in windows as well just to be sure and ya thats all i have to connect with.

OK so it looks like you have to do a PPPoE connection before you will get an Internet Connection. This helps greatly (well it doesn't me as I've never used ADSL on Linux) but it will help someone to help you im sure!

Thanks Graham I almost feel like I might be getting a touch closer to actually being able to fix this problem.......:|