I have a cable modem connected via a network card, before I install linux will my cable modem be easy to setup??? I'm on NTL cable.

absolute doddle. just use netconfig or whatever to setup the ethernet interface as dhcp, after that, it's just down to NTL bothering to get off their arses and turn the connection on. oh.. you already going on windows.. yeah it'll be really easy, actually, it should all get recognised on install, especially with mandrake or redhat.

hi, hi.
It's easy to set it up man, but it doesn't do it by itself.
I would need to know what kind of service you have.
Do you have something like the service provided by @home Time Warner? or some other provider?
The reason for this is that if you have @home, then the service provider gives your computer a specific name which you need to input in your computer by editing a file called 'ifup'
But if you have another type of service, where they identify your computer by the serial number of your ethernet card then you need to get that number from the Windows winipcfg and put it in the hostname in your computer so that it is identified.
Let me know.
zLinuxz