I don't understand this at all and it's really starting to piss me off. For some reason my ethernet settings in Linux won't "stick", "stay", "not change after I reboot". Sometimes when I reboot, it takes me to a black screen with a command prompt. I have no idea why this happens, and the only way I know how to get out of it is by pressing control-alt-delete. After I reboot, my ethernet settings get all messed up, which takes away my ability to log onto the internet. I'm typing this post from Windows now because I don't know how to get the damn settings fixed in Linux! Does anyone know what the hell the problem could be? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I found the problem. The stupid Shorewall Firewall that I installed was blocking my connections.