errors connecting to wired broadband

[MICHAEL WEAVER]

I have been trying to use my wired Broadband MODEM which I use on my 
desktop PC in Windows on my laptop until I can get my Desktop PC running 
Edgy on the Hard drive I bought.
However I keep getting error messages when I plug in the MODEM into the 
port on my Compaq laptop.
I get an error message when trying to download messages in Evolution 
because it tells me it is unable to download, I can't seem to ping any 
address and w3m says "can't load" and whatever the page I am trying to open.
I was told that Network Manager is a difficult application to set up and 
that I wouldn't need it but I can't understand why if that is the case 
my connection to my BT account is not being recognised which means I 
will have to wait until possibly April before I can access the Internet 
via my wireless network card which does work in Ubuntu.
Before I had problems trying to change my software synth my laptop did 
appear to access the Network using my BT Voyager MODEM which meaned I 
was able to update packages so there must be something which someone set 
when it did work which did allow me to make a switch from Wireless to 
wired unless this person used Network Manager I had tried to install 
which was why both connection types were recognised.
I looked in Network Settings and the other place it might be in Gnome 
but if it was something that had been set to get it to work I don't 
understand enough about Ubuntu to be able to find it.