fresh off the boat

[Tab Gilbert]

I have been doing this linux thing for two weeks....long story---

Plain gateway e-2000 machine

Downloaded hoary live cd five times via firefox
no torrents - still have not figured that out
burned 15 discs - every speed, etc.
15 times bad checksum - will not run
no MD5 check done- still have not figured that out but the Live CD
does that when starting up anyway cause it gives me an error message.
the disk drive works for everything else I stick in it

I come from a mac world forced into windows.  I am sure there is some
sudo apt-get something I could do but I am not that experienced yet. 
I can figure that stuff out over time but not being able to do a
simple download and make a functional disc just not seem to be right.

Is there something I am doing wrong?  Is it normal for a straight
download using linux to corrupt so often?  >200 GB downloaded/no MD5
ever done (never a reason) and nary a problem before.  The Ubuntu
running now came from a Sir Bill system download.

Sorry for the rant folks but this is just plain frustration screaming out.  
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