Earthlink DSL failing to see Ubuntu

[Dan Martin]

> I think you're onto something, Tony.  ping 82.211.81.130 does 
> what it should yet ping www.ubuntu.com does nothing but time out.  
> Additionally, the contents of /etc/resolve.conf are rather meagre:
> 
> nameserver 172.16.0.254
> 
> I'm beginning to see some light at the end of this tunnel.

Have you used the Networking wizard (in Administration) to set "eth0" to
DHCP?