I took the plunge ...

[Capt. Picard]

... and installed edubuntu.

First thing, how the hell do you connect to a simple LAN. Before that how do you check if the thing has drivers for the network card. The PC has a normal onboard network card and also a wireless network card which I don't intend to use. Only the wireless net card seem to be displayed at hardware information. If it doesn't have driver, please don't tell me that you have to go through a 20-step command line installation procedure.

Regarding the LAN, all I have is a simple LAN with static IP's that connect to a ADSL modem.

Anyone please!

[bacon12]

Just to clarify you are trying for a wired connection right? If you wanna go wireless you will most likely need ndiswrapper.

See here for wireless. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=31926

More info on ndiswrapper.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper

I think the command lspci will show you needed module info in buntu.

Ubuntu has excellent documentation and I am not a buntu user so I would search their wiki and forums to get you going.

[t3hl33td4rg0n]

Much of the hardware out there is usually supported out of the box. Go to

Syatem >> Administration >> Network

to configure your network card.