Hi rhodius
The  inet addr:  line tells you what address has been assigned to your computer. Anytime your
computer talks to another piece of hardware on your network, it includes that address so that
the response will be sent back to your computer. Without it, you can not establish a network
connection. From the Roaring Penguin website:
Before you download this software, check whether or not you really need it. If your ISP uses PPPoE, but has given you a router, you may not need a PPPoE client on your Linux box. DHCP may work fine.
If your computer connects to the DSL modem using a network cable, I would expect it to be sufficient
to get your network card up and assign a gateway address.
Open up  CONTROL PANEL  and click on the  NETWORK  button, then enter the following values:
eth0
Use DHCP=no
IP Address=192.168.1.27
Network Mask=255.255.255.0
Broadcast=192.168.1.255
Gateway=192.168.1.1
NameServers=192.168.1.1 Click Apply and Exit, then try the  ifconfig  command again and see if the address was assigned.
If that does not work, then it is likely that your network card is not being detected or it requires
firmware. If that is the case, enter:
dmesg > dmesg.txtand attach the  dmesg.txt  file to your next post.