Not sure if this is a wise idea - creating a STEP-BY-STEP tutorial for first boot from scratch, but a friend in Texas tried loading TC (I sent them bare-bones) and can't get either their WiFi working or the ETH0 using the built in TC Network setup...
So I figured I'd write a script that does the following and with your comments/suggestions, get it so it can get ANYONE online.
1. Checking drivers are loaded - primarily wireless tools and ethtools
2. Test the ETH port by looping through every gateway address of 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.255.255, along with every possible IP address 192.168.1.1 through 192.168.255.255 (royal slow pain) and before going into that massive loop checking a few settings with ifconfig to see if anything is LIVE yet - i.e. detect a 10.0.0.1 gateway.
Any suggestions for that loop and pre-checks are appreciated, otherwise I'll code it "the hard way". I am fairly familiar with wireless commands - like iwconfig etc. - but have never worked with the ETH settings and don't even have a live cable to test with - gonna be fun - may have to go to a friends (yipper).