Tommy McCabe wrote:
I have a direct ethernet connection (no visible card, wire just plugs into computer)
That is just like a 'card'. It is just built into your PC and you can not 'tear it out' like a regular card. But you access it like it was one. Even windows thinks it is a ehternet-card. If you look in Win->NetworkNeighborhood->Properties you might get some clues which chip is on that 'card' and that might help you to install it in linux.
HTH, Stefan