installing root-kit checkers

[Lisi <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>]

We seem to be being told that nowadays we should run a root-kit checker.  The 
kernel exploit would indeed seem to suggest it.  I have tried rkhunter and 
found that I couldn't make head or tail of it.  I then read that, for a 
root-kit checker to work properly, you should install it on a fresh install 
before said installation goes on the Internet.  All well and good, but I 
almost always install Debian of some version or other, and when I do so, I 
always install over the net.  

So how do I run a check before going on the Internet???  I can hardly install 
a package of any sort before I have installed at least the basics of the 
distro!  (Yes, I know that there are those on this list who say that a 
root-kit checker is useless anyway, and root-kits are obviously difficult to 
spot - the kernel is guarded by people far more capable than I.)

Lisi