Ethernet not working, a weird one!

["Jayson Smith" <ratguy@insightbb.com>]

Hi,

     For several years, I have had a Linux system running Gentoo, without 
issue. This is an approx. 1.8GHZ desktop, and I'm not running any GUI, it's 
strictly console.
     On June 18, lightning struck our home. Among other things, it appears 
to have destroyed every device connected to our Ethernet network at the time 
of the hit. This included the 3Com 3C905C NIC in my Linux box. I found 
another such card and installed it. No joy. Even though the kernel driver is 
installed, the system refuses to recognize the card. It is listed in the 
output of lspci, though. Just in case this other card was also toast (not 
likely, since it was sitting in a drawer at the time of the lightning hit) I 
installed a Realtek Ethernet NIC and recompiled the kernel with its driver 
installed. No joy. However, the real kicker is that a System Rescue CD which 
includes Speakup can access the Internet using the 3C905 card I installed, 
and which my Linux system would not recognize. Therefore, I know the card, 
and more importantly, the motherboard are working okay. It's just something 
messed up on the software end. What could this be?
     If I end up having to rebuild from scratch, what is a currently good 
distro for console only, no GUI Linux that supports Speakup? If I were 
rebuilding anyway, I would strongly consider switching from Gentoo to an 
easier to maintain distro.
Thanks for any help.
Jayson