a more simple question?

[Karen Lewellen]

and one I did not get a  clear answer to on the debian list.
While I wade back through the bees nest, let me start asking about 
something more time sensitive.
As stated, the Linux machine is already built and already has a hard drive 
in it with debian squeeze...or some of it lol.
At the time the drive was added to the machine, speech came up talking 
etc...it is a console focused structure I believe.
However at that time there  was no network connection for debian to 
find. 
The person supplying the drive worked from a dial up approach.
I will have dsl again on Saturday, and in addition to configuring my main 
dos machine once more, I would like my engineer friend to configure the 
debian squeeze setup for the  high speed too.
I use dhtp with dos, and understand debian likes this as well.
so, ...
1, and really being hopeful here, if we just connect the network card to 
the new dsl modem and boot up the Linux box, will it load the drivers it 
may need for that hardware automatically?
if not,
2, how does one inform debian that a network exists after it is already 
installed?
Thanks  in advance,
Kare