This network card which Dabs specifically marks as 'Realtek', actually has as much to do with Realtek as Bombay duck has to do with duck. Which sucks, because the real RTL-8139 is one of the most common LAN chipsets around and has excellent Linux compatibility, while this Silan junk has about as much Linux compatibility as our admin department*.

* I haven't actually measured the Linux compatibility of the admin department. But given the workarounds required to get them to work on Windows with any effectiveness, I'm assuming that Linux drivers are not available.