Was it? I mean it in all sincerity with no hostility intended or implied.

Where Linux and UNIX excel is all the things Windows is terrible at. Security, programming, networking, scalability both up and down, reliability, portability, customizability, flexibility, networking, performance. These are their focus. There's things UNIX/LINUX are less good at, sometimes much less good at... Try printing in it. If you want the Windows experience, Windows does a much better job of being Windows.

As for "cheap hardware", I am not calling you cheap. I'm explaining why cheap hardware is so difficult for UNIX/Linux. There's so many different kinds, they change so often, and are almost never given anything but Windows drivers by the manufacturer. Yes, it may work fine for 10 years in Windows, but if they never showed anyone how to use it anywhere else, what can you do?

Plan ahead, that's what. Networking is crucial - you can't even ask intelligent questions without it. You couldn't show us anything we needed to help you, like log files and console outputs. Catch-22. Time to execute plan B, if you have one.

You wouldn't reformat Windows without a known-good networking driver or a plan B, the same applies here. Some cheap hardware will work. (Cheap consumer hardware changes so fast, it'd be nearly useless for me to post advice on which, you have to go on Amazon and read reviews, look up blogs and wikis, etc. Which you require working networking to do.) You have to see what's available locally, see what's compatible, see what you can afford, and compromise between the three.

In short, I'm not calling you stupid, and I'm not calling you cheap. I do think you had unrealistic expectations, leaped without looking, and nearly stranded yourself.