you may find that you have to reinstall your existing operating system's
boot loader2.1 or the entire operating system itself.

Information You Will Need

If your computer is connected to a network 24 hours a day (i.e., an
Ethernet or similar LAN connection - not a PPP connection), you should ask
your network's system administrator for the following information:

* Your host name (you may be able to decide this on your own)
* Your domain name
* Your computer's IP address
* The IP address of your network
* The netmask to use with your network
* The broadcast address to use on your network
* The IP address of the default gateway system you should route to, if
your network has a gateway
* The system on your network that you should use as a DNS server
* Whether you connect to the network using Ethernet
* Whether your Ethernet interface is a PCMCIA card, and if so, the type
of PCMCIA controller you have
If your only network connection is a telephone line using PPP or an
equivalent dialup connection, you don't need to worry about getting your
network set up until your system is already installed. See section 11.1 on
page [*] for information on setting up PPP under Debian.

Partitioning Your Hard Drive

Before you install Debian on your computer, it is generally a good idea to
plan how the contents of your hard drive will be arranged. One part of