[Hudlug] setting up my desktop

[MICHAEL WEAVER]

I really enjoyed tonight's meeting as I was able to do a lot of things I 
might not have been able to do before I got my speech on my laptop 
working instead of just sitting there and mostly hoping I will just take 
things in which I did when I first joined the LUGs.
If I were to have someone come out and set up my desktop as a Linux 
system rather than Windows, do I need any information other than my 
username, password, email address, smtp. popmail account name and news 
server?
Do I need to know address numbers like port numbers or other very 
technical information, netmask for example or should every setting I 
need be picked up by my BT voyager and automatically recognised by Ubuntu?
I need to know before I totally modify my PC as I don't want to lose 
total access to my Internet connection?
Do I need to phone BT to make the change as I am not sure if they would 
be able to help as they maybe more adapted to dealing with technical 
support under Windows and not Linux.
Sorry if these questions sound novice.
As I have never had Linux running on my desktop as an installation as I 
only used Oralux which did seem to connect I don't know how technical it 
will be to get the same connection with Ubuntu.