Syd:

insmod hisax failing during boot. I looked at dmesg but did not see these messages - should I be looking in /var somewhere?

/var/log/syslog or messages, at a guess.

modprobe hisax type=35 protocol=2 id=hisax Presumably I should be able to use this information to edit a config file somewhere to have it happen during boot? No idea where

It needs to end up in /etc/modules.conf, but some distributions build this from elsewhere (eg /etc/modutils/* in Debian). I think the line should be options hisax type=35 protocol=2 id=hisax

Also, MCC requires root password so I am not sure if I am dialing out with root privs or with my user privs. I know its a mandrake thing but any informed guesses?

Dialouts are normally effectively root, as they have to add a network device and routes to the system. Can't help with ippp0, as I've never had an isdn system. There's an ipppd package in Debian, though. -- MJR