NIC - ifconfig - urgent!

[Desperado <b hou student qut edu au>]

Hi, I'm trying to configure my network card with this command..

ifconfig -i eth0 131.181.1.8 -broadcast 131.181.1.255 netmask 255.255.255.0
metric 1 -trailers

and this is what I've got...

SIOCSIFADDR: Operation not supported by device
eth0: unknown interface
eth0: unknown interface
SIOCSIFADDR: Operation not supported by device
eth0: unknown interface
SIOCSIFNETMAS: Operation not supported by device
SIOCIFMETRIC: Operation not supported by device
eth0: unknown interface

Mine is a D-Link DE-220E Series adapter and it's working perfectly in
Windows.

Can someone kindly enlighten me as how to go about resolving this silly
problem.

Thanks and Regards,