What Unix are you speaking about? I guess you might be talking about Linux - but I might be wrong aswell. There are tons of distributions/vendors out there whose versions differ in more or less significant parts. Without more information it is really hard maybe even impossible to give you a quick answer that's worth the research.

The way how to install Java or how to setup your internet connection also depends on that. Maybe there is java already included/supported in the version you are using - there should be installers available for most of the popular un*x' out there.

For you said you do have usb I guess you are using Linux? Please let us know which distribution and which version (both kernel and distribution) you are using - usb support is still worked on intensively...

About failure messages: Without the exact text it's hard to help there.

My sugguestions:

• Find out which distribution/vendor you are using.
• Try to find a local friend that helps you with setting up the thing (that's the fastest way ;)
• Find the right places to ask: I personally would sugguest to go to the usenet - there is a load of information there. A huge archive is at google

I hope you can find your way - but here you are quite offtopic, I guess :)