i have a laptop with an internal modem and ethernet connection but ubuntu cant seem to see them. Any help would be wonderful.
oh and on a side note i got the wireless to work

Look at the users manual for the laptop and let us know what type (name and if possible the model) of ethernet and modem are on the system.

In the case of the modem, it is most likely a "winmodem" designed to work in Windows only. It may or may not work in Linux, depending on the modem.