debian net-install

(32bit) http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/i386/
(64bit) http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/debian-installer/amd64/

substitute uk with {your country-code}, and testing with {stable/unstable}, as per your preference.

download these two files - linux and initrd.gz - to your bootable usb (or cd) and boot.

my usb bootloader is extlinux

# vi /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
LINUX linux
INITRD initrd.gz
APPEND root=/dev/null vga=791 priority=low hw-detect/start_pcmcia=false eject=false install-recommends=false rescue=true language=en country=GB locale=en_GB.UTF-8 time/zone=Europe/London

install directly from internet, downloading only the latest updates of those files that you actually need. no need to waste time/bandwidth downloading the whole install cd. you don't need all of it. and then, you still need to download all the latest updates again.

if you are installing to multiple computers, use a caching proxy and automated net-install for the most efficient way to install linux. you could even net-boot, serving these two files over tftp.
or simply walk around booting each computer with your cd/usb into ram, so your cd/usb media is not locked in there for the duration of the entire install. after initial boot, eject your cd/usb, and do the same to the next computer.

my e100 nic was not included in the net-installer, as that is presumably proprietary closed source, violating dfsg (debian free software guidelines).
check-missing-firmware was looking for
/media/firmware-linux-non-free_0.33_all.deb

debian wiki has instructions at
http://wiki.debian.org/Firmware#Firmware_during_the_installation.

to download the firmware (.tar.gz or .zip) and uncompress to extract the required file(s)
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/testing/current/