[dnanian]

The big problem is that the OSX DVD has limited networking capabilities when you start up from it. But there are many other ways of restoring.

The easiest thing to do is to restore using a second Mac and Target Disk Mode. You can also copy the image to a local drive with a different computer, or connect the drive (if it's an Airport disk) to the Mac and mount the image locally.

Alternatively, you can do a basic install of OSX to a USB stick, start up from that and restore, since you'll have full network capabilities.

Calling USB/FireWire "nitwit" stuff is kind of foolish, Willks. You may find it isn't what you want, but that doesn't make it "unreal".