One of the first things you will want to do after setting up Linux is to set up an Internet connection. There are several ways to go about setting up an Internet connection, but the easiest method with Red Hat 5.2 is to use the tools provided by Red Hat.

Red Hat ships with useful tool for configuring various settings on your computer called the control panel. You can launch this from the command line by typing:

You will have to be root to launch the control-panel program, so either log in as root, or type:

To become root from a user account. After you're done with the configuration, you can type exit to return to your user account.

The first step is to configure your modem by clicking on the modem icon. This will bring up a new display that lists the DOS COM ports on your computer. Simply select the appropriate COM port for your modem and select OK.

Next, you will want to start the network configurator program by clicking on the network icon, or by typing netcfg & from the command line.

The first step is to type in the hostname of your computer and its domain. The hostname is just a name to differentiate your computer from other computers on the same network. For example, if your Internet account were from the flinstones.com.au domain, you might set your hostname as "Bam-Bam".

Next, in the bottom pane of the display (labelled Nameservers), you will want to add your DNS server's primary and secondary IP addresses. Your ISP should provide you with this information.

The next step is to create the ppp interface. You can think of an interface as a network connection. For example, there are PPP interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, SLIP interfaces and so forth. Click on the Interfaces tab and then select Add to add a new interface. Choose the PPP option and select OK. Enter in your ISP's phone number and your username and password in the spaces provided.

You will also need to know if your ISP uses PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) or CHAP (Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol) to negotiate PPP connections. If so, you will want to click on the Use PAP Authentication button. Now your connection should be ready to go.

Caption: Creating the PPP interface

If your ISP does not use PAP authentication, you will need to set up a chat script. A chat script is just what the name implies ù it's a "chat" between your computer and your ISP. The chat script is responsible for logging in and setting up the communications between your computer and your ISP.

If youÆre dual booting between Windows and Linux, you can find out what your chat script should contain by selecting the properties of your dial-up connection and clicking the bring up terminal window after dialing option. You will need to write down what is displayed on the screen and what you type in as a response. This may include asking what type of service you would like to use, your username and your password.

To create the chat script, go back to the network configurator program, click on the Interfaces tab, select your newly created PPP interface and then press the Edit button. A dialogue box will present options to type, in Send and Expect pairs. For each entry, you should type in the last word sent by your ISP in the Expect box and your response in the Send box. It is critical that this is 100 per cent accurate, so make sure you've got the right strings. Finally, set the last line of your script to expect a tilde (~) and don't send anything.

Caption: Send and Expect options tell your computer to communicate with your ISP

You might also want to have a look at the options in the Networking page. Many of the options can be left unchanged, but there are some ù such as reconnecting if the line drops out ù that you may wish to select.

If all went well, you should have successfully created the connection. You can activate the connection by selecting the PPP interface in the network configurator program and then pressing the Activate button.

If you run into problems, there is plenty of documentation that ships with Red Hat 5.2. Check in the /usr/doc/HOWTO directory for the PPP-HOWTO document, which contains more information about setting up a PPP connection. Another good source of information is the Network Administrator's Guide, which can be found at mirror.aarnet.edu.au/linux/LDP/LDP/nag/nag.html. Good luck and happy surfing!