Despite being a neewbie I am learning fast [I think] All my troubles appear to be linked with installation of the wrong Distro. My system is a Firewall server linked to cable broadband that supports a LAN and dailin access by my daughter So the system has 3 NIC cards all suitably recognised and currently have an internal Linmodem that is not functioning yet [have also sourced a TOPIC 560x modem that its manufacturer claims is supported by Linux. If indeed that proves correct I will distribute the details over all the sites and forums I can find] My current System is 2.2.14-5.0-Redhat 6.02 The advice from this forum is that maybe this is not applicable to the servers needs given there are difficulties locating some files and running the ./build-module for the linmodem driver. Consequently I seek advice from those who understand or have experience that can recommend a. Which Linux release 2.4.2 or whatever b. Which Redhat release [I have RH7.3 image on 3 disks if indeeed 6.02 is no good? ] c. Where do I find which distro/s can supply the appropriate downloads that match the system requirements. I cannot say that I will not be back on this site craving further knowledge or assistance because I can honestly say I have gone from the ability to fire up and put in the Root password to being quite dangerous with little knowledge I have gleened from everybody.

For one ditch the winmodem and get an external or internal hardware modem. As it will not take up much needed cpu cycles the winmodom does. With that much ran the any later distro should be ok. RH 6.02 should be fine for learning purposes or later if you have the hdd space. I'm using RH 6.2 at the moment on a P166 with 64 megs of ram. Also use a light window manager such as window maker. dfm is a good light file manager compared to gnome file manger and available in rpm format. Good luck.

http://rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/6.2/en/powertools/i386/i386/-RH 6.2 proggies.

You need a hardware modem like a USR 5610B pci performance pro hard modem . They run 79$ everywhere even at walmart. As far as Distros I prefer RH 7.3 . I would stay away from 8.0 if I where You. Good Luck Ron