Newbie alert! be nice ok...

Hi there!

This is my first go at this 'posting thread' business! but I shall forge ahead any-how....

You see I am currently running win-98 and all it's assorted clutter of nonsense and I have heard all manner of lovely things about 'Linux' (ooh!). And me, being of an overwhelmingly curious nature, I need some help!

Which I.S.P's will support a linux box so I can keep my valued connection to the net (and these lovely people at anti-online!)...
...in case your wondering my I.S.P wants to charge me £1 a min' for phoning their helpdesk!!! aaargh. And their website? is spectacularly unhelpful. So any tips or refs' for anything appropriate would be appreciated in the full!

As you may of guessed I, am a complete newbie (nnngn! that 'N' word again!) But I am doing my best to learn all I can about the Internet and all its functions and the sheer amounts of information I have found is getting me down! either because it is, too circumspect, falsely advertised or ultra-tech for the likes of poor old me!

I am making reparations to my current state of ignorance by doing a couple of programming courses and the such like, but my impatience is running rough-shod over my nerves, so If any-one can help me with useful links to sources of good information about;

Udp - Tcp/ip protocols and usages!
resolving ip addresses (what the hell do all those numbers mean?)

A precurser to or something that can make sense of all these RFC's that I have downloaded (They all seem to be explaining some interesting things.. only 5 stages in front of my current understanding... Ow!)

Some Interesting Sites to visit to enhance my learning efforts!


If any-one answers to this I would be most appreciative..... (short of sexual favours and large sums of cash!)

many Thanks....

Fey Null

First thing, make sure your modem is NOT a winmodem. A winmodem is a modem that pretty much only works on windows, because it only comes with drivers that make your computer do part of the work. It makes it cheaper than a 'normal' modem, since the modem doesn't have to have so much stuff in it, but they don't usually come with drivers for non-windows OSes.

Read the Tutorial forums for more information, and your local library might have some TCP/IP stuff in the 000-100 range (dewey decimal system)

Definately not trying to bash your inteligence here, but it is my opinion that Linux is not the best to attempt to run when being a newbie. There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from the dreaded microsoft products. True they may seem "cluterish" and stuff..but hey, try this.. Open up the Run Menu of W98..and type "command" for a Dos Prompt. Not much Less Clutter than that, right? :) I suggest learning a basic usage of w98... and a basic usage of DOS before going on to Linux.