Red Hat Linux 9 for Dummies

It is a good book but too soon out of date. I had Red Hat Linux 9 and managed to get it installed and setup using the book but shortly there after an upgrade came out which made the book somewhat out-of-date. I would not recommend purchasing this book; nor would I recommend most computer books. They are too expensive for the little use you will get from them. Also; the Linux developers seem to have shot themselves in the foot. They had a good product which to compete with Microsoft Windows but they did not pursue it. Now you cannt even find Linux operating system. Red Hat Linux 9 for DUMmIES 1 About the Authors 3 Author’s Acknowledgments 4 Contents at a Glance 6 Table of Contents 8 Introduction 16 About This Book 16 Foolish Assumptions 17 Conventions Used in This Book 17 How This Book Is Organized 19 What You’re Not to Read 22 Icons in This Book 22 Where to Go from Here 22 Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux 24 Chapter 1: And in the Opposite Corner . . . a Penguin? 26 History of the World — Er, Linux – Part II 26 Knowing What You Can Do with Red Hat Linux 28 Chapter 2: Getting Ready for Red Hat Linux 32 Preparing Your Hard Drive for Red Hat Linux 33 Am I Fat or Just NTFS? 34 Defragmenting Your Hard Drive 34 Move Over, Windows — Here Comes Linux 37 Chapter 3: Ready, Set, Install! 46 Choosing an Installation Type 47 Installation Stage 1: Starting the Installation 48 Installation Stage 2: Slicing and Dicing the Pie 50 Installation Stage 3: Configuring Your Network 56 Installation Stage 4: Configuring Your Options 59 Installation Stage 5: The Point of No Return! 61 Installation Stage 6: X Marks the Spot 63 Post Installation: Using the Setup Agent 65 Chapter 4: Getting Red Hat Linux 70 Introducing the Linux File System Tree 70 Giving Red Hat Linux the Boot 72 Logging In 73 The Command-Line Interface ( CLI) versus the Graphical User Interface ( GUI) 74 Configuring Your Graphical Display 75 Creating User Accounts with the Red Hat User Manager 79 Creating an Account without X 82 Ending Your First Session 83 Part II: Got Net? 84 Chapter 5: Dial-Up Modems Still Get the Job Done 86 Desperately Seeking an ISP 87 Configuring Your Internet Connection 89 Locating Your Modem with Linux 92 Locating Your Modem with Windows 94 Firing Up Your Internet Connection 95 Chapter 6: Broadband Rocks! 98 Introducing DSL and Cable Connections: The Proof Is in the Wiring 99 The Cable Modem Option 100 The DSL Option 106 Chapter 7: Connect Locally, Communicate Globally: Connecting to a LAN 114 Introducing Local Area Networks 115 Configuring Your NIC with the Red Hat Network Utility 115 Manually Starting and Stopping Your Network 127 Chapter 8: Fire, Fire! Heh-Heh, Firewalls Are Cool! 130 Understanding Why You Need a Firewall in the First Place 131 Building an Effective Firewall the iptables Way 131 Setting Up a Firewall 133 Displaying Your Firewall Rules 136 Firing Up Your Firewall ( And Dousing the Flames) 137 Testing Your Firewall 139 Part III: Linux, Huh! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Everything! 142 Chapter 9: Gnowing GNOME 144 Introducing the X Window System 145 Exploring the GNOME Desktop Environment 146 Mucking about the Desktop 147 Messing Around with Windows 150 The Making of a Desktop Icon 152 Playing with the GNOME Panel 153 Adding and Deleting Panels 154 Leaving GNOME and X 155 Tinkering with GNOME 156 Accessing GNOME Applications 158 Going Old School with the Terminal Emulators 160 Suspending Your Computer 161 Chapter 10: Gnowing More Applications 164 Navigating with the Nautilus File/Internet Integration Manager 164 Come the Ximian Evolution Revolution 168 Checking Out Some Handy Linux Programs 174 Chapter 11: Surfin’ the Net and Groovin’ to Tunes 176 Making the World Wide Web Possible 176 Surfin’ the Net with Mozilla 177 Plugging In Plug-Ins 179 Groovin’ to Tunes with CD Player 182 Setting Up Your Sound System 182 Playing CDs 183 Ripping CDs 184 Entering the Ring of Fire: Burning CDs 185 Chapter 12: Live from the Net 190 Using the XMMS Audio Player 190 Modifying XMMS to Work with MP3 193 Using the Fabulous Mplayer 195 Chapter 12: Going to the Office 202 Opening Your Office 202 Getting to Know OpenOffice 206 Part IV: Revenge of the Nerds 212 Chapter 14: Building Your Own, Private Network 214 Designing and Building Your Private Network 215 So You Want to Build an Internet Gateway 221 Chapter 15: Creating Basic Linux Network Services 228 Preparing a Network Server 228 Building an Apache Web Server 230 Building a Samba File Server 233 Building a Print Server 238 Building a DHCP Server 242 Building a DNS Server 244 Chapter 16: Securing Your Future 254 Thinking Security 254 Preventing Intruders 255 Danger, Will Robinson! Detecting Intruders 269 Understanding the Security Process 276 Chapter 17: Bringing In the Red Hat Linux Repair Person 278 The Fix Is In: Troubleshooting Your Network 278 Introducing Fault Trees 279 Ticking through Your Linux Networking Checklist 280 Part V: The Part of Tens 292 Chapter 18: Ten Problem Areas and Solutions 294 “ Help! I Need Some Help!” 294 Fixing Common Problems 297 Chapter 19: Ten Security Vulnerabilities 306 How Many Daemons Can Dance on the Head of the Linux Process Table? 307 Open the Encrypt 308 Aha! No Firewall — Very, Very Good 308 Keeping Up with the Software Joneses 309 “ Backups? I Don’t Need No Stinking Backups!” 309 My Buffer Overflow-ith 310 Social Engineering 1010101010 311 Bad Passwords 311 Scan Me 312 I Know Where You Logged in Last Summer 313 Part VI: The Appendixes 314 Appendix A: Discovering Your Hardware 316 Breaking Down Your Computer 316 Understanding Hard Drive Controllers 318 A Bit about Memory Bytes 319 Discovering Your Windows 9x or Windows Me Hardware 320 Discovering Your Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP Hardware 321 Appendix B: Filing Your Life Away 322 Getting Linux File Facts Straight 322 Moving Around the File System with pwd and cd 326 Manipulating Files and Directories 329 Owning Files and Granting Permissions 332 Making Your Own Rules 334 Appendix C: Becoming a Suit: Managing the Red Hat Linux File System 338 Mounting and Unmounting 338 Sending Corrupted File Systems to Reform School: fscking Your Filesystem 342 Increasing Drive Space 343 Appendix D: Revving Up RPM 348 Introducing RPM 348 Taking a Look at What RPM Does 349 Using the Red Hat Package Manager 350 Manually Shifting with RPM 353 Appendix E: About the CD-ROMs 358 System Requirements 358 What You Find 359 If You Have Problems ( Of the CD Kind) 359 Index 362 Red Hat Linux, with its splashy brand name and recognizable logo, is undeniably one of the driving forces behind the Linux revolution—and, by far, the most popular Linux flavor. It's used by businesses, individuals, and governments world wide to cut costs, improve performance, and just plain get the work done. You can use it as a desktop workstation, a network server, an Internet gateway, a firewall, the basis of an embedded system (such as a smart VCR or a robot), or even as a multiprocessor supercomputer. And thanks to the thousands of people who continually refine different parts of Linux, Red Hat Linux keeps getting more flexible and robust with each new release. Ready to put the power of the penguin in your PC? This handy plain-English guide to Red Hat Linux 9 shows you how—no experience required! It gets you up and running with everything you need to know to: Install, configure, customize, and fine-tune Red Hat Linux 9 Get connected to the Internet Work with Word documents Set up a Web server Customize your own flexible, powerful workstation Connect to a wireless network Build a firewall With world-renowned Linux expert and crusader Jon “maddog” Hall and Paul Sery as your guides, you'll quickly master what you need to know about: Connecting to the Internet via broadband DSL and cable modems or old-fashioned dial-up modems Getting connected to your Local Area Network (LAN) Building simple Internet and LAN services, including Web pages and print servers Using Red Hat Linux to play CDs and MP3s and listen to radio stations Using OpenOffice desktop productivity suite, Evolution desktop organizer/and email client, the streaming multimedia player, and other cool applications On the 2 Bonus CD-ROMs you'll find: Publisher's edition of Red Hat Linux 9 Apache Web Server GNU compiler GNOME and KDE Desktop This amazing book/CD package is hands-down the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to put the full power of Linux to work for you. Install and configure Red Hat Linux 9 – no experience needed!

Interface with GNOME,TM connect to a wireless network, and build a firewall

Put the power of the penguin in your PC with this handy, plain-English guide to Red Hat Linux 9. In no time, you can have Red Hat Linux installed, get connected to the Internet, play media files, work with Word documents, set up a Web server, customize your own flexible, powerful workstation, and do it all for peanuts!

All this on 2 bonus CD-ROMs

• Publisher's Edition of Red Hat Linux 9
• Includes Apache Web Server, GNUTM compiler, GNOME and KDE Desktop, and more!

About the Author:
Paul G. Sery works for Sandia National Laboratories. Both are prolific authors.

* Linux is the most popular open source operating system; Red Hat has strong international distribution and, according to IDC, controls approximately 700f the Linux market in the United States* Red Hat updates twice a year; this book shows Linux newcomers as well as users of earlier versions how to install, configure, and use the newest version* Covers preparing the hard drive for Linux, connecting to a network or the Internet, working with the GNOME interface, playing media files, and working with the file system* Features a new security chapter that shows how to implement firewalls and other basic and advanced systems* CD-ROM includes Red Hat Linux 9 Publisher's Edition Red Hat Linux is a popular Linux flavor. This book provides information on how to: install, configure, customize, and fine-tune Red Hat Linux 9; get connected to the Internet; work with Word documents; set up a Web server; customize your own flexible, powerful workstation; connect to a wireless network; and build a firewall.