Wanna help ex-Microsoft User and Linux Newbie ?

[[M80-4CE]]

Hiho

Well, i used Microsoft products for years now, and i think i can handle a lot of things with it. But now its time to change to a "real" OS for my server at home, i think. I hope someone is able and willing to help me with my problems understanding the configuration of linux. I could search te whole forum for answers, but i have a lot of questions :) And i think it isn't bad to bundle a lot of questions in 1 topic, to help other newbies to. Due to the fact that i will write a lot about my problems, you will have something to read if you want to help me.

Let's start !

I installed Linux Mandrake 7.2 on my server. I have a DSL internet connection and this is already working on the server. I have to ethernet cards installed, so starting a gateway should be possible.

Newbie Question : Aehm, how do i start programs under Linux ? I am used to have *.exe files

Question 1 : How to make my whole LAN connect to the internet ? How to configure the gateway for the most commons things, like ICQ, Games, Battlecom, FTP, eMail and so on. I just found an interessting guide from X_console about configuring a gateway. I will look, but if someone wanna help me . . .

Question 2 : How to share files through LAN ? How can i setup my LAN to share files with the cleints which are still running Win98, because of games.

Question 3 : How to setup a FTP server ? Which one would you prefer ?

Question 4 : Is there a possibility to watch the Internet connection ? I am used to have a little symbol in the tray of Win98, but under Linux i can't see if i am connected or not :(

Question 5 : I need a static IP for my FTP and gameserver. With Win98 i was able to use a program like Dynsite to update my dynamic IP on the myip.org server and so i changed my dynamic ip in a static one. Is there a tool for Linux also ??? Or has someone informations about it ?

Question 6 : Is there a tool like Flashget or Getright for Linux ?

Hmm, well it hink that was all for the beginning :) Hope someone is willing to help me. Perhaps per eMail, ICQ or Phone if from Germany.

thx, and cu

[M80-4CE]

[ 29 March 2001: Message edited by: [M80-4CE] ]

[mrBen]

Ok, I'll throw in a small answer. To run stuff in Linux, just type the name of the prog in a terminal. If the prog is contained in your PATH variable then it will be run. Otherwise, either type the entire path name, or go to the path and and type ./<progname>

That's about it from me, I'm afraid. HTH

[[M80-4CE]]

Hi MrBen

Thx for your fast answer. But how do i know which one to execute ??? I know this are stupid questions in some way, but i really dont know it :)

[M80-4CE]

[mrBen]

Pretty much anything can be executable. First clue is to use colour - hopefully the ls command should be set up to show colours when it runs. Go to your /bin directory. Run ls. These are all your main commands. One of them will probably be called ls! This is the colour you are looking for. Problem is that pretty much anything can be an executable in Linux, IMHO, regardless of name. The only ones that aren't tend to be more obviously name, like README, or have extensions, like .tar.gz, .hmtl, .xml, .png, etc. So if it hasn't got an extension, then it's a suspect :) Then it's a case of trying it. But what's the best way. Well, man <progname> will indicate if it has a man page, which will mean it's probably a program. vi <progname> will attempt to load it into a text editor. But text files can be executable as well - text files that begin #!/bin/bash are shell scripts, for example.

Oh, one last handy tip - if you use ls -a you will get a list of files with their permissions. If it's a directory, I think there is a d in there somewhere. Included you should get a bit that looks something like this:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/chapter/figs/deb.0404.gif

which shows permissions in read, write execute, and owner, group, other. So rw-rw-r-- would mean that the owner and his group have read and write access, but other users only have read access. Given that no execute access has been given, it's probably not an executable. So if there are x's in there, then it's probably an executable.

HTH

Next please :)

[Ooops - had to edit the picture. Big thanks to O'Reilly for Learning Debian GNU/Linux book online :D]

[ 29 March 2001: Message edited by: mrBen ]

[[M80-4CE]]

O.k. i will try :) I think i am now able to figure out which file toexecute and which one not. Now i can try to solve the bigger problems like Gateway, FTP and so on.

thx

[M80-4CE]

[Molecule Man]

Check out www.linux.com (http://www.linux.com) They just put out a couple of articles on networking. In particular if you want to share files with windows clients the two main options are an ftp server or SAMBA.

In monitoring 'net access, there are several ways. I know GNOME has a couple of Network/PPP monitor applets. There is also GKrellm. I think KDE has a dock applet that will do it, and it is on by default in IceWM.

Most ftp clients have the option to resume. I find that is usually sufficient.