Ok here is the story I just installed redhat 7.2 (it was all I had) I'm trying to get several things working on it here is the list: 1.) ipchains?... I have a windows 98 laptop that I connect through my main machine (2 network cards in the machine with redhat on it) I want the laptop to be able to access the network like it would with the network bridge option on windows XP. (at least for now) 2.) graphics card... I have an all-in-wonder 128 pro which I use on a semi regular basis mostly for watching TV on my monitor. I have no Idea how to pull this off in Linux. Ideally I would like to use something like freevo to use it as a media machine (at least some of the time) and I would also like to be able to control which monitor (TV or monitor) the images are showing up on. Apparently it defaults to the TV if it is plugged in (so I unplug the tv when ever I boot to linux.) 3.) internet connection... At the moment I'm using aol is there any way to connect to aol through Linux (I googled it an found something about peng but I wasn't able to get it to work using the directions I found.) 4.) NTFS... I know that mandrake comes with the ability to mount ntfs partitions I looked online a bit for this one and found that red hat version 7.3 and up can support ntfs, with a RPM off sourceforge but I have 7.2 (and I’m on aol or I would download mandrake and just use that) 5.) Accessing windows shares... I have a small home network and It would be nice to access windows shares on the laptop and other computers. It looked simple in the help files (something along the line of going to lan:// and it would show all the files but it doesn't seem to work that way.) 6.) scanner and printer... I have a visioneer 5300 usb one touch scanner and a HP Laser Jet 1000 (also usb) is there anyway to get both (or either) to work? (I've read that the Laser Jet is picky about what os's it will use) 7.) mouse... I have a generic 5 button scroll wireless mouse (plugged in through a ps2 adaptor) and I've noticed that the scroll wheel and the wing button don't work under Linux. Is there any simple way to fix this? 8.) Keyboard... It is a Microsoft Office Keyboard with all the extra buttons any chance of getting them to work? 9.) Black Box... I've seen a desktop program (like KDE and gnome) called black box however after googleing and pokeing around I've not been able to find it or how to install it. I like the way it looks and feels (kind like litestep from what I saw) I've googled some of the things on this list and I haven't looked at other yet, but these are the main things (at the moment) that are stopping me from using Linux (that and a total lack of understanding of how anything works). If you can offer any advice (preferable with out large downloads) I would be very grateful. Jon VW --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.488 / Virus Database: 287 - Release Date: 6/5/2003 _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list