Internet Tools

Internet Tools

Configuring your Network

To communicate with other computers, computers need a network connection. This is accomplished by having the operating system recognize an interface card (such as Ethernet, ISDN modem, or token ring) and configuring the interface to connect to the network.

The Network Administration Tool can be used to configure different types of network interfaces.

It support following types of network interfaces:

• Ethernet • ISDN • modem • xDSL • token ring • CIPE • wireless devices

To use the Network Configuration Tool, you must have root privileges. To start the application, go to the Main Menu Button (on the Panel) => System Settings => Network, or type the command system-config-network at a shell prompt (for example, in an XTerm or a GNOME terminal). If you type the command, the graphical version is displayed if X is running, otherwise, the text-based version is displayed. To force the text-based version to run, use the system-config-network command.

To configure a network connection with the Network Configuration Tool, perform the following steps:

1. Add the physical hardware device to the hardware list. 2. Add a network device associated with the physical hardware device. 3. Configure the hostname and DNS settings. 4. Configure any hosts that cannot be looked up through DNS.

Configuring LAN with Network Configuration tool

To establish an Ethernet connection, you need a network interface card (NIC), a network cable (usually a CAT5 cable), and a network to connect to. Different networks are configured to use different network speeds; make sure your NIC is compatible with the network to which you want to connect.

To add an Ethernet connection, follow these steps:

1. Click the Devices tab. 2. Click the New button on the toolbar. 3. Select Ethernet connection from the Device Type list, and click Forward. 4. If you have already added the network interface card to the hardware list, select it from the Ethernet card list. Otherwise, select Other Ethernet Card to add the hardware device. ;

5. If you selected Other Ethernet Card, the Select Ethernet Adapter window appears. Select the manufacturer and model of the Ethernet card. Select the device name. If this is the system's first Ethernet card, select eth0 as the device name; if this is the second Ethernet card, select eth1 (and so on). The Network Configuration Tool also allows you to configure the resources for the NIC. Click Forward to continue.

6. In the Configure Configuration Settings window as shown in the figure below, choose between DHCP and a static IP address. If the device receives a different IP address each time the network is started, do not specify a hostname. Click Forward to continue.

7. Click Apply on the Create Ethernet Device page.

After configuring the Ethernet device, it appears in the device list.

Be sure to select File => Save to save the changes.

After adding the Ethernet device, you can edit its configuration by selecting the device from the device list and clicking Edit.

When the device is added, it is not activated immediately, as seen by its Inactive status. To activate the device, select it from the device list, and click the Activate button. If the system is configured to activate the device when the computer starts (the default), this step does not have to be performed again.

Internet Tools   Web Browsers   The following is a selection of Linux-based Web browsers.   Amaya   Amaya is a Web browser as well as a Web editor, which creates and updates documents directly on the Web. Its browsing, editing and remote access features are seamlessly integrated in a uniform environment. Amaya is W3C's test bed cross-platform editor/browser. Platform: Independent.   Epiphany   As its name (meaning "an intuitive grasp of reality through something simple and striking") indicates, Epiphany, though based on the Mozilla rendering engine, aims to utilize a much simpler and less bloated interface. It also has standards compliance and GNOME integration. Platform: Linux / Unix.   Galeon   Galeon is a GNOME web browser based on gecko (mozilla rendering engine). It's fast, it has a light interface and it is full standards compliant. It requires current Mozilla sources to build. Platform: Linux / Unix.   HotJava (Free for non-commercial use)   The HotJava Browser provides a highly-customizable modular solution for creating and deploying Web-enabled applications across a wide array of environments and devices. Using HotJava on Solaris for SPARC and JavaStation is officially supported by Sun. But you can also download an unsupported version of HotJava of Linux.   Konqueror   Konqueror is a full-featured Web browser, supporting Java applets, JavaScript, CSS1 and (partially) CSS2, as well as Netscape plugins. It is also the file manager for the K Desktop Environment. It supports basic file management on local Unix filesystems, as well as remote and local network file browsing.   Lynx   Lynx is a text based web browser. Platform: Linux / Unix.   Mozilla Firefox   Mozilla is an open-source web browser, designed for standards-compliance, performance and portability. Platform: Linux / Unix, MacOS X, Windows.   Netscape Navigator   The latest version of Netscape is certified and supported on Red Hat Linux. But you can find a version of Netscape for other distributions of Linux, too.   WebCon   WebCon is a simple Web console tool that allows you to perform any HTTP operations automatically, like posting data, saving data, deleting documents, etc. Platform: Linux / Unix.   Opera for Linux   For those of you who love Opera as your PC browser, here is an informative Web site with articles and illustrated guides for using Opera on Linux.   Using Konqueror   To start Konqueror web browser click on Appications-->Internet and select Konqueror from the Internet sub-menu:     or type konqueror at the prompt and press Enter.     Konqueror uses a very capable HTML rendering engine called KHTML. This engine is implemented as a KPart and as such, it can be easily used by other KDE programs. KHTML is also used by the Apple browser Safari. Konqueror has been developed as an autonomous web browser project. It normally uses KHTML as its layout engine, which is compliant with HTML, supports JavaScript, Java applets, Cascading Style Sheets, SSL, and other relevant open standards.   Accessing Internet with Konqueror   To surf the Internet with Konqueror type the url of the web page in the Location box and press Enter:     Konqueror showing eBIZ.com home page[http://www.ebizel.com]   Using Firefox   Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation, and a large community of external contributors. Firefox, officially abbreviated as Fx or fx and popularly abbreviated FF,started as a fork of the Navigator browser component of the Mozilla Application Suite.   Firefox has replaced the Mozilla Suite as the flagship product of the Mozilla project, under the direction of the Mozilla Foundation.   In my personal opinion, Firefox is one of the most secure, reliable and fastest web browser available for any platform. Even if you are using Windows I'll suggest you switch to use Firefox instead of MS IE, because it is much faster and secure than IE.   Starting Firefox   Click Applications --> Internet -->Firefox Web Browser   Or type firefox on the prompt and press Enter.     Main advantage of using Firefox is its availability across the platforms and similar look and performance across the platforms, so if you have used Firefox on Windows, then you already know how to use it.   Just type the address in the address bar and click on Go button/press enter, to start browsing.         Internet Tools   Download manager   Apart from Web Browsers and IM Clients Fedora Linux also has a pre-installed download manager KGet. This package is built-in facility in Konqueror browser and for other browsers we can drag and drop the URL we want to download.   Built-in KGet in Konqueror-   KGet comes as a built in utility with Konqueror browser see the image below, the blue arrow in the toolbar is the download manager for Konqueror.     Apart from Konqueror, KGet can also be used with other web browsers as a download manager, all you have to do is just start the KGet from Applications--> Internet --> KGet and drag-drop the download links to KGet drop target button.       Notice the KGet icon in the System Tray.   Using KGet with Firefox   Open the web page, from where you want to download something in Firefox. i.e. eBIZ.com's download page: http://www.ebizel.com/download.php     Drag the desired link and drop it in the KGet drop target button located in the System Tray. KGet will prompt you to save the file, select the location where you want to download the file.     This dialog box shows the progress of the download. You can close this dialog selecting File-->Close or pressing Ctr+Q; this will not abort the download.         Internet Tools   IM Clients   Like other application softwares, Linux also have some good IM(Instant Messaging/Chatting) clients and some of these clients allow you to connect to multiple IM services at once, now, that is the added advantage for the user. Some of these clients are bundled with various Linux distribution and others are available for download.   Some the most popular for Linux are listed below:   1. Gaim (now known as Pidgin)[bundled with GNU Gnome DE] 2. Kopete 3. AYTTM 4. AOL's Linux AIM 5. Yahoo! Messenger for Linux 6. Kinkatta's 7. TiK 8. LICQ 9. Tkabber   There are others too.. but we will only guide you with the most popular IM client for Linux, Gaim. Since Yahoo! Messenger for Linux and AOL's Linux AIM are similar to there Windows peers , so there discussion has not been included and including each and every client is beyond the scope of this tutorial.   Gaim(Jacks-of-all-protocols)   Gaim is a multi-platform instant messaging client that supports many commonly used instant messaging protocols. Pidgin is free software available under the GNU General Public License. The undisputed king of Linux instant messaging clients is gaim.   While the app originally supported only AIM's TOC protocol, it ultimately evolved into supporting OSCAR, as well as a staggering multitude of other protocols. Similar to Windows offerings like Trillian, gaim also supports Yahoo!, MSN Messenger and ICQ.   But it doesn't stop there: gaim also supports Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, Zephyr, and the Napster IM protocols. And like Trillian, it can handle multiple simultaneous accounts on the services.     The interface is clean and borrows the familiar icons from each service to demarcate the original networks of each contacts. Additional improvements over the networks' clients include logging and client-side Buddy List hosting.   Using Gaim to connect Yahoo! and MSN   Start the Gaim from Applications--> Internet --> Internet Messenger or execute gaim command from shell.     From the Gaim login window Accounts button to add or Modify an account, or select an account from Account list box enter accounts password and click on Sign on to login into this account.       From the Accounts dialog box click on Add button to add an account or select the account and click on Modify button to edit an existing account.     Displayed below is Gaim Add Account dialog box.   Now, from the Protocol list box, select the IM service you want to connect, for this demonstration we are going to use Yahoo!. You can use any protocol of your choice.     Enter the account details and click on Save to add the account   now, from the Accounts dialog box check on the Online check box to login to the account, you can also use the Gaim login dialog to do so.     Gaim is now logging in to the Yahoo!.     After Sign in is successful you can view your buddies list, send them IMs and do a lot of other stuffs too. To send IM to a user, select the user from the buddies list, you want to send IM and click on IM button.   AYTTM   AYTTM supports AIM TOC, ICQ, Yahoo!, IRC, MSN, and Jabber, and is intended to be able to support any new protocols that come along. (Nevertheless, the developers concede that support for AIM's more robust OSCAR protocol is unlikely to come anytime soon, since they simply don't use it enough to warrant devoting significant time to it.)   Support for the protocols it does currently offer isn't uniform, however. Group chat is supported with AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and Jabber, while file transfer is implemented fully with Yahoo! and MSN users, but AYTTM users cannot send files to AIM users.   Still, AYTTM has a lot going in its favor. Unlike most multi-protocol clients, AYTTM attempts to merge Buddies and contacts from each system into groups sharing members from each network.     Yahoo! Messenger for Linux   Yahoo! has done far better with its own instant messaging client for Linux. Indeed, the company's Yahoo! Messenger for Linux has, in its latest version, been made to actually resemble its more popular Windows version. It also now supports the ability to enter contact information and nicknames for Yahoo! users on other OSes.   Yahoo! Messenger for Linux also now supports the same sorts of content panels that the Windows version offers, with tabs for Finance, News, Sports, Weather, and so on. Typing notifications and overall speed and stability improvements round out the package.