> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Lindinger [mailto:jilindi@yahoo.com]
 
> Ah, but even with several helpful suggestions, I gave up on a 
> Linux router and spent $89 at Best Buy for a LinkSys router / switch that
is 
> configured from the LAN side using a web browser. A tad bit easier than
adding Linux 
> modules or recompiling the kernel.

Ah, but what are you learning with it?
  
> There seemed to be nothing I could do with the RedHat 7 
> (2.2.16 kernel) and  7.1 (2.4.2 kernel) distributions that 
> worked right out of the box.  Every attempt (perl 
> scripts,IPTables versus IPchains, etc) ran into problems with 
> modules not installed or recompile with additional options required.  

That's a frustrating but true part of Linux as it is today.  I've found that
by sticking with a RedHat or RedHat derived Mandrake distribution, I can
find HOWTO	files that give me step-by step directions that will
actually work in most cases.

The more recent distributions seem to be better and better integrated, so
that if you pick a package at install time, chances are it will be working
when the install completes.  This functionality is gradually limping it's
way into the package managers so that you can install something after the
system is up and running without six CD's and twentyseven
search-and-download, sorry-our-site-is-busy-or-down-today headaches.

Unfortunately, a lot of this progress is being made only on the GUI side.
Developers seem to have access to plenty of expensive hardware these days,
and if you're stuck with a command line package management is minimal at
best.  (Debian is doing better in this area.)

Do stay away from the configuration tools if you want to be able to use
HOWTOs or be able to look at your configuration and see what's actually
happening.  Using Linuxconf or the GUI imitations of Microsoft "wizards"
will leave you with no guess when or where your configuration is changing,
and will leave setup and security decisions to the people who wrote the
tool.  Sounds familiar, doesn't it?