UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Im on XP now but when im on linux how do I connect to the internet?

I don't think AOL works with it but are there any free programs that I can use with it?

Connecting to the Internet is done by having your TCP/IP network configuration correctly done based on the configuration guidelines of your ISP. Both XP and Linux have very mature TCP/IP configurations, so you connect to the Internet the same way with XP or Linux, via the proper configuration of your TCP/IP interfaces.

Can you put that in english? (sorry im not 2 bright)

you need to provide more info, are you going to be using a dial up modem? or cable modem? or dsl? your question depends mainly on how your isp does things. i saw you asked are there any free programs, well you can get pretty much any program for anytask for free, especially for linux, go to gnu.org and search there. did you mean free isp? then thats dial up, you will have to find one your self. try netzero.com and see if they support unix os's.

I haven't ever heard of anyone connecting to the Internet with AOL as their ISP using a non-(Mac|Windows) computer.

Most other "regular" dial-up ISP's will work too - not sure about DSL / Cable, but a lot of people do it, so....

alright, yea it is a dialup 56k modem.

But if I can't get to the internet on linux how will I download an internet? Can I download it from windows or something?

Well, depends on what you get.

For example, if you want Netzero, you can either download the file (only 426 KB, so you can save it on a disk) or you can order it for $10 on a CD.

But don't get Netzero:

"NetZero currently supports Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT 4, and Windows XP. There may be plans for a Mac version at a later date ... NetZero does not support other operating systems ..."