Probably a typical newbie problem
 

Ok I have a slight problem with connecting to the internet through my schools network the require that each computer has a computer name and according to the network administrator when I boot into Mandrake Linux 9.2 my computer dosn't have a name if it helps it requires a tcp/ip protocol and I just learned the use of the command ifconfig and havn't had a chance to see if my network card works properly

Change your hostname and domain name using the:

hostname command

man hostname for more details.

ok thanks but will that tell me what my computer logs on as?

tcp/ip has nothing to do with hostnames. you need to set up your interfaces correctly. edit your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethx and make your file read

DEVICE=etho ---or whatever device ifconfig shows
BOOTPROTO=dhcp --if you are dhcp, if your are static,enter static
IPADDR=x.x.x.x --if you are static
NETMASK=255.255.x.x - if you are static
ONBOOT=yes

now you can use the commands ifup and ifdown to bring your interface up and down.

Oh thanks man

big help
 

Thanks you guys that was a big help I also found that Mandrake 9.2 make a file in /etc/netprofiles/list that lists all the config files used by a particular user profile I'm not sure if any other distro does that

If the network is mainly of windows computers, you will probably need to run nmbd (part of the samba suite)