Hi All, I have been hovering over these boards for a while and it was the helpful advice given in these fora that I decided to take the plunge and install Linux on my spare laptop. I had better say that my laptop is not great (not much memory or hard disk size and only a CD ROM drive) but Fedora Core 5 installed very sweetly onto it and it even recognised my removable flash pen without any problems whatsoever.

I have some starter/newbie questions if I may :

Q1) Is there any software available to connect to AOL over NTL Broadband? ... I have been looking around and have only really seen derogative answers about AOL or no replies at all. I am beginning to think this is not possible but if anyone is likely to know, you guys will.

I have a backup in dialup via ukfsn if need be.

Q2) Any good beginners guide to shell scripting out there? ... I bought "linux in a nutshell 4th ed" and also "101 Wicked Cool Shell Scripts" but they are a bit above me at the moment.

Q3) Any general advice for a complete linux newbie? ... I'm willing to accept any advice given to me. I do have an interest in programming and inherently working out what exactly everything does (little by little) so I don't intend to be afraid of the command line.

Many thanks in advance.

Q1- How do you mean "connect to AOL"? If you mean web browser, Fedora probably has several: Mozilla and Firefox; there's another in the Gnome environment, Konqueror in Kde, as well as text-based links, lynks, and w3m.
If your brodband connection was live when you installed Fedora, then that's probably already configured.

Q2- For Linux related web searches, use www.google.com/linux. Search for scripting guides, tutorials, etc. Bash has a couple os shell scripting guides (Beginners guide and Advanced Bash Scripting). Don't forget awk, python, and perl scripting.

Q3- Since you are not afraid of the command-line, you could google up lists of the most commonly used Linux commands.

In Linux, you have man and info pages for information about commands. Example: you want to know how to use ls (list). Open a console window, and enter the command: man ls, or info ls, to learn more about the command.

In Linux, you MUST accept the notion that you must learn system administration. You are your own administrator. You have more control over your system than Windows users have. I don't fault Microsoft for that; they gave their customers what they wanted: point and click ad nauseum with little real control over their systems. With Linux, you get that control back into your hands.

Criuse your favorite Linux discussion boards. You can learn a lot about your choice of distro, just by reading posts of other users.

Thanks for your reply bigrigdriver. Yes I fully intend to learn all about admininstration or linux. It is one of the things I am most interested in either via single commands or via scripts which I intend to write.

With reference to Q1). Here is a bit more info. It may help if I explain the way it is on Windows to see if there is a linux equivalent. First thing I would need to do is click on the AOL icon, enter my uid and password. It then connects to the ISP(AOL) via the cable modem. Once done, I am on the internet. After that it doesn't matter if I use the built-in browser or Firefox etc as the connection to the ISP has been established.

Btw, as a quick aside I am using GNOME as my desktop (default on Fedora Core 5).

AOL does not provide a linux client application. A quick search did not provide and real answers. I found a workaround using windows ICS. So basically your setting up the windows box as a gateway/router.

I've used AOL with a DSL connection but not cable.

The title of this thread is a bit confusing. If AOL is your ISP, why does that have anything to do with NTL broadband??

This is how they sell AOL.
A friend of mine bought AOL over Verizon broadband here. ~$15 for Verizon + ~$10 for AOL makes $25 in total. For these extra 10 bucks he gets:
1) A pre-made decision what browser to use (no confusion any more what's best),
2) Intelligent spyware protection - which lets thru only serious threats.

That's just odd.

Yep, AOL is one of those quirks of society. It is like a complete bundled package. Maybe good as a startout package for those that don't know much about the internet.

In fact it used to be that "aoler" was term for people who didn't know what they were doing (normally referred to after accidentally formatting the system etc). The fact that we still have AOL is more to do with another member of the family (who also looks at linux with disgust). It is also one of the reasons why I am determined to make it work (i'm already hooked on Linux). To at least be able to get on the internet would be one of the boxes ticked. So I am off to get an external modem shortly (KPPP is already set up).

UPDATE (25.06.2006) :

I am now on the internet. Here's what I did (incuding problems and how I got around it).

1) Bought a USR Sportster 56K modem
2) Bought a USB to serial converter (as my laptop did not have a serial port..and looking on the web most don't nowadays)
3) Booted up KPPP (from the KDE desktop) and tried (by trial and error) all the ports listed until modem was listed in READY state (/tty/USB0).
4) Tried to connect to internet using my ukfsn account (failed)
5) Dowloaded their version of rules and tried again (failed)
6) Played around with the baud settings and tried again (failed)
7) Tried backup numbers listed by ukfsn (failed)
8) Signed up with uklinux.net
9) Changed my KPPP setting to conform with uklinux.net's (success)

Summary :

AOL (especially via cable modem) and Linux are not the best of buddies. Quite possibly the only way to do it is as Michaelk stated above. I am hoping this changes in time but think I am in for a long wait. The good news is that I am now able to use the YUM extender to update packages.

Many thanks to all that have posted their opinion or advice above!

I'm now in the midst of copying all my CDs to OGG format (about 6 of 480 to go) :-)