Hello All:

In acknowledgement of what I don't know (and paranoia) I did a:

netstat -an | grep LISTEN

and obtained the following:

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:32768 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:32769 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:111 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5180 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1427 /dev/gpmctl
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2240 /tmp/ksocket-root/kdein it-:0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1626 /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1481 /tmp/.font-unix/fs7100
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1952 /tmp/.ICE-unix/dcop1179 -1068909301
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2067 /tmp/.ICE-unix/1207
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1945 /tmp/ksocket-elsteamola /kdeinit-:0
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 1976 /tmp/ksocket-elsteamola /klauncherjvTZva.slave-socket
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2267 /tmp/ksocket-root/klaun cherpHSvdc.slave-socket
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2245 /tmp/.ICE-unix/dcop1235 -1068909352
unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 2045 /tmp/mcop-elsteamola/lo

please tell me I have nothing major to worry about. Specifically, what is /tmp/ksocket-root/klaun????

ergo_sum

Check here for common ports. As for klaun, looks like a KDE Launcher type listner. If your firewall is configured not to accept any external traffic on those ports, you should be OK. Are you running KDE as your desktop?

Let me ask some more questions here.
I'm using regular dialup w/ my isp, which is using dhcp for assigning tcp/ip addresses. Can I still configure a firewall and use it in a way that won't be obtrusive for me? On RH 7.3, what exactly is the firewall called?

ergo_sum

Sure you can.

Run this for the details on ipchains (the firewall):

man ipchains

There are many firewall builders out there, I like this one

Doesn't the distro come w/ a firewall, and isn't ipchains a firewall itself?

Yes, ipchains is a firewall. fwbuilder makes it VERY easy to configure complex firewall rules. You can do it from the command line, if you would prefer. I just like the GUI.