Ehm, XPediTioN...I don't mean to be rude, but...
It seems to me that you don't really search for information and try to put it together in order to get your system flying. Rather, it seems like you want OTHER PEOPLE to search for information and try to put it together for you.
One of the main differences between Linux and Windows is that Linux actually allows you to have control over what's going on with the system. Most (non-redmond) people consider this a pretty good thing, and...they take advantage of it. How? Well, in order to control something, you'll have to KNOW it.
This means that Linux people - especially those with "hardcore" distros like Slackware etc - tend to rtfm.
A LOT.
If they can't find the answer in tfm
they stfw.
A LOT.
While they're doing this, they stfu (except for an occasional "dammit!"), and if they STILL can't solve the problem in question...they might post on a forum or in a newsgroup.
What I'm trying to say is that unless you really start to ABSORB the information given to you, for free, all across the internet, you're NEVER gonna have control over your Slack...and in such a case, you might as well go wind0ze all the way.
Now, if you really want to learn Linux, I recommend you to read "the book" for starters (
http://www.slackware.com/book/). After reading it, one is "comfortable" with Slack and don't really feel like a stranger anymore. Of course, one is by no means an expert after reading the book, but at last one's moving in the right direction.
There are some excellent other books you'll probably want to look into as well, for instance Matt Welsh's "Running Linux" (you'll want the fourth edition, ISBN 0596002726). You'll probably like
http://jetblackz.freeservers.com/index.html too. Also, you should study computer hardware a bit - that's pretty necessary to know in order to get your Linux system screaming. You'd be helped by knowing about programming and scripting, so check that out a bit as well.
I also recommend you to pay frequent visitis to sites like
http://newsforge.com/
http://www.linuxcompatible.org/
http://lwn.net/
http://www.userlocal.org/
and so on.You should also make sure to keep your box tight, so
http://www.netfilter.org/ is definitely important.
Of course, you check out the list of links each site provide as well. There is lots and lots of information, just waiting to be double- and triple-checked.
As I said - you WILL have to know a lot in order to successfully administer your system. You'll need to know about your hardware, about Linux in general, about Slackware in particular, about specific pieces of software (such as IPTables). Again, I certainly don't intend to be rude - if you think I came across as rude, I apologize - but you'll have to start studying if you want to run Linux. Now.
