I installed FC 5 on a Dell Dimension 2400 with 1gb RAM

I am operating in text mode

When I start a program like BIND or iptables, there is no video output when the
program starts. The cursor drops down one line and there is no output.

What I have been doing is starting another terminal with Alt+2

What I see then is a totally blank screen and the monitor on light blinksn and
off as if there is no video signal

When I go back to the screen I used to start the program, then I see the screen output

from the program start.

Any help appreciated

ELPDave

You want to run apps like bind and iptables in the background. You should have init scripts which do this for you. Use them! Don't start these daemons manually... (if you must, put an "&" at the end to run them in the background)

As for switching consoles, that should be [ctrl] + [alt] + [2] or whatever. If this is not working, then checkout /etc/inittab. It should have lines like:
This will place a login prompt on consoles 1-6, and respawn them if you logout.