Coming from a strong Windoze background I loove the idea of a non-microsoft operating system. But I must admit this has been to say the least slightly difficult learning and understanding Linux's nuances.

I just recently installed a Kingston ethernet adapter into my computer and Linux immediately identified it and I could set an address to it and play around with it. However anytime I try to ping anything I get "Network Unavailable". If anyone would have some kind of newbie network configuration info I'd reaally appreciate it. Or if you know what I'm overlooking that would really be appreciated as well.

Thanks again in advance for any help.
-Jay

First of all, can you ping the IP address of your network card?

If you can ping your network card, but you can't ping other computers, it probably is caused by you not having a default gateway setup. If you try to ping an IP address not in your network card's network range (determined by the netmask), the computer (well the linux kernel actually) will look for a default gateway and try to access the requested IP address through that computer.

Run the "route" command and check if there's a default gateway.

If not, then you will have to set one, and how to set it depends on your network setup. Is there Internet involved somewhere, how many PC's, how are they connected, etc, etc.

Ok,
I have two computer attached to a small ethernet switch. The first win2k and the second one is RedHat 6.2 Linux.
With my Linux box, I pinged the network card ok. (127.0.0.1) so I am working on the default gateway stuff right now. Thanks again for the help.

I don't know too much about setting up networks, but just for reference, http://www.linuxdoc.org is a great way to learn about Linux nuances.

Thanks alot. That should really come in handy..
-Jason