i have a screwdriver computer and a compaq...they both run suse...how can i hook up the compaq to my other computer to login to it, view and manipulate files and share the internet connection?

Yes you can.

Sure you can do that!

I assume that you have the necessary networking kit? Some cards and a bit of cable... In which case you _just_ need to install the cards, make sure support for them is in your kernel, give them IP addresses (please use private address space, 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x or [and theres another but I can't remember it]). Then you will be able to get from one machine to another.

You will need to play about a little with your security if you want to telnet and FTP as root, this will (should) be disabled by default. To share your internet connection you will need to enable IP Masquerading (A.K.A. NAT [Network Address Translation]). This is a lot easier than it sounds.

Have a look at the following for how to do it all. It will need a little time if its for first attempt but its a great learning experience.

http://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Kernel-HOWTO.html
http://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Ethernet-HOWTO.html
http://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Net-HOWTO/index.html
http://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/IP-Masquerade-HOWTO.html
http://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/IPCHAINS-HOWTO.html

Good luck!! The above may be available on your system under /usr/doc/Linux-HOWTOs/ ...

thanks chief, thats the kinda help im talking about...
too many damned elitists...

One thing not mentioned, you need to modify the Hosts file so you can refer to the machines by name, eg.
192.168.1.1 Compaq
192.168.1.2 Screwdriver
and, I found out the hard way, both computers need to include themselves in that Hosts file. For some reason Linux needs to find itself, but then we get philosophical...

/js

Good call by Notlinus - I missed that 'obvious' one. Once you get the networking bug you'll probably find yourself superseeding this by setting up your own DNS server for your whole 2 machine LAN. I know I did! You will also need to look at /etc/resolv.conf but thats all covered in the howtos.

Its just gets sader and sader from there

Jamie...

thanks guys for the help...everything is working out...i just got very frustrated because i felt that the man pages and such that suse supplies with this distro was not explaining things to me in english. maybe im an idiot but those help thingies make little sense to me but im very sorry for taking it out on you outstanding linux administrtors...

thanks for the help