...is the product of being caught in limbo. Thats where Im at right now and Im lookig for a life line. Here's my situation.

I unpacked the .tar.gz in the /usr/src and then ran
make
as per INSTALL instructions. The problem is that after make
when I run the command I get a 'command not found' error. Ive even tried using make, while su -l, but to no avail. Though the install didnt mention 'make install' I tried it anyway and got
make: ***No rule to make target 'install'. Stop.

echo $PATH for su is
/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/localhost/bin

Shoul d I be unpacking these in /usr/local/bin or bin or /usr/bin?

well, it'd certainly help if you actaully told us *what* you're trying to install, and *what* your isntall instructions say.. you can't expect answers without any real information...

Alright then, lets try the first prog. It s John the Ripper. Heres a snip from the INSTALL file:

Installing John the Ripper
============================

Compiling the Sources
-----------------------

Compile the sources with:

cd src
make

You'll get a list of supported systems. Select one of them, and type:

make SYSTEM

or, if your system is not listed, try:

make generic

If everything goes well, this will create the John binary in run/john.

You can then copy the run directory anywhere you like: these are all the
files that John needs at runtime.

End of Snip...

Make works but they dont seem to give me the ability to run the command 'john' afterward.
'Make install' gives me a
make: ***no rule to make target 'install'. Stop.

Same problem with the IDS snort Ive installed. I figure if I get the answer to this I could apply the general prinicipal to getting snort to opperate.

OK, as far as I can tell from your install instructions there, if you type make you'll be given a list of SYSTEMs:

#make
linux ... makes the executable for the Linux system
windows ... makes the executable for the Windows system
beos ... you get the picture

So, you would need to type make linux. Once all is done, you'd move into the run directory, where you'd find the executable file called john.