LinuxQuestions.org - Connection Sharing and now I'm screwed

This is long. First the problem and then a rant. Thanks in advance for your advice.

I loaded Mandrake 8.1 a couple of nights ago and all went exceptionally well. I had loaded RedHat 6.something some time ago in a dual Windows boot arrangement, but this time I'm proud to say, I went Linux all the way. That said, Mandrake loaded great and I got everything set up fine. I connected to the 'net via KPPP to my ISP via dial-up. I checked some stuff out, downloaded an e-mail and went to bed (it was late (early)).
The next evening, I started it up and it booted to Gnome. Odd since it was set for KDE. Oh well, I rebooted and set it up right, I started to get everything looking good and I decided to activate Connection Sharing so I can use my iBook on the internet at the same time as the Linux PC. Next thing you know, Jed's a millionaire and I can't get jack through my PPP connection. It dials, they answer, it says I'm logged in, but I'm getting nothing at all other than the initial 135 bytes. I de-activated Connection Sharing, but that did nothing for me.

What I know:
The DNS addys are right.
The modem is working great.
The NIC is some generic PCI with both RJ-45 and Thin-net. I use RJ-45 with a crossover cable (which actually isn't even necessary since the iBook has automatic cable sensing).
Connection sharing worked under Windows with this same setup, so there's nothing eminently goofy going on hardware-wise.
KPPP worked at one time.

What I don't know:
Is is necessary to name my computer an quantifiable address such as crap.com? Right now, it's simply named "snail".
Does that have anything to do with it?
Earthlink, PAP or CHAP?
What I'm missing here.
Where a decent MAN or HOWTO is for something this wacky.

Now the rant.
MANs and HOWTOs are entirely too in-depth. What is needed is a mini-MAN, a midget if you will. That's bad, I know. Although I do find myselft checking out the MANs for oddball commands just for the fun of it, most of the time, I just need the info I need and not what brand of 'roid cream the developers used when they had occasional flare-ups. If MAN's and HOWTOs were a bit more digestible, many newbies would dive into that rather than requesting hand-holding (like I am now) on forums such as this. Am I alone on this sentiment, or am I completely wrong?

Anyway, thanks for any advice given.
Nog