firstly apologies for my ignorance of linux -something I'm trying to put right.
I've got a load of questions that hopefully you guys can help .

How can I change the date & time on a linux server with no x windows (ie from a shell) ?

How can I change the IP address of the pc also in the shell only ?

Can anyone suggest a modem that comes with a linux driver in the box as I have tried various modems without success

Anyone got any good sites on backups. Most books and internet docs simply mention tar and don't really explain how to backup an entire system

Anyone recommend any good books for getting up to steam on Linux admin with practical howto's in them ?

Any help would be cherished !!

Welcome to LQ.

1) To change the date manually you can use the date command - see:
man date
If you want to syncronise with an ntp server then:
ntpdate some.ntp.server

2) There are many distro specific ways to do this - perhaps you could let us know what you are using and perhaps enter the information into your profile.

3) Any modem should work so long as it is a pure hardware modem.

4) What medium are you trying to backup to?

5) I tend not to read books - just LQ and google. For a good list of howtos see:
LinuxAnswers: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers.php
The LQ Wiki: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org
The Linux Documentation Project: http://www.tldp.org

Thanks David

The distro in question is RedHat 8. But at home I'm tinkering with Suse and Mandrake. It's the RedHat one I'm really interested in for the IP and time change.

The medium in question is tape but I'm really interested in backup in general as there doesn't seem to a whole lot on the web on full system backups. Forgive me if I am looking at this from a Micro$oft perspective but I am trying to atone for my sins.

I have tried a hardware modem -didn't get detected tried, to install a driver of the manu's website but no joy either!!

To change the IP - try running "netconfig".

For tape backups look at:
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/sag/html/x2570.html

You shouldn't need a driver if it is a true hardware modem. What did you use to set the connection up? Have you read the ppp howto on tldp.org?

here are some references online:

http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/
http://tille.soti.org/training/tldp/index.html

also, if you haven't checked them out, Redhat has some excellent free docs:

https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/