editing config files.. embarassingly basic question
 

very basic newbish question..

how do i access config files to edit them?

most of your conf files are in /etc, and, you'll need to be root to edit them.
good luck.

....... adding to that - su to Root user in an xterm then the general form is

editor path_to_configfile

Just in case you mean what to use to edit, some easier editors to use are:

pico
nano

and more traditional ones but more difficult at first are:

vi
emacs

Like Skyline said, the format at the command line using pico as an example would be:

>>pico <filename>

where >> is a prompt (dont type it) and <filename> is the pathname, fully qualified if neccesary.