Thanks for the info. I spent hours on Saturday evening trying to install Firefox. I couldn't get anywhere with the Tar file, so I went through Google and found what claimed to be an RPM download. This didn't work either, although I followed the instructions in my book for installing RPM packages. I must confess myself puzzled that something as basic as loading a piece of software should prove so troublesome. The truth - obviously - is that I'm going to have to spend more time learning about the guts of Linux. This isn't something that I paricularly want to do. It may be that I simply use Linux as a web browser, which is a shame. But I simply don't have the time to learn how to programme the kind of thing I have done by point and click in the Windows environment.

What's so difficult about installing firefox?
In RH8 you might have problems with glibc but in RH9 it sould be really easy:

1.Download the version with tha installer (firefox-installer)
2.Unpack it somewhere: tar -xvzf <package name>
3. Browse in the directory: cd firefoxblablabla
4. login as root: su
5. load the installer, probably something like: ./firefox-installer
6. Then a window will pop-up, choose a destination, the best is : /usr/local/lib/firefox/
7. After you instal it make a link to /usr/local/bin: ln -s /usr/local/bin/firefox /usr/local/lib/firefox/firefox
8. from the console type firefox, or make a simple desktop enty to lauch it.

For the rpm version:
1.login as root: su
2. install: rpm -ihv <rpm package name>

That's all.

OK - done. Thanks for all help - it really is helpful to know that there is always an answer out there somewhere!

I had your same problem. I could never fix it, even though I spent many hours trying to do so. For me, it was just so much simpler to go buy a 25 foot ethernet cord for 30$ then to spend those countless hours bumbling around areas of the system I didn't understand. Linux booted up perfectly with the ethernet attached. I also switched away from RH9, it's RPM bugs were way to complicated.

My advice to you is: go for wired if you want a simpler solution.

After reading the entire thread, I see my answer is redundant. I'll leave it up though, for everybody else who has this problem.