problem with package management in CentOS
 

I just freshly installed CentOS 5.0 and upon clicking the add/remove software button I get this message "cannot retrieve software package information. this may be because your network isn't connected". any ideas? aren't the packages that were just installed supposed to show up. I've been with Linux for only about a month so I might have missed something...

Are you connected to the net? By default the package management tools search for packages from the web.

No i'm not connected. Is there any way I can use the package management just with the hard drive and CD media? (any way to change defaults cause the program closes immediately after i press ok on the dialog.)

There are several articles that explain how to do this. I have never tried it myself so can't recommend a particular one. Search on google for "centos+yum+dvd+repo" and "fedora+yum+dvd+repo".