I have recently installed Red Hat 9 and i think i have my ethernet card configured and whatnot. However how do i run mozilla to access the internet (i.e. www.google.com).
Next how i simply play an mp3...what software comes with 9 that allows me to run it
and lastly when i log on as root it says i have 1 new mail message, however i dont know how to check it. How can i check/send mail?

well i don't know what desktop environment your using, so i will just tell you to type: mozilla at command line ... but in any case, i don't know why you just didn't look through the menu and just find the browser, but whatever ...
use can use xmms for this, again look through you menu to find it, i would assume its under the multimedia menu or something relate... or again, just simply type xmms at the prompt ...
that new message thing is nothing important ... when you look at it i think it just says something about successfully installing redhat blah blah blah ...
i don't remember off the top of my head where its at, but i am going to guess its at :
/var/spool/mail/root

im using a full multiuser mode if that is what your talkin bout

when i type in xmms, it says
*CRITICAL* unable to open display
also when i try to play games it says
No available video device.....but i have a vid card

no thats not what i am talking about ..
i am talking about if you use KDE or GNOME or wahtever it may be ...
they both have (slightly) different menu systems, so if i told you how to navigate to say xmms in KDE, it may throw you off track if you were actually using gnome ...

and judging by your error, are you running in the console? or are you in a terminal logged in as root but in your desktop as normal user and typing that command ?

you have to give more info on what your working with here.....i am just throwing ideas right now cause i have no idea what type of environment your in, if your normal user or root , etc..

I'm runnin gnome, im logged in as root, i guess consol (its not the graphics interface just command line)

ok well you now officially just through me for a loop ...
you say you are running gnome
but you are not running a GUI just command line
which either you made a typo, or you just don't understand exactly what is what

so assuming you are just at command line, and you want to get into the GUI you have to type :
startx
if you don't want to get to the gui, then sorry to say but your not going to run mozilla, you'll have to sick with something like :
lynx
and as of mp3s, well again if you aren't in the gui, then you'll have to use something like :
mpg123

sorry if these aren't the answers your looking for, but i can't really distinguish what you are doing (yet) cause of what you just told me ...

Im trying to do everything through command line...I dont want to do it on GUI, so on the command line how do i get to like...google
and as for mpg123, its not installed on this redhat so i dont know what program to use for mp3's

the reason i dont want to use GUI is because my computer is slower than crap so the GUI eats up any speed i have

ok well if you did read my last post you would see that i mentioned lynx for web browsing ... and as of something like mpg123, or whatever other command line tool for listening to mp3s, you can just download one ...
one i will recommend is mp3blaster

how do i find out if i have mp3 software on my linux?

Red Hat is devoid of mp3 support by default, you must install an mp3 player yourself.
It's been this way with red hat for a long time (maybe never had mp3 support? Don't know.)

Anyway, if you're running totally command line mode, then lynx or links are your friends. They are text mode browsers.
You would use lynx http://www.google.com to get to google with lynx.

To see if your ethernet is set up and working use the ping command to see if you can get a response:

ping www.google.com

For example.

I can tell you're just beginning, and kudos for sticking to command line -- however it is a lot to digest at one time. A bit of advice I have for you would be to try a lighter window manager to be able to use graphical mode on your slow machine... IceWM is a good looking, lightweight Window Manager for gui use. Fluxbox is another favorite around here.

How slow is the machine we're talking about here?

-Shade

Mozilla requires a GUI interface. If you want to use text-based browsing, try programs like lynx(type "lynx" in as the command in the terminal). The commands are on the bottom of lynx's screen.

I reccomend using a GUI unless all will use the computer for is a server because normal use isn't really that possible through the command line due to the lack of office apps and things of that nature.