I just downloaded Mandrake Official 10.1 for DVD. I also downloaded the MD5 Checksum utility for Windows, and unzipped it's contents to a folder I call Unzipped. I'm kind of confused about what to do. Do I have to burn the disc first and then check the MD5 number? I did some reading about how to check your .iso image using the MD5 utility but I really didn't understand it. Can someone give me some instructions on how to do this? I did print out the MD5 number, and it looks like a pretty long number with a mixture of small letters and numbers.

No burning required.

Run your md5 sum utility against the iso image.

The number generated from your iso's is the their MD5 chucksum.

The source you recieved the iso's from should have an available MD5 to compare against.

If they are different, throw away the iso and try again.

(Though I would recommend using a different download agent and make sure you set type to I or binary if you are using ftp)

Well this is pretty confusing but here is what I did. When I clicked on the md5summer icon I got a dialog box saying "Please select the root folder." I didn't know what to do but I clicked on Internet Downloads(the folder where I store my downloads). There were a few buttons on the bottom. I clicked on "Verify Sums". A dialog box opened Look in: Internet Downloads. I highlighted Mandrake Linux Official DVD and clicked on Open. Then I got a warning message saying "The checksum file you have selected contains one or more ASCII generated sums. Ignore and continue?" I hit OK and then I could see a progress meter. When it was done there was that long number with letters. I compared that number with the number I downloaded from the same site that I downloaded the .iso image from. They matched so I guess my download must be legit.

Yep,

I think I've used the tool you have.

You can also provide a file with the file name and md5 checksum.

It would automatically do the compare for you in that case.

However, verifying by eye is fine, so you are good to go.