3.7. Connecting to the Internet

One of the basic system settings is the Internet connection, which has become an inseparable aspect of any computer. It is difficult to imagine modern life without being able to communicate and exchange information.

The World Wide Web is a prolific source of the most diverse information. You can find various software and documentation there. In Appendix 2 , I provide some Internet references, from which can be downloaded programs that can make your work with the computer easier and more effective. Of course, you need to have Internet access to be able to do this.

I will not be describing all possible connection configurations, because you find out the pertinent details from your Internet service provider. What I will consider is configuring a modem connection.

Creating an Internet connection is easy if you are using a graphical shell. It is also much easier and convenient to handle Web pages in the graphical mode, using, for example, the Mozilla browser. For this purpose, you should configure one of the Linux graphical shells available; you should use it, however, only in extreme cases and only on workstations, not on active servers.

At present, the simplest and most convenient program for creating Internet connections is KPPP. It is launched by selecting the Internet/More Internet Applications/KPPP item sequence in the main menu. A window similar to the one shown in Fig. 3.5 will open .

Figure 3.5: The main window of the KPPP program

Start by clicking the Setup button to specify the parameters for a new connection. In response, the KPPP Configuration dialog window will open. Click the New button on it. This will open the Create New Account dialog window, offering you the options of creating a new account manually (the Dialog Setup button) or using a wizard (the Wizard button). The wizard contains a list of major Internet providers for different countries , and all you have to do to create a connection is specify the appropriate country and a couple of other parameters. If your Internet service provider is not on the wizard's list, you will have to create the connection manually.

Here, you most often will only have to specify the provider's dial-up phone number. The rest of the parameters can usually be left at their default values.

Once you have created the connection, you only have to select this connection, enter the login and password given to you by your provider in the KPPP main window, and click the Connect button. If all settings have been configured properly, in a few seconds you will be in the World Wide Web.