Linux® Bible, 2008 Edition: Boot Up to Ubuntu®, Fedora®, KNOPPIX, Debian®, openSUSE®, and 11 Other Distributions

Chapter 5. Getting on the Internet

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Connecting to the Internet

• Connecting to the Internet with Ethernet

• Connecting to the Internet with dial-up

• Connecting to the Internet with wireless

You won't tap into the real power of Linux until you have connected it to a network—in particular, the Internet. Your computer probably has an Ethernet interface built in, so you can just plug a LAN (local area network) cable into it to connect to a LAN (hub or switch), DSL bridge or router, or cable modem. Some computers, particularly laptops, may have wireless Ethernet hardware built in.

Your computer also may have a dial-up modem. If you have an older computer that has no Ethernet card or you are in a situation in which you need to dial out over regular phone lines to reach your Internet service provider (ISP), you use this modem to get on the Internet.

This chapter describes how to connect your Linux system to the Internet. With broadband and wireless networks becoming more prevalent, Ethernet connections are becoming the most common means of connecting to the Internet. For dial-up connections, you'll see how to use kppp (a dialer GUI that is often packaged with KDE desktops).

Sharing Internet connections with multiple desktop systems or even your own mail or Web server is not that difficult to do from a hardware perspective. However, there are some security and configuration issues to consider when you set out to expand how you use your Internet connection. A Linux system includes software ...