Dear All,
Thankyou for your previous help. I am now a little closer to getting connected to the internet. Compuserve don't support Linux so I signed up with Uklinux, thinking that there was a significant possibility that they might. At first it made the connection but none of the programs could 'see' the connection.
So taking a Windows approach I reformatted the hard disk and re-installed everything (after saving my home directory to a Zip disk). I also took the opportunity of formatting the HD with the Reiser filing system (I thought it would be slower but there is no perceptible difference).
The new set up is less broken than before. Wvdial works and I can use Netscape to browse the web. However it breaks the connection after only a few seconds if it is idle, also none of the other internet type programs appear to work. I guess I will have to dig out the configuration files. Which config files do I need to dig out and where are they?
There is still no progress with the ethernet connection between the two PC's.
Regards
Paul J. Miller
PS emacs and vi are just editors, everyone should choose their own and it should be no concern for anyone else.