Linux and an Internet connection -- Help please!

[NasdaqTrader889]

I'm a complete n00b when it comes to Linux but I had to give it a try because I wanted to give a new OS a try and what better than Linux. I had a avery hard time installing Mandrake 9.1 so I just gave up on it and installed Mandrake 9.2 rc instead. Everything looks great and I'm eager to learn everything I can about Linux, but there is one thing that I cannot figure out and that's how to connect to the internet. I'm using a Compaq USB adapter to connect to my 802.11b home network but cannot get it to connect at all. I try to use the Linux wizard to do it for me but I must be doing something wrong because it states that I need to configure the hardware first. Well, I'm really lost cause I have tried everything I can and still will not work. If possible can somone here give me a step by step explanation as to how I would do this.

 

[drag]

Unfortunatly I am not to familar with USB stuff. All I use that's USB is my mouse.

However you can go and check out the linux-usb.org site.


On the sidebar-- read the FAQ stuff. They may answer some of your questions and have many links to stuff that you may find helpfull... including a database of devices that work under linux.. Keep in mind that many devices sold under different brand names have the same chipset manufacturer, just different packaging and stuff. So you may need to find out a bit more about your device. I don't know about Compaq stuff.

Oh, and the first FAQ answered is about kernel USB support. You should already have that compiled into the kernel so don't worry about having to compile a new kernel.

Other then that I don't think I can be that helpfull. Do some google searches is what I do if I don't know something.