The Red Hat NEtwork Administration Tool


Authors: Philipp Knirsch phil@redhat.de
  Harald Hoyer harald@redhat.de
  Than Ngo than@redhat.de
  Trond Eivind Glomsrød teg@redhat.com

1 Overview


Welcome to the Red Hat NEtwork Administration Tool. The purpose of this tool is to allow a GUI based configuration of your network interfaces, including Ethernet, Modem, ISDN, Wireless and xDSL connections as well as virtual interfaces like CIPE.

2 The Administration tool


The administration tool itself, called redhat-config-network or neat allows you to configure and administer most of your network interfaces.

The tool itself is separated into 4 different parts:

2.1 The first screen

First notebook of main dialog

The first screen when you start redhat-config-network should look similar to this the first time you start it.

As already described the main dialog is spearated into 4 tabs or notebooks. The first one you see is the network device configuration notebook. On this you can add, edit, copy and delete your network devices.

A network device in neat is always linked to a real physical hardware device (which has to be configured in the Hardware notebook) in some way.

Network devices can be active or inactive. Active means that the actual configuration for that device will be stored and used by the system when you either apply your changes or if you close the application and chose to save your changes and restart your network afterwards.

The Help button will bring up this help which you are reading right now.

The Apply button will store all your devices and other changes you have made and will make the active devices visible for the system. The Close button closes the application. A dialog will ask you wether you want to store the configuration or not or if you don't want to quit the application after all.

5 The Druid


In order to easily and quickly set up your Internet access you can use the Internet Druid. It offers the possibility to set up either a new Modem, ISDN or xDSL Internet connection.

5.1 Internet Druid dialog

Internet druid dialog

On the first page you can select which kind of connection you have. Select the one you have and press the Next button. That will bring you to the selected device type next druid page.

5.2 Modem druid Step-By-Step

5.2.1 Modem hardware configuration dialog

Modem hardware configuration dialog

If you have never configured your Modem before, either with rp3 or with this new configuration tool you will get this dialog to select the modem which you want to use for your Internet connection.

In case a modem has been configured previously this dialog will be skipped and the already configured modem will be used.

The following things can be configured:
Modem Device The actualy physical device to which the modem is attached. A list of probed modems will be available or /dev/modem if no valid modem could be detected.
Baud Rate The actual speed with which the modem is connected to the computer. If you should have problems with the default speed try a lower setting.
Flow Control The connection type between computer and modem. This depends on the cable used and the capabilities of the modem and the serial device. Modern hardware and cables almost always use Hardware flow control. If the default doesn't work either try None or Software flow control.
Modem Volume The volume of the modem loudspeaker during dialing and connecting to the remote modem. Ranges between Off, Low, Medium, High and Very High.
Use touch tone dialing For older telephone systems you might want to disable the use of touch tone dialing and use the old pulse dialing method.
Again with the Next button you get to the next dialog, which is the ISP setup.

5.2.2 Initial ISP selection dialog

Initial ISP selection dialog

To actually connect to the Internet you need to specify which ISP (Internet Service Provider) you have.

You can either fill in the information by hand on the right hand side of the dialog or you can select one from the ISP database provided in the tree on the left hand side.

For manual configuration you can edit the following things:
Prefix The prefix for your modem. Usually used to get a line.
Area Code The country and area code for your ISP.
Phone Number The actual phone number of your ISP.
Provider Name The name by which you want to identify your ISP.
Login Name The login or username with which you login to your ISP.
Password The password for your login to your ISP.
With the Next button you will get to the final dialog where all information is displayed.

5.2.3 Filled ISP selection dialog

Filled ISP selection dialog

If you choose to select one of the ISPs from the database your ISP selection dialog will look similar to the one above. All ISP entries provide at least the area code, the phone number and the provider name. For call-by-ball ISPs the login name and password are usually filled out as well. Depending on wether you use a call-by-call provider or not you only need to enter or change the login name and password.

The Next button will bring you to the final druid dialog, just like when you filled in all information manually.

5.2.4 Finished Modem dialup dialog

Finished Modem dialup dialog

The final druid dialog displays all the relevant information of the connection you set up. This includes the used hardware device, the provider name, the login name and the phone number of he ISP.

Clicking on Finish will store your selection. With Back you can go back and make any changes you seem fit. Finally Cancel just quits the druid and leaves the current configuration untouched.

5.3 ISDN druid Step-By-Step

5.3.1 ISDN hardware configuration dialog

ISDN hardware configuration dialog

5.3.2 Initial ISP selection dialog

Initial ISP selection dialog

5.3.3 Filled ISP selection dialog

Filled ISP selection dialog

5.3.4 Finished ISDN dialup dialog

Finished ISDN dialup dialog

5.4 xDSL druid Step-By-Step

5.4.1 xDSL device configuration dialog

xDSL device configuration dialog

5.4.2 Finished xDSL configuration dialog

Finished xDSL configuration dialog

7. Todo


Future version will are planned to have these features in addition to the current ones: