big sigh and many questions.

[Scott Howell]

First Anna, look at /dev and here you will find all the names for your
devices. You can look for things such as /dev/cdrom which is a symbolic
link to a device e.g. for me /dev/cdrom is a symlink to /dev/scd1 which
is the first scsi cdrom on my mcine. You might find your cdrom listed as
/dev/hdc or /dev/hdb. I think what you really need is to get over to
http://www.linuxdocs.org and read through the howtos. If you read some of
these and ask questions on the items you don't understand, you'll get
more useful answers.
Sounds like your taking a run at this instead of waling.
Btw, your probably having problems resolving any hosts because possibly
you don't have a properly configured /etc/resolv.con file. You need to
configure this file to address a dns server.

It would look something like.

search example.com
nameserver 123.456.789.0 and you would need to get the nameserver address
from your isp or point it to a publically accessible server.

I'll answer any questions I can, but you really should check out the site
I referenced above. You find some incredibly useful information. Not sure
what to read, I think we can get you a list to start with.
Also, working on it and then putting it down for several months at a time
really is tought. You have to remember all you learned previously and if
your memory is anything like mine, its to full and some minor details
tend to fall out of my ears while I sleep.
Also, one final comment. You'll find that those documents might be html
so be sure you have a browser like lynx on your box if this is the case.
Ah, yes the modem. You probably need to add yourself to the modem group.
Look in /etc/group and find the line that says something like

modem:x:4:

I don't know how RedHat does it, but you might find the above line is
different. I dont' have a modem and no modem group, but see what you have
and if you do just add your user name at the end of the line.