Samba install problem

[Freedom Web Services]

> Freedom Web Services wrote:
>> Although dhcp is allocating ip addresses ok I can not access the
>> server using its name 'linux'.  I assume this is due to samba not
>> running.
>
> A more general network problem may well be the first cause of your
> problems.
>
>> I need to install samba as the system says it is not installed when
>> I use 'rpm -q smb', so I downloaded 'samba-common-3.0.22.1.fc5.rpm'.
>> When I go to install it with 'rpm -ivh samba-common-3.0.22.1.fc5.rpm
>> I get loads of confiction errors.
>
> It's much preferable to use yum these days.  There's no need to
> download the rpm or deal with dependencies manually.
>
>> I have also tried to use the 'Add / Remove software' and 'Software
>> Updater' from the 'Applications' menu and get an 'Unable to retrive
>> software infomation' error.  When I try to use yum with the command
>> 'yum install samba-common-3.0.22.1.fc5.rpm' I get an 'Error: Cannot
>> find a baseurl for repo: core'.
>
> This looks like you have a more general networking problem on the
> system.  Have you tried to run 'yum update' yet?  I'm guessing you'll
> get a similar error about the core repo.  If so, you should check
> first that your network is working correctly.  If it is, then you'll
> need to look into the reason yum is not working.
>
> Once yum is working you should be able to run 'yum install samba' (or
> Add / Remove Software) to get it installed.

My Linux machine is not yet connected to the internet!

I have a BT Voyager 100 ADSL USB modem and connect through AOL on my windoze 
box.
I have installed the drivers for this modem, eciadsl, and configured it for 
my modem and AOL but I can not get it to work.
I have looked on the net and found that I need a module called n_hdlc in 
order to get this to work, the standard FC5 does not have this module. I 
understand that I need to recompile my kernel to add it.
I have downloaded the 'kernel-2.6.15.2054_FC5.src.rpm' file and installed 
it.  As far as I am aware this should have created the relevant 
directories/files in '/usr/src' directory but they are not there.
So how do I go about recompiling the kernel to add the module n_hdlc?
Hopefully when I can get the internet working I will be able to run 'yum 
update' and be able to install samba through yum.

Many thanks,
Garry.