Cisco VPN

This is how I was able to set up VPNC to connect to a Cisco VPN network.

First of all make sure VPNC is installed. It was in Fedora 9 (vpnc-0.5.1-5).

Then you need to edit the /etc/vpnc/default.conf with the settings for the network you want to connect to. Mine looks like this:
IPSec gateway gateway.to.use
IPSec ID groupname
IPSec secret passwordforgroup
Xauth username myusername
Xauth password mypassword

You can translate the group password here: http://www.debuntu.org/how-to-connect-to-a-cisco-vpn-using-vpnc

To connect simply type $ sudo vpnc
or to disconnect type $ sudo vpnc-disconnect

Java

I had quite a few failed attempts at getting Java to work in Firefox 3. Finally I found a solution here: http://easylife.dulinux.com/

It gives you a graphical utility to install popular applications in Fedora 9. The only one I used was Java, but it worked perfectly!

VNC Viewer

VNC Viewer is always a pain to setup. To connect to a Windows box from Fedora 9 follow my RDP instructions.
To connect to a Fedora 9 box from Windows (XP) is a little more difficult. I first tried my VNC setup from Fedora 7 but ended up with a grey desktop with a black X for the mouse pointer and nothing else. Then I found THESE INSTRUCTIONS for using VNC with XINETD and I must say they are excellent! You may need to first do the VNC setup, then the XINETD setup, or you may not. Thats just the way that it worked out for me.

Update: I have found that with Fedora 9 all you actually have to do to set up VNC is go to SYSTEM ->PREFERENCES ->INTERNET and NETWORK ->Remote Desktop, and follow the instructions there. You may also have to open the port in IPTABLES.

Yum behind proxy server

To configure yum when you are on a network that has a proxy server between you and the internet do this:
sudo vi /etc/yum.conf
Insert this line:
proxy=http://fqdn of proxy server:port

For me it looks like this:
proxy=http://webcache.ptl.na.cascorp.biz:3128

SeLinux

Here is a good write up on how to deal with selinux:
http://www.crypt.gen.nz/selinux/disable_selinux.html

NetworkManager

Fedora 9 comes with the new NetworkManager on by default. This works fine for laptops, but for a wired desktop you may not want to use it. Here is how to disable it and set up the old Network service.
Run these commands:
sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
(This disables NetworkManager)
sudo /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 NetworkManager off
(This stops it from starting on boot)
sudo /etc/init.d/network start
(This starts Network service)
sudo /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 network on
(This sets it to start on boot)

Connect to Windows machine with RDP

I found this one very exciting (yeah, I guess I still find Windows somewhat useful).
All you need to do is install a couple programs and you can RDP (remote desktop) to Windows machines just like you do from one Windows box to another using Remote Desktop Connection.

From Fedora run these two commands as root:
yum install rdesktop
yum install tsclient

After the installs finish you will then have "Terminal Server Client" under the Applications>Accessories drop down menu. The application is self explanatory and very easy to use.

Mount a network drive

Here is how I am mounting network drives at the moment. I am having trouble getting this working in /etc/fstab, but it works fine manually as root. The command will look like this:

mount -t cifs //servername/share /mountpoint -o user=username

Mine looks like this:
mount -t cifs //192.168.47.63/tmp /mnt/Abyss_tmp -0 user=jzachari

You should also be able to use the FQDN instead of IP, and you can put in the password, or reference a password file. If you leave it like mine it prompts you for the password.
Use "man mount.cifs" for the manual.

Nautilus side pane.

In Fedora 9 you can open Nautilus from the applications menu and it works with a side pane. With it like this it doesn't open a new window every time you select a directory. If you want the "Computer" icon on the desktop to react the same way do this:

Open Nautilus and select Edit>Preferences and go to the Behavior tab.
Check "Always open in browser windows".

DNS look-up problem in Firefox 3.0b5...

I had a problem with Firefox 3.0b5 in Fedora 9 where internet browsing was very slow. It seemed to be stalling with a message in the status bar that said "looking up...." and after several seconds it would eventually "look up" the website and go like normal.

The cause of this problem is IPv6 in Firefox being enabled. It seems that if you disable IP6 when installing Fedora this is not a problem, but if you forget like I did then there is a quick fix...
Type about:config in the address bar of Firefox.
Search for "network.dns." and change the value of network.dns.disableipv6 to "true"