tom:
RH will allow this - simply make the install disks, boot and load the network card and do an nfs install [...]
Can you really bring up the PPP link easily from the install system now? That's a big step forwards then.
What might be worth considering is findin something that will 'background' download files and allow restarts from whatever you've already downloaded.
Do you mean that we can't restart if the PPP link drops? Not really usable for most people on dialup in this country then, where periodic kicks and noisy lines are the norm.