Canon S400 printer now works a treat. The combination of Gimp-Print + CUPS + espgs will cope with an amazing list of different printers (espgs is a specially tweaked version of ghostscript that 'knows' about CUPS and Gimp-Print supplies all the printer definitions).
More good news after visiting www.linmodems.org I discovered that the chipset in my internal modem card (not a 'proper' modem but a so-called winmodem) is one that has a set of Linux drivers available (I have the Lucent chipset see http://www.heby.de/ltmodem).
After studying the Linmodem, Modem and PPP howto's, I installed PPP and the drivers plus the Gnome PPP application and applet and (after an initial bit of hassle with PAP) it now all works a treat!! I was able to happily dial into my ISP and browse the web with Opera. :o) :o) :o)
Interestingly I think web browsing seems faster under GNU/Linux than it is under Windows(2K). Perhaps there's just less OS overhead getting in the way?.
Now the questions; 1) What security precautions should I be taking now I can connect to the internet? Can anyone recommend some useful resources I should study? Any basic initial measures I should take? 2) Is it worth reviewing the PPP and IP setups with a view to optimising the modem performance? or are any improvements likely to be marginal? 3) Can anyone recommend some mail clients that work with Gnome? There seem to be loads on Sourceforge and Freshmeat. Some guidance with narrowing down the list would be most helpful. 4) I'd also like to migrate my existing M$ Outlook mailbox over to the new client. Has anyone ever done this? Is it possible?
Regards, Keith ____________ The little things in life are as interesting as the big ones. Henry David Thoreau