[Techtalk] I just installed debian etch 4.0

[Mr. Hardy]

    Hello,

I'm new to the whole Linux thing and I am trying to read as much as I can on the subject. However, I am a blind user and desperately need to get remote access up and running. I can not practice my skills on the Unix box until I can access the Unix box from another computer which is setup with speech.

I have been reading about the ssh to familiarize myself with it as much as possible. I think I have learned enough to understand any basic directions to get it up and running with my first logon.

simple step by step directions would be very helpful.

things I think I need to know:
what is my host name? is it the name I gave my laptop during installation of my windows XP , which is where my Unix box is now located?

what is my domain name? is this the name I gave to my home network (in windows called group name)?

ssh seems to need to know these things. can I find out this information in some way? I know the hostname command will give me the hostname. is this the hostname devian assigned or will this just be what I typed in during the installation of debian?

when I installed debian, I gave my network or group name as the host name and I think I gave the computer name as the domain name. I'm sure this is wrong. does it even matter? can you tell me how to fix it by giving me the exact commands to type into the command line?

I have a few computers at home and they are all connected via a network. I need to connect to my laptop (debian unix box) from one of these other computers, which all have talking software installed.

the unix box on my laptop is connected to the network with a hard cat5 wired connection. my laptop has 20GB and I split this in half to install debian in the free allocation. thus, the original windows XP is still there.

my other computers on the network are all using vista home premium.

Do I use the telnet.exe client on the windows end  to connect? or do I find, download, and install putty or cygwin?

please help. I am a blind user and will only have about 2 hours to complete the task before my sited helper has to leave.

once I have remote access up and running, I should be able to learn unix on my own quite well.

I would truely appreciate your help.

Thanks, Mr. Sal Hardy
Skype: hardManHardy
Read one man's journey:
http://www.htpad.com/journey