Internet woes redux

[Robert N. Eaton]

Hi,

After having tried to upgrade my previous box unsuccessfully, I cobbled 
up a new one:

    Athlon 64 X2 5600+
    ASUS M2N322 SLI Deluxe MB
    2GB Corsair xms2dhx memory
    PNY NVIDIA GeForce8500w video card
    160 GB hd for WinXP
    300GB hd for Linux
    Pioneer SATA DVR-212D dvd/cd writer/    
    Ultra XBlaster atx mid tower case/Ultra 700W Power Supply

OK, so I can't afford a Ferrari.  I'm neither an over-clocker nor a 
gamer.  This combo runs cool and quiet, and seems solid. It's also 
pretty quick.

The only distro I've been able to load successfully is 32bit
fedora Core 6. Both Kubuntus choked and went into kernel panic, refusing 
to install. Xandros declined the honor. Fedora 7 seemed to install 
correctly but hosed the MBR and I could neither access WinXP nor Fedora 7.

I'm still have the problem of Linux being unfriendly with the internet 
and not recognizing my email provider. Firefox connects readily enough 
with userfriendly.org, one of my favorite sites. But it won't connect to 
the links  in UF's LOTD (Link Of The Day.) It times out trying to 
connect to Google and Bankofamerica.com. Thunderbird and Email 
steadfastly refuses to recognize my account at aol.com. (This is why I'm 
writing to you under WinXP. Please don't ask for long printouts from 
various features in Fedora. I haven't yet found a way to trf files from 
Linux to WinXP.  (The other way round I can manage .))

Is it that Linux doesn't play well with SATA ? (Not SATA RAID, just SATA 
hdds and DVD-ROM's.) Is it that Linux doesn't play well with Qwest ADSL? 
That doesn't seem to be it, for it worked perfectly before my old box 
started to flake out. Is it the combination of SATA _and_ ADSL?

I'm getting discouraged.  I _like_ Linux-in-general. I _don't_ like what 
it's doing (or failing to do) right now.

Bob Eaton