aten: brenden, networking mathematica probs

[Eric Drayer <erdx@unm.edu>]

Apperently the mathematica kernal needs to use its own special protocall
through sockets to get to the cpu.

I was told to ping, to test whether or not networking was installed
properly.

I have ppp tcp/ip netdummy selected in the debian 2.0.33 kernal config.

I will be using ppp to connect to a university unix system..though I
havent got it configured right yet.

////////I do not have /etc/init.d/network file to edit.///////////////

I can't ping anything.
  
ping 8686 and other random sockets produce error messages; invalid
parrameter ping:  sockets: 

ping 127.0.0.1, ping "mymachinename or hostname" produce network
unreachable as ping runs.  

pinters to info or suggestion please.