Redhat 7.2 & Windows 98 workstations & cable modem on same LAN setup?

I'm not sure what you mean.
Do you want to have the Linux box connect to the internet via the cable modem connected to your win98 box?

Pointers:
file sharing over lan between Linux & Windows = samba
Normal TCP/IP traffic between Linux and Windows gets configured on the Linux box via netconf.

For modem sharing, you normally only need to make sure the Linux box has the same subnet as the windows network, and then to give the windows pc's IP as the gateway to the Linux box ( also in netconf).
PS, do you have DHCP?

I am a novice at linux and rote administrator for Windows. When I set up the Windows LAN, I assigned 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 with 255.255.255.0 submasks to the two windows machines. I disabled wins and DNS. It took netbeui and ipx/spx, making netbeui the default protocol for the LAN to work. The computer with the Toshiba cable modem on Cox obtains its IP address automatically and has dns and wins disabled.
On the linux machine, I screwed up (I found out later by going online with the redhat manual) and deleted localhost. I then set up three hosts, one for each of the windows machines (10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2) and "localhost" for the linux machine with 10.0.0.3. In the TCP/IP section I set up an IP of 10.0.0.3 with 255.255.255.0 submask. I left the DNS section totally blank. I used the hardware address for the adapter rather than aliasing. When I boot, the DHCP program complains that there is no subnet mask for eth0 (10.0.0.3). When I try to access the network, I get "could not connect to localhost".

localhost should be bound to the loopback (dummy) interface.
It should be assigned an address of 127.0.0.1 with network mask 255.0.0.0 (that is 127.0.0.1/8). The loopback interface is "named" lo.

You shouldn't need NetBEUI (and definitely not IPX/SPX) between the windows hosts. Netbios, tcp/ip and a "microsoft klient whatever" should be all that you need to make them interoperable (setting them to the same workgroup, giving them a Netbios name etc).

Please provide the verbatim contents of the files /etc/sysconfig/network, /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo and /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0, and we will be able to more accurately tell you how to modify your configuration.

When these files have been corrected, it will simply be  a case of "restarting the network" on the linux host (ifdown eth0; ifdown lo; ifup lo; ifup eth0).

-- Glenn

contents of
/etc/sysconfig/network
Networking=Yes
Hostname=
GatewayDev=eth0
Gateway=
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo
Device=lo
IPADDR=127.0.0.1
NETMASK=255.0.0.0
NETWORK=127.0.0.0
BRAODCAST=127.255.255.255
ONBOOT=YES
NAME=loopback
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Device=eth0
IPADDR=10.0.0.3
NETMASK=255.255.255.255
NETWORK=10.0.0.0
BRAODCAST=10.0.0.255
ONBOOT=YES
BOOTPROTO=Static
UserCtrl=Yes
PeerDNS=No
Gateway=localhost.localdomain
IPXPRIMARY_802_2=no
IPXACTIVE_802_2=no
IPXPRIMARY_802_3=no
IPXACTIVE_802_3=no
IPXPRIMARY_ETHERII=no
IPXACTIVE_ETHERII=no
IPXPRIMARY_SNAP=no
IPXACTIVE_SNAP=no

Ah. Not that much wrong, but still...

In /etc/sysconfig/network, you should set a hostname (best if it is a fully qualified domain name: linux.fake.domain or similar), and you should point Gateway to the IP address of the gateway machine (I'd guess 10.0.0.1 ?!), so that the linuxbox knows where to forward packets destined for the internet.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-lo looks OK.
Ah, you might have some foolishness in /etc/hosts. It should contain only one line where localhost is mentioned:
127.0.0.1  localhost
You'll probably want to add a line for your hostname too, as well as an entry for each of the windows hosts (probably best to make that for their Netbios names):
10.0.0.1  win1 win1.fake.domain
10.0.0.2  win2 win2.fake.domain
10.0.0.3  linux linux.fake.domain

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 only contains one fault, as far as I can see:
NETMASK=255.255.255.255 is a "hostmask", and should be

NETMASK=255.255.255.0
so that the calculation of "network part" and "host part" adds up.
Oh, and lose the "Gateway=...". It's wrong, and will be set at the "global level" in /etc/sysconfig/network.

Once you have done these changes, and restarted the network (or done the "windoze thing" and rebooted;-), you should be able to ping the hosts on your network, and ping internet hosts via theirto  IP address (but not name).

To make names work, the gateway host will have to act as an intermediary, and be the DNS server/forwarder for your LAN (via some ICS fiddling? This is because you get DNS info via DHCP from the ADSL link setup(?)), or you will have to know the IP address of some public DNS server that will honour requests for you, and add that one to your /etc/resolv.conf.

HtH
-- Glenn

Well, I still get "could not connect to localhost" when I click on network. I am using a cable modem that is not going through a router so the internet is unaccessable by the other windoze machines. I have tried variations of everything on names for localhost like localhost.fake.domain, localhost.localdomain, localhost alone.
On boot I still get a message from the dchp asking for a subnet mask for eth0
I am using 7.2 so there is a network config program. In it, the network adapter's configuration has no info in it such as IRQ, MEM, IO, etc., all blank

Here are the files as they stand now:
hosts:
10.0.0.3 linux linux.fake.domain
10.0.0.2 sys600 sys600.fake.domain
10.0.0.1 3840ct 3840ct.fake.domain
127.0.0.1 localhost

eth0:
Device=eth0:0
BOOTPROTO=Static
ONBOOT=YES
IPXPRIMARY_802_2=no
IPXACTIVE_802_2=no
IPXPRIMARY_802_3=no
IPXACTIVE_802_3=no
IPXPRIMARY_ETHERII=no
IPXACTIVE_ETHERII=no
IPXPRIMARY_SNAP=no
IPXACTIVE_SNAP=no
NETWORK=0.0.0.0
BRoaDCAST=255.255.255.255
UserCtrl=Yes
PeerDNS=No
IPADDR=10.0.0.3
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
Gateway=

lo:
Device=lo
IPADDR=127.0.0.1
NETMASK=255.0.0.0
NETWORK=127.0.0.0
BRAODCAST=127.255.255.255
ONBOOT=YES
NAME=loopback

network
Networking=Yes
Hostname=linux.fake.domain
GatewayDev=eth0
Gateway=10.0.0.1

Upon review of the comments here, I am recommending this disposition:

        points to Gns

Please post a comment if you disagree.

DanRollins -- EE database cleanup volunteer

per recommendation.

SpideyMod
Community Support Moderator @Experts Exchange