some help setting up ppp w/ netcfg, please

["arnie sherman" <arnie diac com>]

hi all,
i've been trying to set up red hat to dial my isp. i have been using the
instructions in the 'PPP setup tips' document from the red hat site. the
docs say to issue the commands:
	su root		(then give the password)
	export DISPLAY=<machinename>:0
	netcfg &

when i do this i get the following error messages:
	
	Traceback (Innermost last):
	File "/usr/lib/rhs/netcfg/netcfg.py", line 24, in ?
	from rhtkinter import *
	File "/usr/lib/rhs/python/rhtkinter.py", line 52, in ?
	e = Entry(  )
	File "/usr/lib/python1.4/tkinter.py", line 1150, _in_init__
	Widget.__init__(self, master, 'entry', cnf, kw)
	File "/usr/lib/python1.4/tkinter.py", line 882, in_init__
	Widget.setup(self, master, cnf)
	File "/usr/lib/python1.4/tkinter.py", line 858, in_setup
	_default_root = Tk( )
	File "/usr/lib/python1.4/tkinter.py", line 634, in_init__
	self.tk = tkinter.create(screenName, hostName, className)
	TclError: couldn't connect to display frenomulax:0

if i try to start the network configuration tool from the icon in the
control panel i get no response at all.

when i do 'rpm -V netcfg' i get no response except another prompt, so i
assume that netcfg has been installed correctly.

when i do 'hostname' i get frenomulax, which is the proper name for my
machine.
(i set it w/ 'hostname frenomulax')

echo $HOSTDISPLAY shows as frenomulax:0.0

dnsdomainname returns: "Hostname lookup failure"

this is with red hat 4.2 - the shrink-wrapped box version, and the kernel
is 2.0.30.

also, my isp assigns IP addresses dynamically.

i'd really appreciate any help as to what is going on, as i do not know
where to go from here :(
and i'd -really- like to get away from using win95 to dial up my isp (as
well as most other things, but one step at a time).

thanks in advance,
arnie sherman
arnie diac com