nDiScReEt,

thank you for the great explanation...maybe you should write a n00b tutorial ....that really helped me a lot understanding groups and permissions (something i was a little tangled on before)...

one question though...

>I changed the user rights to noob as I am never >comfortable with a program running with >privileged root access and it is highly >unneccessary.

a lot of different forums and sites i've been to have stated that using the root account often, and having programs running with root access is dangerous....i just don't get how this could be. i know i'm gonna sound like a COMPLETE newbie saying this (but that's what i am, hehe), but i feel most comfortable using the root account, because i can get the most done...in fact, i find myself switching back to the root account all the time so i can accomplish things. when people say that staying logged in as your root account is dangerous, does this apply to people who are using a computer that they are the only ones who have access to? i am the only one that uses my computer, it's a home PC...is it still dangerous for me to run the root account all the time?

thanks again...
juztin