First, read the Red Hat installation manual. If you are installing Red Hat Linux on an Alpha system, you should read the Alpha Addendum as well.
This document mostly covers installing on an Intel based PC.
To use the ftp.uci.edu mirror to install Linux, you'll need to make a diskette to boot your system from. You can use the procedure described in the Red Hat Manual to make the diskette. The image you need to use is available below:
Be sure to label the diskette. For Intel, you'll want the bootnet.img image. See the docs for what image(s) you need for Alpha and Sparc architectures. Installing on Alphas and Sun Sparc systems is different from Intel, so be sure to read the docs before installing.
Boot your system from the boot diskette. Most of the questions are easy to answer. You'll want to answer "ftp" to the question about where you will be installing from. You'll need an IP address for the system you are installing (please make sure you don't use one allocated to another system!); the gateway for any subnet on campus is almost always the .1 host (i.e. 128.200.34.1); there are some cases where it may not be but for the most part you should not have to worry about it. You can use the campus nameservers for DNS servers; they are 128.200.1.201 and 128.200.192.202. For the ftp host, you want to use ftp.uci.edu, and the path to the files is:
Make sure you check /mirrors/redhat/redhat-6.1/updates/{i386,alpha,sparc} for any updates to be installed. You can check Red Hat's support area for info on the updates. You should install any security-related updates to insure your system will not be compromised.
We also recommend you install and use SSH - this is similar to rlogin/telnet, but it encrypts all the traffic between the hosts so if anyone runs a password sniffer they will not see your password. To install it do this:
rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.uci.edu/distribution/linux/redhat-5.2/ssh-1.2.26-1.i386.rpm
We do not have RPMs for ssh for Alpha or Sparc systems, but it is very easy to compile and install from the source RPM available in the same directory as the one above.
If your system will just be used to access other systems (used like an xterminal), you might consider using Dan Stromberg's "toaster" script to turn off all the services that are not necessary. You can get more information about the toaster script here.