I want to be able to have fedora boot into the graphical environment so I can use the graphical tools to log on the the Internet, setup firewalls and some other stuff etc. I then want to be able to stop x but to leave everything running so that the overhead of x is not slowing the system. I also need to be able to restart x as and when needed to use graphical tools for mail and web access. The reason is that this is a low spec machine that acts as a gateway and DNS server. I don't want to just run the system from the command line only.......I still learning my way around.
Keep it simple please...Thanks

If you use gdm, which I think is the default in Fedora, there should be a command IIRC called "gdm-stop"
Or you can have the same runlevel 5 services in runlevel 3, using a tool such as "redhat-config-services" and do "init 3".

by default boot into runlevel 3, change this in /etc/inittab

then 'startx' when you want to use graphical tools, then log out back to console

Thanks fulla's I shall try this as soon as I get home.....the idea of booting into run level 3 sounds good. Can I log out of X and still leave things like firestarter and KPPP running with no X environment or do I need to use other softwware.

firestarter is just a front end to iptables, as the same with kppp is frontend to pppd, so, yes, i would think both would continue running even if logged out of X. I know for sure with iptables but not so sure with kppp.

also, with firestarter, you can start the firewall for it in console using the 'firestarter -s' command, same with 'firestarter -p' to stop.

hth.