I just downloaded nessus and ran it on my computer to see if I was vulnerable for anything, well it turns out I've got five security holes. I have the ssh and sendmail vulnerabilities the proftp the apache server and the php vulnerability. Nessus recomonded upgradeing to the next version of each software package, so First I tried sendmail but found that installing it is not the same as installing other programs and it was very confusing. Next I decided to try openssh, I ran the program and it appeared to install correctly, so I rebooted and ran nessus again but it still reported the security hole. Does anyone know what I may be doing wrong and also does anyone know where I could find better instructions on installing sendmail than the INSTALL file that came with it?

Your question is not about security. You probably confused fora/security issues with installing an app that enhances security. I'll move your post to the Slackware forum.

Recent versions of Slackware are still maintained. So security issues will be resolved in patched packages, whichyou can find on the Slackware ftp and mirrors. The packages are in the Slackware-<version>/patches/packages directory. Download those and use upgradepkg <name of packages you want to upgrade> to update your packages. After that, there shouldn't be a known security issue on your system left.

Subscribing to the Slackware-security mailinglist is very usefull as well. It will send an email when there are new upgraded packages with location of these packages, description of the problem and how to install these packages.
There's an online archive at http://www.slackware.com/security/li...ecurity&y=2003 .