[TriLUG] 'muting' a linux box, so to speak...

[Brian A. Henning]

Hi List Folk,
  I've got a friend running a linux box on his home lan, which includes a
Windows box providing ICS with a dial-up connection.  I'm trying to help him
get his linux machine configured so that it doesn't trigger an auto-dial on
his ICS box unless he does something deliberate, like opening a web browser
or otherwise issuing an internet-centric command.
  Is there a way to make a linux box that passive (but still able to
function with the 'net on demand)?  I tried disabling all the services that
I thought would automatically establish connections, but either I missed
something or that's not the whole answer.
  He's running FC1 and uses the machine mainly only for SMB file sharing and
just general self-education in the linux environment.  I had him give me the
output of `ps -e`, so here that is:
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
    1 ?        00:00:06 init
    2 ?        00:00:00 keventd
    3 ?        00:00:00 kapmd
    4 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
    6 ?        00:00:00 bdflush
    5 ?        00:00:00 kswapd
    7 ?        00:00:00 kupdated
    8 ?        00:00:00 mdrecoveryd
   12 ?        00:00:00 kjournald
   81 ?        00:00:00 khubd
 2418 ?        00:00:00 kjournald
 4613 ?        00:00:00 syslogd
 4618 ?        00:00:00 klogd
 4639 ?        00:00:00 portmap
 4659 ?        00:00:00 rpc.statd
 4697 ?        00:00:00 apmd
 4737 ?        00:00:00 smartd
 4754 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
 4792 ?        00:00:00 sshd
 4808 ?        00:00:00 xinetd
 4818 ?        00:00:00 gpm
 4828 ?        00:00:00 crond
 4853 ?        00:00:01 xfs
 4863 ?        00:00:00 smbd
 4867 ?        00:00:00 nmbd
 4877 ?        00:00:00 anacron
 4886 ?        00:00:00 atd
 4896 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon-1
 4908 ?        00:00:00 miniserv.pl
 4914 tty1     00:00:00 mingetty
 4915 tty2     00:00:00 mingetty
 4916 tty3     00:00:00 mingetty
 4917 tty4     00:00:00 mingetty
 4918 tty5     00:00:00 mingetty
 4919 tty6     00:00:00 mingetty
 4920 ?        00:00:00 gdm-binary
 4955 ?        00:00:00 gdm-binary
 4956 ?        00:00:03 X
 5193 ?        00:00:00 startkde
 5530 ?        00:00:00 ssh-agent
 6260 ?        00:00:00 smbd
 6263 ?        00:00:00 kdeinit
 6266 ?        00:00:00 kdeinit
 6269 ?        00:00:00 kdeinit
 6272 ?        00:00:06 kdeinit
 6281 ?        00:00:03 artsd
 6292 ?        00:00:04 kdeinit
 6293 ?        00:00:00 kwrapper
 6295 ?        00:00:03 kdeinit
 6296 ?        00:00:05 kdeinit
 6298 ?        00:00:07 kdeinit
 6300 ?        00:00:06 kdeinit
 6301 ?        00:00:00 kdeinit
 6302 ?        00:00:00 autorun
 6308 ?        00:00:04 kdeinit
 6309 ?        00:00:00 pam-panel-icon
 6310 ?        00:00:00 eggcups
 6311 ?        00:00:00 pam_timestamp_c
 6312 ?        00:00:05 kdeinit
 6314 ?        00:00:00 gconfd-2
 6315 ?        00:00:04 rhn-applet-gui
 6319 pts/2    00:00:00 bash
 6968 pts/2    00:00:00 ps

So does anything there jump out at anyone?

I'm not sure why rhn-applet-gui is running; I tried to disable rhn..  but at
any rate, there's something else causing it because on another attempt, I
closed the rhn applet and still the auto-dialer kicked in after a while.

Thanks to everyone who helps me ponder this one.

Cheers,
~Brian