Help a new Fedora core user record sound with a microphone

I am new to LINUX and to Fedora core. I've been trying to get my microphone to record sound and so far I've had no luck. I've read the LINUX Sound how-to document and it helped in letting me know that I have to unmute the microphone for it to work at all. However, that wasn't sufficient to solve my problem. I can, by the way, play sounds. And when I unmute the microphone and blow on the microphone I can hear the sound come out of the speakers. I however was unable to get the program audacity to record any sound at all. In reading the sound howto document - I came across a snippet of information that a certain script in a file called "Readme.linux" sets permissions so that only the root user can record sound (as best as I understand it). I'd love to change the permission so that sound can be recorded under my user id. Don't get me wrong I haven't been able to record sounds in root either - but I think this script will get me on the right track. Unfortunately, I don't know where to look for the file. Again, I'm new to Linux and Fedora core and any help getting my microphone to record will be greatly appreciated. P.S. My system can boot both either into windows or Linux. And on the windows side the microphone can record. Also, I'm using a sound blaster card not a compatible. Again, any help or pointers in the right direction will be very much appreciated. Sincerely - Tom Z