OT dual boot Vista and XP

[ ... ]

Aha! Here we get the rant which you mentioned in another article, which happened to show up before this with the order of threading on what I was reading. :-)

What *used* to be the best modem for connecting to an ISP via the unix tools was the Telebit TrailBlazer. It has built in the ability to spoof uucp and zmodem protocols, so your computer talks rapidly to the modem, then connects to the far end over the weird multi-band trick that Telebit used, and goes through similar spoofing ato the other end so you don't get slowed down waiting for handshakes.

The Telebit was supposedly something like 14.4K (with faster connections through the RS-232 itself), but it would establish a faster transfer over a marginal phone line than a 28K modem would. (I was talking to uunet at the time -- through the local phone lines which gave terrible speeds to the standard 28K modem -- often falling back to 2400 baud.) Then uunet changed their modem pool to 56K, and my connect-time costs shot up (over doubled), so I changed ISPs.

A bit later, I got a Frame Relay feed from the new ISP, and in the process of setting that one up (the phone company had to provide two data-grade pair to run the Frame Relay), they discovered that there was a stub off the cables feeding our street -- which went off to a newer area another seven miles or so out -- and unused there, so there were echos from the unterminated wires at that far end of the stub. This tore up standard 56K modems (and Frame Relay, for that matter), but didn't phase the Telebits. They split the phone line bandwidth up into

512 narrow bands, and then spend about thirty seconds arguing with the other end over who uses which bands for which direction -- ignoring the noisy bands (such as the ones whose frequency happened to match a reflection time from the stub. As a result, Telebit modems were wonderful -- as long as you could convince the other end to use them too. :-(

I used uucp through the Telebits, and for a short while through the 28K modem. Then I set up SLIP on one of my Suns -- back in the days when you had to find the sources and compile it yourself. (And you complain about a few configuration files. :-)

SLIP was a predecessor of PPP, and I sort of flipped a coin to pick the SLIP instead of the PPP at the time.

The difference is that when you learn to set up the configuration files, you also know how to disable it. Windows hides all of that so you can't know how to be sure something is shut down.

Anyway -- when I moved from the SLIP to the Frame Relay, the "modem" box (actually CSU/DSU) handled the protocol, and it could be simply set up like you were connecting to a local LAN -- except that it would reach the whole world. The same applies to my current T1, cable modems, DSLs, fiber optics (if your phone company offers it) and others, all of which make modems hardly worth the time to develop software for beyond the existing uucp stuff.

"Over" is about it. The time of modems is over for serious users. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

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Well ... I don't run Linux normally, but I also don't run Windows normally. I do use mostly Sun's Solaris, and OpenBSD for various things. And for most things that *I* need to do, the applications are there.

One exception is when someone makes a product which needs updating via the net (e.g. my TomTom GPS) they first write their end of the net connection so it will *only* talk to an application which they supply. And then, they supply the application only for Windows or perhaps for the Mac. No such thing as just downloading the software updates to some other system and then applying it via USB to the device. (This even applies to the software/firmware which runs the GPS, and which *won't* run on anything else anyway, so why protect it?)

The other exception is income tax software. I would gladly pay (somewhat) more to have something which will run on my Suns, even if it comes in source form and I have to compile it. You would think that at least Suns would be supported (as commercial systems), even if various free OS's like the various BSDs and linux distributions were not.

But no -- if I want to run the income tax software (or the support for the TomTom GPS receiver) on unix, I have to go out and buy a Mac (which is what I did), since I don't trust Windows as far as I could throw the heaviest Sun server which I have (which isn't very far. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

We use it extensively at work, here and my last two employers. Makes collaboration in realtime easier - when several people are working on the same, say, broken server, we can each be doing our part and keeping the group updated on what's going on. Also works great for more time-sensitive stuff like "I'm out of coffee, let's go" or figuring out where lunch is.

There is No..I repeat..NO DSL, Frame Relay etc etc available where I live. The only Highspeed is Roadrunner (Time Warner) cable modem, and costs $79 per month cause its not available without cable tv packages.

The CO supervisor has indicated that Verizon has no plans in the near or distant future to install DSL in my town.

So there is no..I say again..no other alternative besides dialup.

Which brings us back to my rant about Linux and its shitty handlng of dialups. Some do very well, Xandros for example..most others hang shit.

And there is no easy way to tell what will and will not work. For the end user, who is not a long term commandline unix/linux jockey..it really sucks. Which is why Im still having to use Winblows for most of my stuff. That and wifi..which is still damned iffy with Linux, even with name brand wifi products such as linksys

Frankly..I want the product to work. If I wanted to fiddle f*ck around, Id be out in the shop making Stuff, or out on the range perforating Stuff.

Gunner

Gunner

First of all, command line is the way to make things work very well and to work all the time.

However, modern Linuxes have NetworkManager, which supports dialup. At least that is the case about Ubuntu. I attest that it works and is

100% GUI based. It is a part of the distro. i

And when it dials out..and simply sits there....?

Gunner

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 21:14:12 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, Gunner quickly quoth:

If you ever find yourself needing high DL rates, you might settle for satellite Internet service. They're 2-way, but the UL section is a tenth that of DL speed. When FTPing files for a new website, I found it faster to UL them via dialup than Starband. It came with DishTV and the installation was only $1000 6 years ago. Feh! I'm done with both. When Qwest finally allowed us DSL last April, I jumped and can't be happier. I see that WIFI doesn't service your little city, either. Mine's around the corner with a wee 2,000' peak between me and town.

DirecTV/Hughes.net, $250 installation, $60/mo. WildBlue, $80 installation, $250 equipment, $50/mo. Starband, $??? installation, $300 equipment, $70/mo. (2-yr contract) Stuck Farband.

--- Chaos, panic, and disorder--my work here is done.