quoting Len Lawrence's missive of Thursday 29 May 2003 11:37 pm: > Need your help again folks! > > Been swithering for months about taking up Telewest on their > BlueYonder offer. Already have TV and telephone on cable. Next year > I may be able to afford a high end notebook, which I would use for the > broadband connection, leaving my 2 PCs upstairs on the 56K modem > connection to Demon for email. > > Telewest state that they do not support connection to a Linux > box/network, so basically you plug it in and do all the work yourself. > My problem is that I haven't the first idea what is required beyond > the MAC address for the network card, and DHCP, which I guess stands > for something like "dynamic hosting connection protocol". There are > no known HOWTOs on broadband connection and Googling returns about > 20000 hits for "BlueYonder" +Linux. Haven't turned up anything useful > in there so far. One looked promising but started with "First make > sure that it all works under Windows". Well, really! > > So, has anybody here done it for a standalone Mandrake only box? If > not, goodbye BlueYonder.
Hi Len; Uh huh. My cable ISP here has stated unequivocally that they do not support GNU/Linux in any form and that "you'll have to figure it out on your own." I'd say the answer from you should be OK, I'll do that. Sly snickers and guffaws are optional, but will probably get you talked about. ;-) Especially since at least a few of the people on their "Hell Desk," and in their tech division, are likely to be Linux users too. As is the case here. If the pages that I linked below is any indication the service will work with Mandrake just fine: http://www.ordior.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/BySwFAQ.html#sw7 Also this one with references to Mandrake: http://www.by-users.co.uk/faqs/linux/ and finally here: http://www.wellsted.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/config-linux.html all of which I found using a Google search at; http://www.google.ca/linux using the search string; blueyonder; linux. See? The wrap will probably kill the link though. http://www.google.ca/linux?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=blueyonder%3B+linux&btnG=Google+Search&meta= Let's look at a case shall we? A downstairs neighbour subscribed to the service a few months back. She was running a box with Windows 98 SE and was told she had to pick up the modem and NIC, install the card into a PCI slot, connect the power cord and RJ45 cable then; "Load the install disk and run it to configure the system which changes the browser branding and configures the operating system, mail client, and network card" etc and so on. Or set up an appointment to have a tech come out to do it for her. Sure she did. I had to show her how install a set of drivers for her NIC, then manually set up (winipcfg) entries for the DNS servers (memorized) etc., then argue with Windows a bit since it's been such a long time since I helped anyone set up any connection under Windows. After finally getting a connection, optimizing it, and fiddling to set up the initial e-mail account I rebooted her system and ran it from a Knoppix 3.2 disk. I had to do _nothing_ to have a connection, the system found and configured what was needed automagically. So did Mandrake 9.0. Just had to give it the (memorized) mail server names. I don't think there would be a difference with 9.1; at least I haven't had to do anything weird with the 21 systems I have helped people install it on. Mandrake is smarter than any version of Windows, more configurable after the fact, and you can count on the people here to help more than you ever could any Windows forum/list/user news group. Right? Just as an aside that 2.0MB service seems to be about equivalent to what my ISP here calls "Shaw Lite" which denotes a lower bandwidth service roughly equal to what's available from the phone company for aDSL at the same (roughly +/- $5) price of CDN$29.95 per month. 1.5 MB download, 756 KB upload speeds. The regular cable or "Shaw High Speed Internet" is rated at 8.0 MB down and 1.5 MB up. The cost is CDN$42.95 per month, or that plus digital cable for CDN$89.95. One must purchase the set top digital cable box for an additional CDN$89.95 for that though. Or (barf!) rent it monthly. I'm only comparing prices etc for the simple reason that I think you poor benighted souls in the U.K. pay far too much for service. I'm also wondering when the provider here will start bundling telephone service as well. <g> I hope some of this helps you. Regards; Charlie -- Edmonton,AB,Canada Registered user 244963 at http://counter.li.org Mandrake 9.1 Bamboo (cooked) 08:10:26 up 17 days, 13 min, 2 users, load average: 0.04, 0.14, 0.09 If we see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's the light of an oncoming train. -- Robert Lowell
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