Just for fun I have run Fedora 3 and other distros on Optus but also experienced a lot of headaches at times getting some of them configured. I never succeeded with some. Fedora 3, Red Hat 9 and Mandrake 10 gave no trouble with Mandrake and Red Hat actually connecting themselves up with virtually no help from me. I am still a beginner with Linux and am not a text man - quite confined to GUI clicking. So you can believe me when I say something is easy to set up.
BUT - and here is my gripe with Optus Broadband. It is advertised at one basic fee for 1 gig but they do not mention the compulsory rent for the telephone line they put in and, in my case, a spare telephone I did not want. So it actually cost $20 per over the quoted fee. But maybe you will not get caught as I did.
Because my experience began 2 years ago, some things may have changed.
They do not support Linux. Sluggers will be of more help there. I was running Windows XP and not a Linux user when I joined up. However, I found that some of the questions I wanted to ask, such as numerical addresses of gateways, server, etc., were answered in a friendly way. They told me how to get XP to reveal these addresses to me. I did not know enough to be aware that I could do that.
My suggestion is to give Unwired some consideration. It is easy to check if you are in a good reception area. And there is no setup fee now. Since I switched over a month ago I am delighted with it. I even reinstalled a few different versions of Linux to test it out. Faultless and easy configuration in each case except only for Suse which, as usual, left me scratching my head and wondering why I keep trying with that distro. Unwired does not support Linux either, but who of the major players does???
Hope this helps.
John.
Jesus Salvo Jr. wrote:
I have been putting off broadband installation at home for more than a year now. However, this Optus promotion of $0 broadband installation and 3 or 4 months free is very tempting. Before I dip in the pool ...
1) Does anyone here use Optus Cable ? What hardware do they provide ? Does it work with 2.6 kernels ... or do you need some specific patches. I'm running Fedora Core 3 at home s well.
2) How is the service ? Do you get bumped off if you call / email technical support and tell them you use Linux ?
Thanks
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