I had a bad experience with a 56K USB modem, it seemed to suck CPU cycles
and slow my whole PC down.

I guess ADSL USB modems don't do this, or a lot of people would be
complaining?

Are PCI modems generally better?

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:35, "Mark W" <s@o> wrote:

some people are happy with them, some (inc me) have had problems in
the past.

They're in a similar price bracket and the one I've set up works fine.
The bulk of people I know use routers - I'd recommend a router anytime!

if you're on broadband use an ethernet based modem and buy a network card


"Mark W" <s@o> wrote in message
news:3fdf501c_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:35:26 -0000, "Mark W" <s@o> wrote:

to connect on computer, get a modem/router.

--
Niall

- And on Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:35:26 -0000, it was spake thus <3fdf501c_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com> said in message "Mark W" <s@o>:

I've had a PCI for ages, Connexant, 20 quid from a PC fair... Excellent, no
complaints at all...

A friend's gone the Wireless router route & there would appear to be not
difference in speed as far as we can tell....

Each to their own I always say...
--
Nick in Northallerton
nrw7 on Yahoo! Messenger & nickw7coc on MSN Messenger too !
http://www.whelan.me.uk

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:35:26 -0000, "Mark W" <s@o> wrote:

I suspect that by now most ADSL customers are using routers.

d

_____________________________

http://www.pearce.uk.com

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 19:43:26 +0000, Niall <niallcw@btinternet.com>
wrote:

A pci card combined with a linux box makes a great router - far more
powerful and flexible than any of the circa 100 quid adsl routers you
can buy, which in my experience have somewhat dodgy software, and poor
logging of errors.
--
Dan Ros, Nildram.

The views expressed in this message may
not be that of Nildram Ltd unless indicated.

In article <ajc0uvsidgvct8ulru3amqd07ntbu1bac9@4ax.com>, Dan wrote:
consideration for something that will need to be switched on constantly.

You also need to know how to set it up of course.

Rod.

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 13:18:02 +0000, AceMan <no.sp@m.thanks> wrote:

In a sort of roundabout way, yes. Routers typically avoid all the bus
issues by using 10/100baseT Ethernet. This is a far more stable and
useful medium which ties up virtually none of the CPU's resources.

d

_____________________________

http://www.pearce.uk.com

On 17 Dec 2003, Dan <dan.ros@nildram.net> wrote:

Temporarily ignoring the miniature PCs that'd go in a shoebox
and need minimal cooling, I'd happily exchange my 25 quid Ebuyer
router with a linux solution if it was quiet and fitten in a (big)
box of chocolates :-) Yes, I have a spare PC or three, and I can
put something running linux in the garage for my network, but I am
not yet convinced it is a buy / plug-in / leave solution to use a
PC running linux (at least not a 15 minute job :-) Peter M.

Peter Morgan - 0870 432 9631 uttered in
<m9n0uv48uievemqrf1g5p97orj67i1oosm@news.clara.net >:

Well, they're not 25 quid, but shuttle make some nice small form-factor
cases.

Wander OT:
I used to work at an ISP in the Caribbean, and one of our services was
wireless internet (this is ~8 years ago now) to local businesses. I
managed to build a floppy disk based linux distro with FTP access, telnet
(ssh wasn't known to me), wireless support, ethernet support, routing
support etc. The only part I never got working was the ability to use a 4k
block at the end of the disk as a R/W area for loading config changes.
Beyond that, it was darn stable. The hardware had issues though, being
stored in a shack on the top of one of the taller buildings in town. Not a
place to run a P4!

We ended up using JNOS instead. NT couldn't handle the job.

--
Posting addr feeds straight to DCC and others. dhill + nana = cricalix ,
net for direct mail.

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 13:53:07 +0000, AceMan <no.sp@m.thanks> wrote:

I believe you mean pedants, sir. ;-)

d

_____________________________

http://www.pearce.uk.com

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 13:46:55 +0000, Peter Morgan - 0870 432 9631
<no.mail@lastname.org.uk> wrote:

Some money to be made for someone packaging a dirt cheap linux box +
adsl card + smoothwall or similar, I reckon.

--
Dan Ros, Nildram.

The views expressed in this message may
not be that of Nildram Ltd unless indicated.

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 15:01:21 +0000, AceMan <no.sp@m.thanks> wrote:

Shall I? ----- Naaahhh - I'll let it go.

d

_____________________________

http://www.pearce.uk.com

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:15:50 +0000, AceMan <no.sp@m.thanks> wrote:

Keep looking! (hint, the line previous)

d

_____________________________

http://www.pearce.uk.com

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 14:36, Dan <dan.ros@nildram.net> wrote:

indeed. I would have thouhght something like a Lindows box could
do this. I hope that the cost would not be pushed up too high,
but I suspect that where some would be happy with lots of buyers
and a bit of profit, I suspect a British "we can charge in pounds
whatever we can get in dollars" attitude and smaller numbers of
sales and less popularity as a result. OT does anyone have any
knowledge of the encouragement of linux use in Thailand from
some government scheme ? I'd love to see more use of it,
and will happily switch myself when some tuits are available.

Mark W wrote:
No, they are still DSP modems, with software drivers that suck CPU
cycles. The reason why not so many people complain, is that people with
ADSL tend to have more powerfull PC's and not notice as much.

The other problem, is most of them draw too much power over the USB port
and work outside the USB specs of 500ma.

Avoid, get a PCI modem, or better still a ethernet based one.

In article <ndq0uv0on6tlinsj3653s5u55ktf5v7grn@4ax.com>, Dan
<dan.ros@nildram.net> writes
Demon, like some others, make you an offer you can't refuse on their
'solo' packages; the difference in cost between getting the dreaded
alcatel 330 and getting nowt (but just an 'installation') is a tenner.
So I just took the USB modem and put it, with Smoothwall 1.0 (the linux
firewall distro), on the lowest spec machine I could knock up from the
scrapbox - a K5-75 with heatsink but no fan, 16Mb of memory and a 130Mb
harddrive (I've also got a 250Mb disk at hand for IPCOP). (No keyboard
or mouse; still got a vga card, but I'll steal that back sometime). The
'green' side of the firewall box is a 3C900 netcard running a 10base2
(10Mbps thin coax) network to 5 machines distributed round the house.
(The 3Com card is pci-bus, but it didn't really need to be.)

Works very well, reliable and flexible - despite the low spec of the
firewall machine and the reputation of USB modems for sucking cycles,
the K5-75 never runs more than 25% loaded, and half of that is taken up
by SNORT, the Intrusion Detection System.

All scrapbox stuff - especially if you can use ISA-bus cards, which most
people are now using to chock doors open...
Bob
--
robert w hall

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 10:40:52 +0000, Dan <dan.ros@nildram.net> wrote:



If you want a PC chugging away night and day, have somewhere to put
it, and enjoy setting up a linux router. Difficult to get the cost
down to anything like 100 quid either, unless you use an old PC, which
will be more difficult to set up (non bootable CDROM etc.)

--
Niall

On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:30:53 +0000, robert w hall
<bobh@n-cantrell.demon.co.uk> wrote:



I know someone with a very similar system; the USB ADSL modem
(oval-ish purple thing with 2 LEDs on the top) keeps falling over
requiring a reboot. My modem/router doesn't.

--
Niall