[gentoo-user] Dial-up while travelling?
Grant
via ethernet, wireless, or cell phone while travelling, and I'm also
wondering about dial-up. Does it work well on Gentoo? Should a
laptop's internal modem work, or would I be better off buying an
external one? Has anyone found dial-up to be a useful method of
connection while travelling?
- Grant
Dale
Well, I don't travel but dial-up is all I have here. The biggest thing,
ask your ISP if they support Macs. If they do, then most likely it will
work with Linux. Some ISPs have Windoze only scripts or something. I
have never had one but have read about people having trouble using them.
I have used pon, poff, wvdial and Kppp. They work well for me. Kppp
may be the easiest but the others are good too.
I hope you get a better connection that I do. It sucks here. 24K if I
am lucky and keep trying. Just think OOo.
Dale
:-) :-)
Matt Harrison
This is going back a few years, I haven't had any experience recently. A
lot of modems used to be referred to as Softmodems, those that depended
hugely on the operating system (very often Windows). Those modems were a
bitch to get working under linux. We used to have to make sure we were
buying hardware modems. A lot of internal modems were Softmodems and
were pretty useless for linux.
As I say, this may be totally out of date now, but it's possible you
won't get an internal modem working under linux. If this is the case,
you will have to buy a proper hardware one.
Hope this gives a little bit of info.
~Matt
Dale
This is very true. Buy a external serial modem, not a USB only one
either. External serial is the only ones I can find that are hardware
based. My modem has a USB port but I use the serial port. If it is
only USB, it could very well be a software modem. Be cautious on that.
Mine is a Actiontec brand. I did have one to fail but it got hit by
lightening big time. It even blew up the telephone box outside. It
didn't let it get through to my computer tho. Otherwise, I have not had
any problems.
If you are unsure, send a link to what you find and maybe we can help
make sure it will work.
Dale
:-) :-)
Mick
Many softmodems today have Linux drivers and work straight out of the box. My
laptop has a lucent modem and I have had no problems at all with it. Often
use it when out and about, or when I want to run a test from a different IP
address than my ADSL connection. The only thing is I have to remember to
re-emerge it when I compile a new kernel (module-rebuild).
--
Regards,
Mick
Dale
You are the first person I have heard that it works for. If the OP can
get what is built in to work, then that may be a good option. If not,
he may as well buy a modem that he knows will work. External serial
works every time. No special drivers to keep up with either.
Dale
:-) :-)
Grant
You're using the ltmodem package?
You guys haven't heard of a standalone router/modem that will dial up
for the WAN and send out a wireless signal for the LAN have you? I
have a tiny D-Link device like that which uses ethernet for the WAN.
Very handy for travel.
- Grant