linux & dialup?

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coltoe

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Sep 30, 2008
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I have a copy of freespire a Debian GNU like product with get-apt solution for the OS...And I use JUNO or NETZERO dialup...on a INTEL machine...needless to say I could not get-apts until I got online and I could not get online until I got apts...What can I do?
Or what sould I get next to solve this problem? Maybe another LINUX OS will work better?

I love WINDOWS 98 SE & WINDOWS XP, but not VISTA.

SO I thought that I would go the other direction, with your input...
 
Your best bet is to borrow a friend's high speed connection for the DVD download or use a public library or something -- like a sandwich shop with a fast connection or whatever.

If you have enough bandwidth, some patience and the desire to read up on how Linux software works, you can download your own software repositories somewhere where you have a lot of bandwidth, store them on HDD, DVDs or a flash drive and setup your own in-house mirror that you can use to install additional software and updates from.

You could also order the install DVDs online pretty cheap.

Some distributions may even be able to ship you free CDs or DVDs, if you are willing to wait -- there are many options.

I'd suggest Ubuntu and Fedora, both are nice distributions and pretty easy to use.

Fedora 9 comes on a 3.9GB DVD which contains that vast majority of the software you would need.

Unfortunately Ubuntu comes on a 700MB CD which doesn't have as many packages as Fedora and is thus more dependent on having a fast connection to download more software but like I said you can download the packages somewhere where you have tons of bandwidth and take them home.

If you post your full specs we could make some specific suggestions on how to get the most out of your hardware.

Good luck :)
 
liux wiretes: I'd suggest Ubuntu and Fedora, but I would like to know more info about these two O.S. 's and this info is not listed in the first post (Which Linux is best for me?)
 
Since you are limited by what you can fit on a DVD I would suggest Fedora over Ubuntu right now although I usually suggest both :)

You can always dual or tripple boot Fedora, Ubuntu and whatever else you want :)
 
I don't think anyone has actually brought this up yet, but as a former dialup user let me make this suggestion. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT USING A WINMODEM! A "winmodem" is defined as an evil little piece of hardware that can only function properly under a Windows environment. They are not "real" dialup modems because they don't have all of the necessary hardware to do their intended job since they offload a bunch of hardware functions onto the windows operating system. There are drivers that will make them work under linux, but they will cost you something as there aren't that many people who need dialup anymore and therefore not much money to support the cost of development. I did get my dialup modem working using the "linuxant" driver for "conexant" winmodems, but it took a bit of effort. I eventually found out a buddy of mine had a real dialup modem he wasn't using anymore so I took that and it was only about 100x easier to set up.

Other than that, I used dialup on Fedora (way back when it was still Fedora Core 4) and it worked nicely and was fairly easy to use after setting up the modem (that was the biggest hurdle). As for downloading distributions, what I did was I went to my engineering computer lab and used their high speed connection to download and burn my CDs (they may have had DVD burners but i don't remember). I managed to get download speeds there at a whopping 14MB/sec !

As an ex-dialup user, I say this: May your dialup days soon be over, and may you be blessed with cheap and bountiful broadband!

-Zorak

EDIT: I forgot to add this earlier:

"I love WINDOWS 98 SE & WINDOWS XP, but not VISTA. "

Windows 98SE? /vomit

I had to support a win98 box for about 10 years (long story), and I was forced to use it for almost a year after I had built my first machine because XP wouldn't install due to some problems with my motherboard and ACPI. Let me just say that after YEARS of using that piece of **** OS, Linux was a breath of fresh air! I hope you feel the same way when you try it out.
 
Well said Zorak :)

I'd suggest spending a few bucks on ebay or wherever to get a real hardware modem ( external ) which plugs into a real hardware serial port ( make sure your new board has one )

Good luck :)
 
The P5N-EM does not have a serial port in the back but it does have a serial port header on the motherboard ( blue header next to the IDE connector ) , you just need to use a cable for it ( it doesn't come with one )

Good luck :)
 
My modem is pci made by Diamond it comes with a cd for easy setup and works with my current pc/ a G-400 it is a Gateway with a PII (P2) 400 Mhz CPU, my programs are all linked to Windows ...I use DVD shrink 3.2 to convert DVD's to my hard drive the use Nero 5 or 6 to burn. I use OpenOffice.org1.1.3 for documents. My printer is a Canon IP2600, my BIBLE program is opensource (e-Sword). I also use Adobe Acrobat 5.0. Webshots for screen saver. I do not know if all this will work with Lixus based but I know I will need a internet outside internet exporer 6 and another windows media player. I mainly use NETZERO for a dialup.
 
Yeah the modem that my buddy gave me (which was a real modem) was also a PCI modem by USRobotics. It worked pretty well for me. You will have to look into whether or not your modem is a real modem or not, though (or if you give me like a week I can look it up - I am pretty busy recently). Almost any distribution of Linux you try will either come with a much newer version of OpenOffice or will have it available in their repositories for installation after you install the OS itself. I am not to sure about your printer, maybe Linux_0 could tell you more about it? As for pdf readers, there are a TON of them. I like evince pdf reader, but GGV is also pretty good. If you need to continue using windows for whatever reason, I suggest you ditch Acrobat and go with Foxit as it is a LOT more lightweight (i.e. consumes fewer resources). As for burning CDs/DVDs, Brasero and especially K3b are about 10^9 times better than Nero. And this statement is coming from an ex Nero user. It actually got to the point where I would reboot into Linux anytime I wanted to burn something because Nero would give me problems and I have only had CD burns fail maybe twice in the two years I've used K3b. As for your Bible study program and DVD shrink, they may be able to work using either WINE or Crossover Linux. The former is always freely available and can be installed from your distributions repository. The latter normally costs about $50 but is being distributed for free by the creators today only (10/28/2008) until midnight Central Standard time, so if you want a copy of that I suggest you connect to http://down.codeweavers.com/ , give them your email to get a free serial number, and then click on the "Crossover Linux Pro" link to get a free copy of this program. Basically those two programs are programs that allow you to run windows applications under Linux, so they may come in handy for you.

By the way, if you don't like internet explorer 6, you should try Firefox or Opera Browser. They both are available under Linux and windows for free. As for a windows media player replacement, I like audacious media player to play my music and I use mplayer to play my videos. Audacious is similar to winamp except it doesn't play videos. Mplayer can play videos and music but it is better suited for video playback. If you want a program that does both, VLC is a good option. If you want a program that will help you organize all your music and play it, then you should try Amarok. There are probably a good 10 or 15 programs (maybe more) that all accomplish what windows media player does, so try them out and see which ones you like.

Finally, whether you use NetZero or a different dialup provider (as long as it isn't AOL), it shouldn't matter. You should just be able to use the built-in dialup connection program that comes with your distribution to connect (without having to install any special NetZero software). The reason why I say not AOL is because I think they require you to connect to their system directly and use their browser and things are weird if you don't, but I may be wrong.

Hope this all helps!

-Zorak
 
I think my modem is a real modem because it has a cd that has a copy of Opera Browser on it. I also use free download manager to aid in downloading.
 


What chip? I do not understand the question?

Diamond unleashes the highest performance SupraMax modems...I know it came with Netcape too (year 1995-1999)
 
Crossover was free on the day that I posted that comment, but ONLY for that day as it was a promotion. Wine may serve you just as well though. By the way, x86_64, x64, amd64, and EM64T are all ways of referring to a 64 bit x86 processor. The first one is a generic name, the second one is what microsoft calls 64bit processors, and the last two are marketing names used by AMD and Intel respectively. They all mean the same thing, so if you are looking to run 64bit linux, just grab a copy that has one of those names and you should be fine.

-Zorak
 
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