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On Monday 17 Oct 2005 23:22, Kai Hendry wrote: > Since my parent's exchange has been enabled, I thought they should get > broadband. > > Though with Demon and with most ISPs, the free modem seems to be USB. > I'm not going there. Is it wiser to buy your own modem/router to have > DHCP piece of mind? Or does an ISP give a decent modem away... > > After checking the number, it seems 1mb down and 256up is the best one > can get. Disappointing. Or is this incorrect? > > Is Demon alright still? :) > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/30/demon_broadband/ > > Else can anyone recommend something that isn't the draconian > pay-as-you-go. I use Pipex. Purely because they "do" support Linux - although having said that, they pretty much have no idea about Linux if you are unfortunate enough to have to ring them! Not the cheapest adsl deal - but it does just work with no bother. They gave me a Speedtouch 330 USB modem. That works with Linux :) Not always easy to set up - depends on your distro. Some are easy - others a real pain! Most distros seem to include some sort of PPPoE settings - which was no use to me - PPPoA here. But I have successfully connected with the Speedtouch via my distro (Yoper) and wrote a little how-to for it, based on the info in the Linux-USB pages relating to Speedtouch modems. I only did that for someone elses benefit really - I use a Smoothwall box as my main router/firewall - and would recommend that as a simple way to connect if you have the Speedtouch modem ( there is an iso including the various patches to get the Speedtouch to work - otherwise its a bit of a pain downloading them all via another machine and scp/ssh etc) The speed you get is dependant on your location. My own local exchange has been enabled for 2mb down - but because of the way the cables are sited ( they go past my home from the exchange, then circle the entire village and return to me! I am about 1.5km from the exchange, but with the way the routing takes - I am 7km away !). So I get 512mb basic, but the line adapts to the level of noise apparently - so on a good day I can get nearly 1mb (info from my ISP). The earlier BT Voyagers work with Linux - as d othe mentioned Speedtouches. But if you dont get a freebie modem, I would go ethernet - that should just work. Mark -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe. FAQ: www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html