[Malvern] Is there life in BT Broadband?

[Andy Morris]

Knoppix (Live-on-a-CD) is stripped-down Debian after you load it to HD. I
just upped to 3.6 (3.7 is out) after I found out how to fix the CUPS printer
system (it was seriously bollixed in 3.4 and still is). The Knoppix HD
installer is still under serious development, but it has not presented me
with any problems on several installs - plus it comes with Open Office 1.1.2
(latest). Loads KDE by default, but the cheat codes list gives an option to
go GNOME (never tried it - prefer KDE)..

Debian "apt-get" works, although you must first run "apt-get update" to
revise the package lists. With broadband available, it's a matter of running
the "upgrade" and "kernel upgrade" options and you have a bang-up-to-date
Debian system. (Not recommended on dial-up, unless you have a few days to
spare). Check the Knoppix forums on www.knoppix.net for latest details on
the HD install and post-install tweaks.

My only comment is do not log in as a user after installation, until you
have first logged in as root and set up the "master" system setup.

I've tried Wine for some games apps - doesn't do Train Simulator (yet), but
handles many others - emulates W95/W98/W98-2, but not W2000 or XP, so the
age of your game counts.   There's a compatibility list on the Wine website
(www.winehq.com).

Andy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Eilbeck" <chris at yordas.demon.co.uk>
To: <malvern at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 12:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Malvern] Is there life in BT Broadband?


> On Sat, Oct 02, 2004 at 12:37:28PM +0100, Guy Inchbald wrote:
> >
> > I've been playing with a few distros/toys to come up with my ideal
> > system. The arrival of BT "Broadband" 3 miles from Upton, subject to an
> > engineer's visit, makes this a timely moment to ask for advice:
> >
> > I'll need to sign up with BT Broadband, otherwise the engineer is
> > unlikely to call for free.
>
> Why do you need an engineers' visit?  I live quite a way from Malvern
> exchange and didn't need it.  Do the test yourself.  Pick up a phone,
> type 17040 and follow the prompts to do a test.  I think the correct
> sequence is 3, 1, 2.  Put the phone down and the exchange will call you
> back with the results.
>
> You shouldn't have to go with BT Broadband anyway.  BT provide the line.
> BT Broadband or Openworld or whatever they're calling themselves nowadays
> are a separate company.
>
> > I'd like to have a firewall between my home network (mostly Windows -
> > one will be used extensively for online gaming) and the "always on
> > = always vulnerable" broadband. IMHO a firewall on a Windows PC is a
> > contradiction in terms. Is it better to use a modem with inbuilt
firewall
> > (means buying one), or to use my planned Linux machine as a
gateway/firewall
> > for the others (so I can use the freebie BT modem which apparently has
3rd
> > party Linux support)?
>
> Get a modem/router/firewall box.  They're dead easy to set up, pretty
> cheap and you don't get into the situation of not being able to reboot or
> power off one machine because someone is doing something else on another.
>
> > How techy is it to set up and maintain a gateway and a firewall?
>
> Piece of piss.
>
> > Presumably, there are some games to play with IP addressing between the
> > "intranet" and the wide world.
>
> You can run Network Address Translation or non-NAT.  NAT hides a private
> class C network behind a single IP address provided by your ISP.  I'd
> recommend going with someone like Zen (who I've been with for about 8
> months now) and getting 8 static IP addresses so you can have some
> machines NATed and firewalled and some machines (if you want) accessible
> from the net for running servers.
>
> > Are there any issues over online gaming which need thinking through?
>
> No idea, sorry.
>
> > Now to Linux. My ideal system:
> >   Pure freedom for all main tools (GPL or better, even for commercial
use).
> >   Installer able to cope with most hardware and X GUI without deeply
techy
> >   scripting.
> >   GNOME only (no KDE). Don't know why, but GNOME apps tend to feel
nicer.
> >   Easy update / uninstall.
> >
> > Debian looks close, but I am unsure whether even the latest 1.0
Installer
> > will be easy enough for setting up X, or how Debian manages
uninstalling.
>
> Debian is easy to get going but the current installer doesn't install X.
> That's still pretty simple to do.
>
> > Do any Debain-based distros come closer?
>
> Debian Sarge is pretty good.
>
> > Has anybody got a copy of Debian with the 1.0 installer they would be
> > willing to burn to CD, for a small compensation?
>
> Let me know what you want tomorrow and I'll see what I can do for the
> meeting at Phil's place on Tuesday.
>
> Chris