moRe: [Scottish] Broadband Question...

[Kyle Gordon]

babaguy wrote:
>  Thanks Kyle, for the link and the heads-up!
> There was so much information on the page that I haven't tried to follow what it suggests -
>
> I think it requires that I download the firmware for the Speed Touch and burn it to a CD and then run that CD on the Ubuntu box in order to configure the Speed Touch - (
>
> Since I don't have a CD-R on either computer I figure this would be an interesting process.....)
>
> Gordon simply said to bin the Speed Touch, and I probably will...
>
> What is the simplest way to get on the net via Linux - How do YOU guys do it? 
>   
The simplest way would be to get a Safecom SAMR-4112
(http://safecom.cn/code/sub/category.asp?prdid=182&subcatid=1) from
http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=19509. You should be able
to plug your telephone line straight into this, and it will give you 2
ports to which your computers can connect. You can connect your Ubuntu
machine with a normal network cable, and the Windows machine with a USB
cable. It even comes with a built in firewall, so you don't have to
worry about getting Zonealarm for your Windows machine or anything like
that. If you want to expand your network, just get a simple 5 port
switch and hook it up to the ethernet port that you previously used for
the Ubuntu machine. Voila, another 4 ports for 4 more machines. Your
other half will love you even more for it :-)

You'd want it in router mode, so it can share your internet connection
between your XP machine and your Ubuntu machine. Both would connect to
it using standard network cards and cables, and you wouldn't need any
software provided by your provider. Just feed your username, password,
etc into the web interface of the router, and connect up your computers
and tell them to automatically get their IP address from the network.

Everyone I know who has a home network of any size (ie, more than one
computer), uses a setup similar to this. Whether it's a nice and simple
device such as this, a Linksys with modified firmware, or a fully
fledged computer running all sorts of weird and wonderful firewall
software, the basics end up being the same. One device to handle the
network connection, and a bunch of computers using standard settings on
the home network. It makes life nice and easy for the future, and you
don't have to rely on crazy custom software from
BT/NTL/Wanadoo/Force9/UnameIT (all of which will hate each other if you
try to change provider one day)

Let us know how you get on :-)

Kyle

> Thanks again, all, and - why aren't we all in our beds by now?
>
> - Paul 
>