[Sussex] Dial-up twice

[Steve Dobson]

Jon / All

On Thu, May 13, 2004 at 09:14:14AM +0100, Jon Fautley wrote:
> Mike Diack wrote:
> >Crumbs!
> >I'm amazed, I never managed to get Freeserve to work with Linux, when I 
> >last
> >tried in in Dec 2002.
> 
> I've never had any problems with Linux dialling up to Freeserve - they 
> just use standard kit to dial into and establish a PPP session. The ISP 
> I've had most trouble with was Demon, as they use a nonstandard 
> dialup/login method (you need to send an extra <CR> to start the PPP 
> session).

Demon was my ISP until I went broadband.  I first connected with 
Solaris X66 and found a useful little document on the web (from 
work) that told me how to set it all up.  Never really had a problem
with either Solaris or Linux.  PEBKAC errors - year there was one...

I did have one little problem with Demon.  I lost (or binned) the letter
with the DNS servers' IP addresses.  I re-installed from my notes but
had forgotten to write the IP addresses there.  So having re-installed,
and got the link to Demon back up all I could do was ping random IP
addresses, most the machine at the other end - not a lot of good.

So I made my one and only call to Demon's Helpdesk - well it was 2AM so
I managed to get a response quickly.  When I had identified my self 
the conversation when something like this:

HD: Oh, we don't appear to have which operating system you are using
    in our database.  What OS are you using?

ME: Solaris

HD: Solaris?

ME: Yes, it's a flavor of Unix.

HD: (sharp intake of breath) We don't support Unix, we can...

ME: (when I managed to get a word in) I only have a simple question
    of a general nature.  What are the IP addresses of your DNS servers?

HD: Oh!  (rattles of numbers without a pause - did didn't look them up
    he must have known them by heart)

ME: Thank you (and hangs up)

:-)

Steve