[svlug] DSL working with some weirdo hardware in a robot submarine

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 12:20:03 -0800, David E. Fox wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:00:20 -0800 (PST)
> bruce coston <jane_ikari at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> With obscure hardware leaving windows can get
>> difficult . I'm using Puppy right now and caution vs
>> DSL unless you know you can afford the debian overhead
> 
> Nonexistent, unless you have to use pppoe. Then it gets
> wierd and slow. Other than that, it's no different than
> an always-on net connection and it is easy to set up on
> debian or any other distro.
> 
> One of the reasons I still am on Raw Bandwidth after seven
> years is that there's no pppoe, I get a static IP and it
> always works. Plus I have a simple ethernet modem that just
> plugs in the network card. This works perfectly, no drivers
> needed. If you get a crappy ISP, you may end up needing 
> drivers because they supply a "winmodem" solution & they have
> pppoe as well.

Umm, DSL (the distro) has a PPPoE client that probably works as well as
any other. Popular ISPs providing DSL (the technology) in the Bay Area do
not use PPPoE for anything, with the sole exception of AT&T/Yahoo. TMK, no
ISP around here has ever pushed a USB-only broadband solution. The "Debian
overhead" to which Bruce referred comes from the mistaken notion that
using Debian packages on DSL (the distro) is a good idea.