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

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 17:44:45 -0800, Joe Buck wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 03, 2007 at 01:37:25PM -0800, Daniel Gimpelevich wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> This kind of stuff really doesn't matter in practice.  Most people have

What kind of stuff is "this" kind? This thread was about Damn Small Linux
being used in an embedded device, and there was a brief tangent regarding
a Digital Subscriber Line, both of which are abbreviated DSL. I am utterly
unable to discern what any of what you said has to do with any of what I
said, but I'm probably the only one who can't, so I'll just shut up now...

> more than one computer, or else they have a laptop with wireless, so they
> aren't going to want to plug a single computer directly into the ADSL
> line.  You can get a little box that combines an ADSL modem with a router
> and wireless support, and then the machines you plug into it just see
> a normal Ethernet with a DHCP server, so all is well.  That little box
> almost certainly runs Linux inside as well.  The new ones can autodetect
> whether they should run pppoe or if they're on straight ethernet or what
> have you.
> 
> (I finally dumped the piece-of-crap Speedstream box SBC/AT&T gives you;
> it sucks and I've had a rock-solid connection since I went with the
> USRobotics ADSL router; it's an embedded Linux device you can ssh into;
> it runs BusyBox).
> 
> My guess is that at least a quarter of America is now running Linux at home
> somewhere; it's either in their Linksys box or their Tivo or their cell
> phone or somewhere.