Hello, could someone please tell me if Puppy Linux will connect via USB to my Siemens SLI5300 router. Sorry if this seems like a stupid question but I am thinking of migrating from Windows to Linux and I only connect by USB at the moment. I've tried looking this up but all I get are issues with 3G USB modems.

Thanks,

XYZ-Linux via USB to Siemens SLI5300 router - IMHO unlikely.
However, the Siemens has an Ethernet Socket intended to be used for "normal" network connections. SO... I "assume" (perhaps wrongly) that you want/need to "connect to the router" via USB so that you can program/issue instructions to it. ** IF ** that is the case - then perhaps it may be useful to know that you can get to a CLI for the router via the normal ethernet ports. If you google "SLI5300 DMT" you will see that someone has written a nice free GUI frontend... Yes, the GUI is Windows based - but, it proves the point - that a CLI is available.
Now, there is a "puppy sfs" for virtualbox (and I am sure for other "virtual" systems).
Personally - I have run (albeit slowly) a Windows XP home - inside a virtualbox - inside puppeee on my EEEPC701.
In that configuration I was able to use Windows based - proprietary USB driver software.
So, although it may not be the "neatest" - it is possible.

*** HOWEVER ***
If you want to use the USB ports INSTEAD OF the ethernet ports - then I would suggest that the "VM" solution is not what you need.
Of course, you may be trying to do something completely different - in which case my suggestions will be of little value.

Dave

1 members found this post helpful.

Hello Dave, thanks very much for the detailed reply! Unfortunately my reasons for asking were rather mundane (just connecting to the internet via the USB port). After reading about how badly Linux plays with USB modems (and quite rightly so from what I now understand) I just went out and got an Ethernet card. But thanks again for the tip about using virtualbox and the CLI since I'm sure I would have come up to that issue eventually.

The thruput that you get (windows or Linux) from a USB-->Internet connection is MANY times slower that the LAN/Ethernet connection speed.
When you think about it - NETWORK connection is designed specifically for connecting to (you guessed it) a network. The Universal Serial Bus was designed for something else... to be something that is generic. A sort of "one size fits all" type of solution.

You would have to go to USB2 (which your modem isn't) before you got reasonable thruput. Of course USB3 - is a lot faster. But,still - the software "behind the scenes" would have to translate from the Serial bus style protocol into the Internet protocol and back again for every packet.

"mundane" no - not really. It is good to try different things. That's how we learn right?

Dave

1 members found this post helpful.