Hi,

A very new user of Linux, specifically Mandriva 2005 LE. Very impressed with what little I have seen so far BUT...

...I cannot get my internet connection to work, and without that there is little point in me going on...

Has anyone got any advise on getting NTL Freedom, a SpeedTouch 330 USB modem, a rather old and ropey PC and Mandriva to talk. I have gathered all of the connection details that I can from the Windows session, clicked tapped and cussed with no success.

Read a lot of pages on the net about problems encountered and similar number saying it will work fine.

Anyway, fingers crossed, hope you can help,

Cheers,
Custard.

to use that device itself - http://www.linux-usb.org/SpeedTouch/ BUT i'd strongly suggest getting a physical router from dabs or somewhere, then just have an ethernet lan for your pc's. doddle, and a lot more secure, esp when you might'nt be too confident about Linux security.

I will heed your advice, just trying to determine if Linux is a viable alternative for me (IT for (quite) a few years), and for my wife (serious non IT).

I will give this a whirl over the weekend, and then look at investment in hardware later, new PC on the cards anyway.

Cheers,
Custard.

Achh... I tried to get Linux to work with a Speedtouch myself and while many people have had success stories, it just wouldn't work for me. Perhaps I wasn't patient enough.

But eventually, impatience (and 'purism' - I want RJ45 for networking, none of this USB rubbish) won out and I bought a proper ADSL modem which also functions as a switch for your LAN. The difference was immediate - once I'd set it up with my username and password, it 'just worked'; all I needed to do was declare it as my gateway (and since I was alsready piggybacking off a Windows XP box, this was trivial).

I don't mean to discourage you from getting the Speedtouch working, because even if you fail it's one very educational journey. I merely want to make you aware that's it's not necessarily a quick and easy process, so if you're more bothered about getting something that works, quickly then an ethernet modem may be your best bet. Besides, it's hardly a lot of money, and you can still play about with your Speedtouch once you have a reliable internet connection to look up Google on.

Ooh! I can help out there, I had exactly that problem with exactly that modem! http://speedtouchconf.sourceforge.net/ Follow all the instuctions and it'll work like a dream.