Hi, I have just installed Linux Mint 8 Helena & it appears to be working well alongside my xp system. The problem I do have is setting up the much needed broadband connection. I have an adsl speedtouch330 usb modem, with tesco.net as my server, which works just fine on xp hence this mail.
Am I missing something obvious, or have I got myself into depths much deeper & complex than I thought.
Any help much appreciated.

I can't help you fully here - I run openSUSE 11.2 KDE, but I am familiar with the modem. I have managed to make one work with Ubuntu 8.04 before and don't recall it being particularly difficult to achieve.

As you may be aware, the ST 330 is more tailored for Windows use. It doesn't mean it cannot work with a Linux distro, but it will be more of a pain than it needs to be.

I would suggest it might be easier to get the hardware to fit the software rather than the other way round. As I use wireless in the house, I have a wifi PCI card, but made sure it was Linux friendly before buying it. I recommend either a wired or wireless ADSL router (if going wireless make sure the card/dongle has a supported chipset). This will make you life a 1000 times simpler.

I've been using openSUSE for a few years now, but when I first tried Mandrake(Mandriva) back in 2004, I was having a lot of problems trying to get a win modem working with it. I did get it going in the end, but I gave up with Linux at that point as it was more hassle than what I had (at least with the equipment I had at the time).

Hi Macplaxton.
Thanks for your reply, & my appologies for not getting back sooner, but it really messed things up my end, and had to reformatt. I think at the moment, I had better leave things be, as there are technical issues that go beyond the scope of a small boat maker. Maybe in the future, when I have a spare pc I can have another go. My thanks to you though,for sharing your thoughts.

I wouldn't give up completely. It might be an option to find an ADSL wired or wireless router going surplus on a local FreeCycle group or similar. That would be in my opinion much easier to set up.

When I first dipped my toe in, I set up my machine dual boot with XP and openSUSE, then I changed the bootloader so it loaded Windows by default. Every now and then I would have a look round openSUSE and go back to XP if I got stuck and Google some more.

Now I rarely venture into the XP side of things now unless I really have to. I still keep it as it's useful for the odd thing. There's benefits to both operating systems.

Hi, Max.
I Hadn't heard of linux, until I was talking to a friend of mine' who is in his 60's, & he has all the kit & kaboodle ?, when it comes to sorting out pc's. He seemed to think it would be ok for a person such as myself to sort out. ( myself playing with pc's but not too seriously )
It all went a little wrong for me this time, which amused him ( the 60+ telling the 40,s how to go on with such things). Thing is though the main reason for wanting to move away from MS still remains the same, & so it will happen, I am now waiting for my old pal, to sort out what I want.
On the plus side, after a format" & a lot of hassle " my xp is so fast it seems to be too good for me to have done it .
I am a dinosaur with shades
Thank you Max P For talking.

Here is where you should probably start with trying to get your SpeedTouch USB modem going:

http://linux-usb.sourceforge.net/SpeedTouch/