Chad and Bruno,

Many, many, many thanks for your advice and suggestions.

I am doing some serious thinking about going the router route !!!

which would be good because it takes the responsibility for controlling the modem away from the PC. I figure that if I'm not using the pc/linux based connection software/protocol, I can't damage it.

I have found a couple of devices that also include "hardware firewalls" which is good because that also takes the firewalling responsibility away from the PC - and that has been ONE (there have been other unexplainable reasons) reason for me hitting this "connectivity wall" and getting the "SIOCDLERT" warning and not getting access with the "Shorewall" installed - though I have looked at other software firewall's available, but feel that I would end up in the same position.

Which is rather annoying as it highlights my main problem with linux (mandrake or whatever) my obvious lack of knowledge, though some could translate that into plain bloody ignorance.

If only it was like driving my truck - cautious and respectful of others in the main, but when something/someone gets on my nerves, I just "Pull out" on them, and THEY have to stop and wait for me, otherwise they scratch my paint, whereas I totally f**k their car - 44 tonnes vs. 1.5 tonnes, no competition.

Anyway, i'll post back when I have worked out what I have managed to do.

regards

John

Thinking before acting can never hurt, that goes for computers and more down to earth traffic situations ( your truck ).

Bruno

Yeah, but it's sometimes a shame that "social convention" doesn't allow us to take the "emotional approach" - though in my case that's a good thing, because otherwise, since starting to learn about linux, I would have had to replace my system many many times - I also sometimes think that it would be quite satisfying to have enough money to be able "beat the computer to death" when it's stressing me out.

Still, it'll never happen, i'll just have to stick to posting the dumb questions that I have to ask.

regards

john

Hi John,
The day that you're ready to try again, just let me know, I'll sent you the patched drivers, adapted files and a 4 step easy how-to. Just give me an email adress, and I will send you a few questions, so that I can adapt the files in advance for you. All you'll have to do is to follow the 4 steps and Bob's your . . . . adsl. That's the easiest I can make it for you !

Bruno

The draytek site is mentioned, so I don't need to do that again. The vigor 2200 USB will set you back between 150 and 200 euros/dollars. It's not cheap, but neither is an ethernet modem. It's a beautiful piece, it works just fine here, and is a switch and firewall too...

so far, I have located the draytek router for £128 (incl tax but not postage - that's about 180 euro's).

The other thing that occured to me, is that when I feel ready (if ever) to try some other distro's, if I buy the router, it eliminates the problem of trying to configure the modem (the speedtouch) for distro's that might not support or be as easy to configure.

I presume that it would also be handy for extending the usable life of the modem. In that, when/if alcatel stop providing the driver it should just carry on running the my adsl service.

Also, is there anything else that I need to consider? my ISP shouldn't be a problem, as they would only be seeing the connection from the speedtouch, so the router would be of no concern to them (as far as I can work out). But, as I know little about networking etc I can only presume this.

All said and done, it still seems quite an expensive hammer to crack quite a small nut!

Sooooooooooo, could someone please spell out the benefits of having a router (apart from just using it, to change the way that my linux install see's my connection), as I don't mind spending the money, but I still need to justify the reasons for spending it in the first place.

Regards

John

Most of them have firewalls built in, you have a mask of which computer is accessing the internet (I believe this is what NAT is, however not sure on this..) meaning you can become quite stealth if you desire, you have the ability to run up to 4 computers off of 1 internet connection (more than 4 if you get a router bigger than 4 ports), internal networking is simplified by not having to setup a linux box as your router, it's non-OS-specific, usually configured from a browser.

Umm... They look cool

I got mine (Linksys BEFSR41 Ver 2) so I could run an "always on" server, and then my workstation could be frealy rebooted to run my other distros, to test out hardware, to help others troubleshoot, to learn something about networking, and because my mom made me pick out a christmas present that was in that price range (mine was only 50 bux US from Amazon).

Cool

So although I don't REALLY need one, it's a good idea, if only so my linux distro (mandrake at the moment, but whatever) isn't reliant on support from the distro producer. Well that's how I read it anyway.

The only real annoyance is that they tend to be a little more expensive this side of the atlantic Chad, try amazon here and you get the idea i.e. multipy the price by 1.5 and you get the approximate $$ conversion.

It just means that I will have to find someone who will get it on their credit card for me, as I would only get shit from Clare if she thought I was spending another 100+ quid "on that bloody computer".

Ho Hum!!!

regards

John

The other option, if you'd like to get your hands dirty, would be to use an old run down computer (find at a yard sale for 10 bux) to run linux on, and use it as a router. THEN, you'd only have to configure the box once to work with your USB modem, and from that point on, the old linux box would be your router.

Though it's gonna be a bit of work at first, in the long run. you'll have paid 10 bucks to be able to do the work of a small component costing much more, and having less ability that this old run down box.



It's an idea anyway...

Cool

Did you finally manage to get the USB Speedtouch (blue flat old one) to work with Mandrake ?

I'm running mandrake 9.1 and I've had no luck so far. The thing that's the problem is that

modem_run (called from speedtouch.sh) is hanging and not returning.

From other posts, I have left to try :

1) Disabling APIC in BIOS
2) Disabling PnP OS

... but was there anything else ?

Did you change speedtouch.sh ?


TIA

Nah, in the end I looked here, read all the reviews and ended up buying a solwise SAR110.

That meant that the connection was taken out of the hands of the OS's and it doesn't drop the connection when swaping between window$ and mandrake - and I only have to put in the "LAN" info to configure my connection, plus with the NIC installed (I had to buy one of those as well - £10) the LAN is automatically detected by both window$ and linux.

By far the more satisfactory solution.

regards

John

John, I had the same problem as you. I have the newer flat green thing. I just got mandrake 9.1 downloaded from linuxiso.com by booting xp.

Installed it, copied the microcode over and I can connect all the time, every time. Have you tried that? It would have saved you a lot of money. If you post me 3 cd's and return packaging I'll gladly burn you my linux cd's

[Edit] : Just re-read you post Lol

BTW I wouldn't mind a router for my home network then this box doesn't have to be switched on just so the other can connect.

Tell you what Mike,

I think that solwise are up your way somewhere (never bothered to check as my modem router actually came from one of the "chaps" in my LUG who happens to be a commercial provider and had a "spare one"), but the service was brilliant, when I plugged it in, I didn't have a clue, and phoned them. The bloke that I spoke to in their tech dept just talked me through the proceedure (he even knew the pipex IP address off the top of his head), and it took him/me less than 10 minutes to get the SAR110 configured.

They also run their own forum which I have also used.

Hence I can't "blow their trumpet" enough. I reckon that at £70 it's a bargain - I was looking at the draytek usb model that will connect with a speedtouch to startwith, but it was £128, which I thought made it an expensive luxury (even though it seems to be a good piece of kit).

Give it a go, it's got to be worth the money in the reduced delays and hassle alone.

regards

John

OK. Finally managed to get the Speedtouch USB modem to work.

The problem was that I was using the Windows al....sys driver, rather than mgmt.o. Once I'd managed to get a copy of mgmt.o, all worked happily.

The modem now happily connects.