On Friday 24 December 2004 9:33 am, Nick Daniels wrote:

Hi I seem to be getting an ever increasing number of requests for Linux details from people.usually ordinary home /office users The people concerned are able to install it themselves, but the main problem is they are using the supplied modem - Speedtouch USB Can anyboy recommend a cheap Modem/Router which will work straight out of the box for Linux? Most of the users quickly give up when they find they cannot get straight onto the internet, those who do usually stay converted

The speedtouch never used to be that hard to get working, usually after a bit of head scratching I had mine operational. That said they recently changed the hardware revision and the later ones can be a royal pain.

I was happily using my first gen (blue frog) Speedtouch right up until I moved over to a 64bit kernel (couldn't get it to work then though)

But IMO USB ADSL Modems (including the speedtouch) are all pretty awful.

Almost any Broadband ADSL router should do the job. Personally I tend to naturally veer towards Linksys kit, but given that they all have a web interface for configuration (and I am yet to encounter one so broken it couldn't be administered from a non IE browser) pretty much anything should do.

Some of the really cheap ones seem to suffer stability issues, but then so do some of the expensive ones. Running them in NAT mode gives you an extra layer of protection.

Be warned that some broadband routers don't actually include the ADSL modem bit, they are simply a NAT router whose WAN port is ethernet. Make sure that what you are buying actually says it's an ADSL Broadband Router.

On Fri, Dec 24, 2004 at 09:33:04AM +0000, Nick Daniels wrote:

I seem to be getting an ever increasing number of requests for Linux details from people.usually ordinary home /office users

The people concerned are able to install it themselves, but the main problem is they are using the supplied modem - Speedtouch USB

Can anyboy recommend a cheap Modem/Router which will work straight out of the box for Linux?

I'm using the Speedtouch myself and find it ok, but faffing around with firmware certainly isn't the easiest thing for someone new to Linux.

At least 3 list members have Netgear DG834Gs I believe - ADSL/lan/wireless router things that actually run Linux but are consumer friendly.

A friend has the Linksys WAG54G (IIRC) and doesn't like it - the Linksys kit that doesn't have a built in ADSL modem is said to be nice though, but not what you're looking for here.

J.

Nick Daniels wrote:

Hi I seem to be getting an ever increasing number of requests for Linux details from people.usually ordinary home /office users The people concerned are able to install it themselves, but the main problem is they are using the supplied modem - Speedtouch USB Can anyboy recommend a cheap Modem/Router which will work straight out of the box for Linux? Most of the users quickly give up when they find they cannot get straight onto the internet, those who do usually stay converted

We tend to use Linksys kit, especially the WAG54G even if there's no requirement for wireless (they support 5 VPN end-points, which is a big plus) but for a straight ADSL modem with no frills, I suggest you steer clear of the conexant-based ones (MRI, Dabs, etc) which have been nothing but trouble. We use the addon-tech ones which are pretty cheap (about £35) which we source from microtec99 (http://www.microtec99.com): ask for Vanessa.

IME the USB ones are utter shite.

Cheers, Laurie.