[H-GEN] Wireless broadband issues.

Carl Adams 52midnight at gmail.com
Wed Mar 23 01:59:51 EDT 2011


> I bypassed this altogether by purchasing a home network gateway

An interesting suggestion. I neglected to mention that my needs are  
probably quite egregious. I'm a single pensioner and use only about 600MB  
a month. I don't have a landline and naked DSL requires upfront costs that  
I can't justify, so wireless was just the simplest, cheapest option.

> You could have gone with Internode who use the Optus network and DO  
> supportLinux. They also give you ALL the settings AND you can check your  
> usage

Interesting, I'll take a look. My reason for going with the larger telcos  
was due to frequent interstate moves that require a degree of flexibility  
that the smaller one's often can't provide. And no, I didn't do as much  
research as I might have on that basis.

> I don't know why you expect vendors to support Linux

I do not expect vendors to support Linux. I do expect that they should not  
deliberately seek to invalidate it.

> I get tired of people who knowingly choose a system that very few ISPs 
> support then complain that they can't get any assistance and things 
> aren't done THEIR way. If you don't like it ...

Man, what a grouch. Obviously a female ;-)

> that means ISP's have to employ competent CSR's, and therefore pay them  
> justly.
> Primus, when it first started here back in dialup days would have  
> someone on staff to help

Yes, this is part of a larger social issue about education, employment and  
national development that is of considerable interest to me, but  
undoubtedly too political for the HUMBUG list.

> all you need is the APN ... time to get modern.

Ah! but that was supposedly set automatically by the modem, either from  
information supplied by Vf or direct interrogation of the host, and was  
incorrect - that's "modernity" for you! It wasn't in the supplied  
"grinning idiots" documentation, and it was only the advice from the  
Philippino lass that gave me the correct entry.

> Supporting all flavours is easy

In the past, I've never needed support from any ISP, only the essential  
basic technical information that is now supplied "automatically" by  
software (thanks to "modernity") that only runs on "supported" OS's. Call  
me a cynic (and I'm sure some will) but I've still noticed a deliberate  
move in the services offered by the largest ISPs that I find of concern.

> I find it prudent to always keep a set of "supported hardware" just so 
> you can prove that it is not your setup.

Yes, I've considered this, but I'm a former hardware engineer, and have a  
long-standing policy of not EVER paying money to M$. The only M$ bugware  
I've got is a copy of Windows 98 that came free with an old machine. Some  
of us old guys are ornery, and unwilling to change. Alas, we suffer for it.



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