[ubuntu-nz] Trying to set up ubuntu 7.04 need help.

[Aaron Whitehouse]

Hi Rod,

Great to hear that you are on board! Here's hoping that we can get
that machine over to Ubuntu.

The problem with a lot of modems/ADSL modems is that they cheat. The
modems themselves don't do a lot of the work and they instead use a
(sometimes quite sizeable) chunk of your computer's resources to run.
The problem is that all that work, which Windows is doing instead of
your modem, is locked away in proprietary, Windows-only code.

If your ADSL modem is one of these, it can be nearly impossible to get
it running under Linux. It would be great if all of those router
companies released Linux drivers as well, but they are unlikely to any
time soon. The easiest way to avoid this problem is to avoid USB ADSL
modems and, as someone else said, go for standalone routers.
Standalone routers connect to the Internet themselves and all that
your computer has to do is network with the router - something that
Linux can do better than Windows.

Normal, dial-up modems that freeload off Windows like this are called
winmodems and are equally frustrating. Winmodems are quite common and
there are ways to get a lot of these running in Linux - but you
sometimes need to purchase a Linux driver from a third party. See
http://www.linmodems.org/

Both USB ADSL modems and Winmodems are inferior because they require
your machine to use its resources to make them work. In the case of
ADSL modems, they also require the machine they are plugged into to
always be on if there are other machines using the Internet. I know
how frustrating it is when these things don't work, though!

Hopefully you can get these running!

Aaron