ubuntu-friendly broadband?

[Carroll Grigsby]

Patrick Costello wrote:
> I've been using Linux for about a year and just recently started using
> Ubuntu.
> 
> For the last eight years or so I have been teaching banjo and guitar
> over the Internet - and because the backwater town of Crisfield,
> Maryland isn't exactly up with the times (the town has one red light,
> more than thirty churches and the local library is a converted mausoleum
> complete with the remains of the last occupant in a big urn over the
> entrance) broadband has not been available until just recently. 
> 
> I have managed to make do with dialup up 'till now but keeping a daily
> podcast series for banjo and guitar lessons going over a 56K connection
> is starting to get kind of tedious so I've thinking about getting a
> broadband connection.
> 
> The trouble is that none of the providers in this area that I have
> contacted support Linux. I have been told that I can set up a connection
> over a Windows box and then make the switch - but the only Windows
> computer I have access to is in pieces right now and I'm having a hard
> time justifying the idea of spending money to get it working just to
> establish a connection.
> 
> Are there any broadband providers the support Linux? Can you set up a
> connection with a company like Verizon without a Windows box?
> 
> -Patrick
> http://howandtao.com
>   
> 

Patrick:
I gotta ask: Is cable available? I found that it pretty much Just Works.

I get my web from Earthlink over TimeWarner's Roadrunner cable. Not 
having Windows was never an issue. (Well, the people at TW gave me some 
lip, but backed down after I told them that Earthlink was more than 
happy to have a Linux system at the end of their line.) The whole damn 
installation took less than an hour to do, and most of that time was 
spent running an outside cable from the drop on the other side of the 
house over here. All the tech did once we'd plugged his line into my 
Linksys router, was to call his office and enter some codes. Oh yeah, I 
had to convince him that he wanted to use ifconfig rather than ipconfig. 
He was impressed. He also said that he was going to ask for a raise now 
that he knew how to do Linux installations.

-- cmg