G'day Bob

02 May 04 10:40, Bob Lawrence wrote to David Drummond:

 BL>> 1.  My only ISA modem is the Sportster 14400. I'd have to buy an
 BL>>    external 56K modem, and the $120-odd is more than the old box is
 BL>>    worth. What I use is a cheap PCI WinModem with a Linux driver. 

 DD>> Geez! If you're that hard up I'll give you a V.54 external modem!

 BL>  I use an internal modem because I like it that way. I'm not
 BL> fascinated by coloured lights...

One doesn't have to be "fascinated by coloured lights" to use a
modem that operates regardless of what the OS is.

[...]
 DD>> Wireless is slower than a cabled network - and subject to
 DD>> peculiarities if you have a steel reinforced concrete/brick
 DD>> house. It can also be adversely affected by cordless phones and
 DD>> microwave cookers. 

 BL>  slower! I din't know that... but in any case speed is not an issue
 BL> for a server that only networks a modem.

Cabled networks are rated at 10Mbps, 100Mbps or 1000Mbps.

Wireless are "up to 11Mbps, up to 22Mbps and the newest one is up to
54Mbps". Actual effective throughput is somewhat less than the rated
speed.

 DD>> Use that as your workstation, and the Linux box as your
 DD>> firewall/gatway. 

 BL>  I want to run Linux and Windows, and re-booting every time gives me
 BL> the shits! They're both incredibly slow to boot. My idea is to use
 BL> *this* computer as the Linux box (firewall/gateway, KDE and all), and
 BL> buy a new one for Windows that I can network off the old one and run
 BL> Win311 on too.

OK - as long as none of your windows machines is connectied directly to the
outside world...

 BL>  Since last we spoke, I actually tried to load Linux on the old 486,
 BL> and as expected it barfed. It doesn't like my VESA IDE controller.

It runs here on a VESA SCSI card... What distribution are you trying to load?

 BL>  Linux HELP tells me to buy a new BIOS. 

Linux tells you that, or the installer from your preferred distibution
tells you that?

 BL> I *love* these Uniwankers! It runs perfectly well under Win311 and DOS 
 BL> (and OS/2) for ten years, but they have the gall to say that Unix is a 
 BL> better system that needs perfect hardware to work. ROFL! Better, my 
 BL> skinmny arse it is.

 BL>  The joke was that IBM said *exactly* the same thing about OS/2 when
 BL> I tried to load it on my (very) old 386. Buy a BIOS... so I did, and
 BL> it *still* wouldn't load.

Hmmm OS/2 ran OK on my VESA 486 too. It (the 486) doesn't even have a
flashable BIOS...

 BL>> What's an Athlon CPU motherboard worth nowadays, with 256Mb and
 BL>> basic video?

 DD>> Buggered if I know, I've never had an Athalon powered machine.

 BL>  It's cheaper (and faster) than Pentium4 without the hidden links to
 BL> Microsoft. So... what's a Pentium 4 mother worth? Just take $50 off.

I haven't purchased one of those either. 

The "newest" machine I have here at home is a PIII-550. It does
what I ask of a computer. At this stage I feel no need to upgrade (I don't
play bleeding edge computer games on it - I don't play any games on it....)

Regards,
David

--- Msged/LNX TE 06 (pre)