Cluttermagnet Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 (edited) Hi, All- I'm off of Comcast cable internet again. They raised my monthly rate and could not be talked into restoring my discounted rate. So I asked to have service disconnected. Tonight I'm back on dialup after a good while away from it. Took me a few days to remember all the little details involved in getting it to run. I'm modeming right now, at around 3K, no doubt. Oh, joy. Internet is so slow... I assume that in due time Comcast will be in touch with me, asking me to come back. That has been the case in the past. I have a 'price point' beyond which I'm not willing to go. They have traditionally met me half way... Sure am glad I held onto my dialup service. It's only 4.95 per month, and comes with two email accounts. I figure it's worth it for the email alone. I have also kept my traditional POTS line (plain old tlelphone service) so as to have the backup dialup option. BTW I'm using www.all2easy.net, in case anyone is curious. I'm running on an obsolete software platform, and running pretty dated hardware as well, but at least it's of the P4 2.4GHz DDR RAM class. I'm running Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 I think. Anyway, it's dated. Firefox is cave age- V. 1.5.0.13pre. Holy cow! Anyway, it works but is slow and insecure. I have traditionally had a lot of trouble getting dialup working on more modern Linux OS's, but I do plan on worrking on that in the next few days. I have an installed base of 6-8 towers with various distros on them. I'll play with it a little. It's certainly a relief to go over to Betty's where I can get on Comcast and download new distros, etc. Edited November 28, 2012 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturnian Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Good luck, Cluttermagnet. I stayed on dial-up until just a few years ago. I was using 550Access, $5.50 per month. Hey, you do what you have to do. I didn't mind the slow speed so much; I was able to do what I needed to do. Ubuntu was sending out free installation CDs at the time, which was great for me. I was also able to get inexpensive Linux CDs a few times a year from OSDisc, and that worked out really well. I noticed that dial-up support seemed to be getting worse, depending on the distro, but I kept managing to get connected anyway. I'm running Ubuntu Dapper Drake 6.06 I think. Anyway, it's dated. Firefox is cave age- V. 1.5.0.13pre. I know what you mean, I kept Kubuntu 6.06 on one computer for a long time after Dapper support ended, so I had the outdated Firefox, etc. It was a spare computer, so I only used it when I really needed to. But Dapper held up fine. While I can't say that I'd recommend it, my feeling is that going with an outdated Linux distro release can be okay. I think that if I ever fall back on hard times again, I can get an old, used computer somewhere (second-hand stores are good, and sometimes people will actually give away their old computers) and use Linux to get it up and running for under $100. I tested that idea out by scrounging around for used computers and putting Linux on 'em, and it usually worked out, so I ended up feeling fairly confident about it, and it gave me some peace of mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Man, I am too soon away from dialup. I feel your pain. At least Betty has broadband at her place. That's of course only a minor consolation though... Hope they contact you again. I am noticing that overall, it seems that companies are getting predatory, prices are getting worse. It seems that we may be heading into inflation era. As if life wasn't hard enough already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 28, 2012 Share Posted November 28, 2012 Dial-up? Is that still available? I thought that went out with the Studebaker. Seriously, I feel your pain, Clutter. Did you read my recent Verizon rant? Bastoids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunrat Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 When I started with Linux, I was on dialup. Many times I would download a CD iso using KGet. Only took about 3 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I got off dial-up back in about 2001, I think. I would eat my gun before going back to it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I got off dial-up back in about 2001, I think. I would eat my gun before going back to it. Agreed, I could not imagine going through that and I left dialup around 1998. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 Agreed, I could not imagine going through that and I left dialup around 1998. Wish I could have! LOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 I've been on broadband since June 2004. I'm not even sure I could set up a dialup connection on one of the few computers in the house with a modem. I did it once when the power went off and I used the old HP laptop (2K). It was agony just waiting for email to load. Forget surfing or updating anything! I turned off the laptop and read a book. I'd give up a lot of other things before I'd give up my high speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) Yep. Well, it's just misery if one is used to high speed inet. I have yet to remember why it dials out, even as Dapper is still booting. I've looked all over those 'Properties' and I can't tell which item could be causing that. I don't want it to dial out on boot, I want it to wait until I'm fully booted and then tell it to. Another annoyance is that my ISP requires the format 'name@isp.net but my dialup engine always comes up with just 'name' filled out in the box- and that is *not* how I left it! So it dials out with only 'name' and of course the ISP rejects the connection as an improper login. Meanwhile I am furiously typing in my Ububtu ID and pwd and flogging FF trying to get it to load, which takes forever. It all makes me so mad I could chew nails. BTW as an interim measure, I could just pull the modular plug and deny the modem a line until I get it booted. Of course the more elegant solution is preferred- figure out and fix the actual problem. BTW I start getting charged per call after the 65th originated call per month by my telco, Verizon. So little screwups like this premature dialout problem actually *are* a problem to me. Then there's the matter of 'keep alives'. I have to set up 2-3 pages that reload every 3 minutes to prevent my ISP from dropping the connection. All this stuff together makes for a very busy me as I nursemaid this stupid box for like 10-15 minutes while I'm struggling with all this crap. It's like I work for the computer, not vice versa. Does anyone remember what to tell the networking Properties box so it won't automatically begin dialing out during boot? Edited November 30, 2012 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Try following this Clutter: http://nleaudio.com/bnotes/dialondemand.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 As far as to why it is checking on boot, it could have something to do with notifications for updates? Even Linux distros seem to have become spoiled with so many having always on connections these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 (edited) Try following this Clutter: http://nleaudio.com/...ialondemand.htm Thanks, Josh- Fortunately my little problem is nowhere as intense as that guy's were. I'll do a more in-depth read of that excellent link later. For now, certainly keeping the little RJ-11 modular plug yanked will prevent premature dialout. The modem will fail to detect 'carrier' (dial tone). FWIW, this is a dated, formerly working, non-modified platform I used to do dialup from right after I made the big leap from Win98SE to Linux. Urmas was very helpful at that time, and actually it wasn't too painful. I knew from the outset I didn't want to mess with Winmodems, so I have always had external modems to work with. I suspect this one small problem is going to shake down to being nothing more that a single mis-set item among the dialup Properties window. I superstitiously avoided ever wiping Dapper from that box. I'm sooooo glad of that now. Often, it is the only box I can coax into working on dialup here. I need to learn this arcane area better. In theory, I think I ought to be able to get PPP to work with any modern Linux distro? Oh, and FWIW, all of my towers have at least a P4 at 1.6GHz or better and all are standardized on DDR RAM, so as to have max interchangeability. Half of that half dozen or so are at least 2.4GHz or better. I do have the odd P3 box around, a couple of them, and even one P2, but none of those see much 'air time' on the net these days. Oh- I suppose I might start playing with my wifi card again and start sniffing around a bit looking for any open connections, but that whole sticky wicket appeared to be desperately wasteful of my time, just not at all productive. Normally, I don't want to be within a couple miles of anything resembling wifi. Just another security risk, IMO. At my two 'home bases', it's strictly wired Ethernet all the way. Edited December 1, 2012 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 (edited) As far as to why it is checking on boot, it could have something to do with notifications for updates? Even Linux distros seem to have become spoiled with so many having always on connections these days. Fran- At one time this box worked 'flawlessly' with Dapper 6.06 and didn't have the premature dialout. I'm sure this is a minor problem, whatever it is. But regarding updates, of course it has been a very long time since this unsupported distro has seen any updates. Probably around 2008 or 09, I imagine. Until I get back on broadband inet, I'll be carrying various towers back and forth between Betty's and Casa Clutter- for updates, etc. Sure glad I still have access to a fast pipe, on a daily basis. I promise to try not to grumble about lugging all those towers around. Heh! Edited December 1, 2012 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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