[Sheflug] Fw: failure notice

["Craig Andrews" <nospam [at] linuxmail.org>]

> 	..And the fact that they are cheap and seem to work painlessly for
> most people, and those who have problems just take them for granted (and
> I have a few friends that just want to use a computer suitable for doing
> all of SETI's packets in about 1/2 hour to write essays). The fact is,
> they are cheap, they work with what most of the people expect and well,
> if they don't work for you, tough luck, mate.

Fact: I have only ever configured 2 machines with WinModems which worked properly first time. Others had various probs, from slow connections, modem not found, or BSoD.

> 	For what it does, it is good. There are other options (BSDs and
> the such. I guess Plan9 doesn't count :D).

We just need to be clear on what it does (or what we want of it)

> 	I have never had any problems with dialup, so MMMV :-) One of
> the things that makes dialup an absolute nightmare is that providers
> just don't seem able to provide a clear list of what's needed (those
> "magic five parameters": DNS, username, and the such). Obviously, they
> have been advised by Marketing Dept that doing that is unnecessary and
> will scare customers off. So, just have a little program that does all

Just don't get me *started* on trying to get support. Here is an excerpt from yesterdays 'chat' to BlueYonder:

Me: 'Your mail server won't relay my mail'
Them: 'Have you connected to the internet first'
Me: '(WHAT!?!)Yes, the server name is correct. It does communicate, but denies my mail'
Them: 'Check the account details in Outlook'
Me: 'I don't use Outlook, I use exim, which relays for my network'
Them: 'Oh, I don't know about any of that'
Me: 'Mail is sent OK if I get my mail server to send it direct, only if I try and use yours as a smarthost does it fail.'
Them: 'and you typed the server name correctly?'
Me: 'Yes'
Them: 'It should work'
Me: 'It doesn't'
Them: 'Check the Outlook settings page'
Me: -CLICK- buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

> look at those strange and random number groups (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx), well,
> that just doesn't happen does it?

Course not. Who would understand those funny numbery things?

> 
> 	On the Linux distro side, it might help if someone actually made
> a clear distinction between home user and server. 

I have been saying this for ages. OpenLinux, for all it's faults, is a great desktop OS. Office, DUN, browser, easy-to-use GUI, easy install, one CD. Marvellous. SuSE personal: 3 disks of everything you never wanted. Fine for those who like EVERYTHING on their machines, but for simple desktop use, I use Debian. Complete system with Tex, Octave, GIMP, etc in less than 600Mb? Mmmmm...

> 	At any rate, in the subject of winmodems, I think they are quite
> a good idea. I had something similar for the Amiga 

No.. BAD idea. bad  bad bad. It could be a good idea to allow some portion of the processing to the CPU (compression, for eg.), but doing everything there is just destined for trouble.

Another 2p.

Craig
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