[Sheflug] Re: BlueYonder

["Craig Andrews" <nospam [at] fishbot.org.uk>]

>You miss the point - there are so many different ways a box could be
>configured and setup depending on version of kernel, version of networking
>utils, and state of firewall that asking an engineer to set up and test a
>connection gets rather complicated and tends to mean you need to know what
>you're doing.

Why is it unreasonable to expect an engineer to know what he's doing?

>You could set up your DHCP with the engineer watching, but then its a case
of
>if it doesn't work, is it a problem with BY or your setup? If the engineer
>does the work, he can get things setup and tested himself, and then if it
>doesn't work, he has a data point as he knows what he's done to install it.

See prev. post on value of support...

>There seems to be an almost inflexible attitude at times within the Linux
>community in the "if it needs windows, I don't want to know [grumble moan
cue
>flame wars]" type discussions. We're still living in a large
Windows-at-home
>world...surely it's better to have a small Win95 partition or slow machine
>(eg, old 486 or summat) lying around for the times you need Windows?

Not so much 'if it needs Windows, I don't wanna know', as much as 'I don't
have, or want Windows. Why should I pay 50 quid or become a software pirate
just to get a service which, in fact, has nothing to do with Windows at
all?'.

I chose the pirate route, simply because I really want to install, get
cablemodem, remove. Thats it.

>But as I've said - BY *can* be used with Linux...you just need WinXX for
the
>install. After the engineer's been and gone, you can do what you will with
>your machine. Though I've read in uk.telecom.broadband that you /might/ be
>able to sign the installation as complete (or similar) without the engineer
>doing owt to your box and leaving it for you to finish off.

Exactly! You need windows. So, I put windows on, he configures it. I take
note of any special network settings (gateway, DNS, etc), delete windows,
set up linux box. What has the engineer done? He's spent however long
setting up a box which didn't survive long enough for him to get back to the
office!

Surely the hardest part is getting the NIC working? If I can get that
working OK before he comes, it's just a case of configuring gateway, DNS,
etc, and we're away. He can even see it running! And, if it fails,
(unlikely) he can set it up on the temporary Win drive, and I'll try again
later.

Note: They don't provide the NIC. Thats up to you, so basically, over half
his job is installing the hardware. After that, it's just configuring a
network!

Anyway, point is, it's a lot of wasted effort on both mine and the engineers
part, if I have to set up an OS which will be removed, and if he has to
configure it. What's the point?

Craig

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