Dialup access from Linux

[nemorathwald]

At this week's meeting of the Macomb Oakland Fan Organization, my brother told me about an old man who my dad knows. All this man wants to do with his computer is use e-mail. When my dad serviced his friend's computer, it was so full of viruses that you had to wait almost ten minutes just for the "My Computer" desktop icon to respond. Depending on the hardware he's on, those two facts make him the perfect user of Linux with the Thunderbird e-mail client. However, before I recommend this to him, I'll bet you anything he's on a dialup access. Nobody with such limited need would bother with the expense of broadband.
I recall the first of my dozen-or-so abortive attempts to use Linux. I had Xandros loaded on a low-GHz Pentium1. (Still do actually.) But all I had at the time was dialup, and when I asked people at a Penguicon meeting how to access dialup from Linux, it boggled their minds that I wasn't on broadband. What boggled my mind was that elitists were keeping me from using software that they purportedly wanted to spread far and wide. How much trouble is it to leave in a function that would allow half the Internet users in the country to use your product? So, Xandros turned my computer into a paperweight and I never used it for anything worthwhile. Not one thing.
Why broadband only? If I weren't using somebody else's broadband right now, I would go back to $10-a-month dialup. Broadband is salivatingly convenient, but it's currently an overpriced luxury. I was very very pleased when I found out Ubuntu, true to it's promise of accessibility for everyone, has dialup access. See, now-- that is software that is truly free to everyone. And yet ironically, according to this link, Ubuntu's network config doesn't auto-setup a dialup account very well! You have to go through a special set of instructions. Good thing the old man has my dad to help him.
You know that old argument (which doesn't hold up very much anymore) about how you supposedly have to use Windows or Mac in order to have the software you want? Well, here is this old man who only wants the humblest of functions, email on dialup. He would be the perfect user for the social democratic benefits of Linux, as best exemplified by the Ubuntu philosophy, were it not for this irony.

Comments

[aiela.livejournal.com]

Back before we had broadband we had our computers networked over linux and anytime someone tried to make a net connection it would automatically dial. It was really nice. (And after a time of idleness it would disconnect.)

[stormgren.livejournal.com]

"Nobody with such limited need would bother with the expense of broadband."

You'd be surprised. Comcast.net wouldn't be in business if people who just checked their mail only used dial-up.

Secondly, "elitists"? Please. No one was keeping you from setting up dial-up access. PPP (dial up protocol), PPP confguration files and dialer scripts ship with every Linux distro out there that I can think of. The HOWTOs are out there, and they're dead easy to follow with the canned scripts. SuSE comes with a YAST panel that's pretty easy to use to set up dial-up. I'm thinking you need to turn the paranoia back down from 11. There is no Great Anti-Newbie Linux Hacker Conspiracy, it's just that the learning curve is still higher than most.

That being said, Ubuntu is making very large amounts of headway in making a truly user friendly Linux (Assuming they ever make the installer easier to use!).

FYI: If you read the second link, Ubuntu's dialer seems to work under the "Hoary Hedgehog" release and I've had sucess with using it, in a limited test sense, though. Mind you, this assumes that he's got a real modem, either external or internal, and not a craptastic winmodem that so many of them seem to be these days. Winmodems are generally not considered well-supported in Linux, for many reasons.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Now that I think back on it, I had an external USB modem. The Xandros I had would not recognize the USB ports. And I couldn't upgrade it because it wouldn't recognize the CD drive either. So, it was more complicated. But the bottom line is, I was looking for an icon that said, "click here to dial up" and there wasn't one.

And by the way, have I said often enough how grateful I am for Ubuntu's accesibility philosophy?

Yes, elitists linux snobs

[(Anonymous)]

"Secondly, 'elitists'? Please. No one was keeping you from setting up dial-up access...."

As a beginner in Linux the snobbish elitist attitude was very plain for me to see. It came mostly from the half of the linux users I asked who hadn't used dialup in years or just assumed I was stupid for using dialup, the other half eventually shrugged their shoulders and said they hoped I would move to a new neighborhood soon. I came back to the LUG after a couple of months of working on it and then asked how to download a .DEB and all its dependencies (but not actually install it) so that I could put it on a disk and take home. Everyone looked at me like I was from outer space. "Just use the nearest mirror" was the consensus. When I reminded them that I was on dial-up outside of Qwest and not close enough to the highway for cable, back to square one: shrug of the shoulders.

[sothisislife.livejournal.com]

Do people still use dialup? It's 2005 for crying out loud ;)

I use cable because it's cheaper than getting a phone line.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Yes, they do. According to a New York research firm, two thirds of households on the internet use dialup and one third use broadband, although this is expected to reverse by 2010. I embrace technology as much as most people, but my reasons against early adoption are always financial. That's why I've never subscribed to cable TV either. If the price of broadband or cable TV came down signifigantly, especially if cable TV were offered ala carte, I would be more likely to subscribe.

[sothisislife.livejournal.com]

Calbe ala carte is something I have been wishing they would invent for a while now. There are only about 5 channels I really watch, but I'm a sucker and I pay for the whole damn thing.

And I guess I really can't make fun of people for having dial-up, I was probably the last hold-out to get a home computer, and by that time my land line was long gone so I have never even used dial-up. I learned to browse the internet at work, on a high speed connection, so it seemed normal to get high speed at home. And it is cheaper than getting a phone line, so it works for me. :)