[NCLUG] Another simple FTP question

[dobbster]

> > Hmmm, I thought that "winmodems" were a more general term for certain
> > plug-and-play thingies that are practically inconfgurable in Linux.
> 
> In general.  I would say that a Winmodem is any modem that offloads its
> operation onto the host processor.  Any modem that is not
> self-contained.  Its not so much the plug-and-playness of the modems, so
> much as the not-a-real-serial-port issue.

I see...  That makes sense, and it explains a lot of my nightmares with
these things.
 
> I bought a non-winmodem PCI card from US Robotics.  The funny thing is,
> they sell non-winmodems to windows users as "built in processor -- frees
> up more CPU for your games!"  It works great, so long as you are running
> 2.3 or above... and I'm not.  And the latest serial driver doesn't
> backport to 2.2.18 yet, sooo...
> 
> Modems suck.  I want ethernet everywhere!!

Agreed!  Thank goodness for DSL :-)
 
> Oh, and the price of ISA cards is probably a supply/demand kind of thing
> more than anything.  Have you noticed that pc133 memory is cheaper than
> pc100?  You can put pc133 memory into a pc100 machine...

Yes, I figured that; I've noticed the same thing with memory and other
old peripherals, too.
 
> There's a linux printing site, similar to the linmodems site.  It
> summarizes how useless certain printers are.  It used to be that any PS
> printer was safe -- now, it appears that some printers that SAY they are
> postscript are just sent with ghostscript attached to the Windows
> drivers...

I believe I've checked out that site as well.  All I can say is that I
am very careful about printer purchases these days.  It's just not worth
the hassle.  When I try to convert friends to Linux, serial ports and
printers gobble up the majority of my efforts.
 
> > GRR.  We did just buy a Lexmark Z-52, which actually has Linux drivers
> > and even a GUI installation program - Not bad.  Setting up the remote
> > lpd wasn't quite so simple, though.
> 
> I'm trying to set one of those up right now... Mostly the problem is
> that I seem to lack a parallel port... and I'm certainly not trying to
> futz with USB!

No parallel port?  I must be behind the times; are they making machines
without parallel ports now??

> > > http://linmodems.org/ - for great justice!
> >
> > What you say!!  I've already seen this site.  Still, I don't know if I
> > want to deal with it (this is a "favor" for a friend, and I have too
> > many "friends" asking for "favors" like this, resulting in massive
> time
> 
> Winmodems aren't worth your sanity.  You/he would probably be happier
> with a real modem, but then you have to go out /shopping/ for a 'real'
> modem.  And that is just as large of a nightmare...

Well, I figure it this way...

I have lots of friends who run Windows.  I constantly preach Linux at
them.  They come to my house, try out my computers and are invariably
impressed.  They all say they want Linux.  I say, "Okay, and I'll be
happy to help you install it.  However, you will have to make a few
sacrifices."

I think I am going to adopt slightly stricter policies about dealing
with my friends.  If they want me to install and configure Linux,
they're going to have to go get their own compatible modems, printers,
Ethernet cards, etc., first.  It's not that I don't want to convert
people to Linux, and it's not that I don't want to face the challenges
of certain hardware.  It's simply that I don't have the time to muck
around with this stuff.

At least I have successfully converted our entire company (currently six
fairly technophobic employees, eight workstations, two separate LANs,
and three servers) entirely over to Linux (one FreeBSD).  Not bad for a
relative newbie coming from the world of HP-UX. :-)  I owe a lot to
NCLUG and I promise a few pitchers of beer or soda at a meeting soon...

Thanks again!

Mark (dobbster at dobbster.com)