DSL on USB or Ethernet?
Posts: 793
My chat with the guy at the ISP said that the DSL connection I'll be getting can hook up to either USB or Ethernet.
Is there a preferred way to do this from a feed that's essentially from SBC through my provider?
With an always on system, I'm likely to use audio in the form of internet radio extensively.
Does the ethernet card provide more throughput than the standard connection on my USB-1 port on the motherboard or a USB-2 card I have also installed?
My opinion is that you
Posts: 472
My opinion is that you should stay far away from a USB only modem and ethernet card. Maybe it will work fine with Mepis but lots of distros have mucho problemos with connecting a modem via USB. What kind of ethernet card do you have (or if it is built in as it is on my Intel mobo) what kind of connection does it have?)
If SBC gives you a choice, go for the plain old RJ45 ethernet connection.
A good source for everything DSL is www.dslreports.com.
ANC
Here's the deal
Posts: 793
[http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1487930&Sku=MCM-8I845GVM-340A]
Not trying to advertise for them but with rebate, it looks
like a good deal. If you know of others, I'm all ears.
There's an eth connection on that board so it should
be plug and play.
But on the old box here I have my Yamaha RP U100 receiver
on one USB-1 port on the board. I also have a USB-2 card
in there, but have not installed the card drivers yet.
I'm hoping this deal will go easily and I've never had
a lot of worries about viruses.
If you have any tips on this, let me know. I'm not
expecting much trouble, but who knows?
What I'll do at the outset is plug USB and see what happens.
I have [on separate drives and Live CD's] Mepis, Ubuntu,
Puppy Linux, and up till my latest backup, Fedora Core2.
Go With Ethernet
Posts: 5513
If your DSL modem has hookup for both USB and ethernet, I'd go with ethernet. The ethernet interface tends to be more standard/reliable (I'm sure you'd like that).
Although Mepis (and many other distros) have a firewall on by default, make sure you check that when you connect the wire. At some point you may want to consider buying a router. They're about the same price as a modem and will allow you to connect multiple computers together (and to the 'net). And most decent ones also provide a "hardware firewall".
One small advantage of dial-up is that you're not as "noticable" to the outside world. But "high-speed" connections work both ways: you to the outside, and the outside in!
You can do a quick-and-dirty "Can you hear me now?" check by going to www.grc.com after you're hooked up and having the site scan your ports. If it all comes up "stealth" then... you don't exist!
Jon