I recently installed Linux (SuSE 7.1) on my new laptop. It has a
winmodem (Lucent) but is supported (ltmodem).
I have a rarely used dialup account with earthlink, so for a laugh, I
installed ltmodem to talk to the winmodem (easy rpm install). I tried
it out with minicom and was greeted with the "OK" of a working modem.
Feeling a little frisky I shut down minicom and plugged in the phone
line. I started kppp from the menu, setup the phone number, username,
password and set all the other items to defaults. I punched the
"Connect" button and it all worked. Surfed, downloaded, did the Aol-IM
thing, spent an hour or so, tried several different local access numbers
and the national 1-800 number, it all worked just fine. It doesn't get
much easier. Go figure. Haven't tried a fax direct from StarOffice yet
but I bet it'll fly too.
One thing -- you "may" have to set a default route if you also have a
local NIC installed and want to talk to the dialup AND the local net at
once. If needed I can give you the details on how to configure that so
it will be all automatic when kppp connects.
In my experience above, earthlink was pretty dad-gummed compatible!
They also have a *lot* of local access numbers across the country (if
you're traveling) and offer (for a few dollars more) a nationwide 1-800
access number for those visits to Perdido Ala. I'm not necessarily an
earthlink fan. My account used to be with cybergate but they got bought
by earthlink so I wound up with earthlink by default. So far it's
worked out ok.
As for connecting to compuserve from Linux, I searched my vast
underground caverns(tm) and found this:
http://www.pccl.demon.co.uk/unix/chat/compuserve.html
And a tutorial with nice pictures:
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialPPP-compuserve.html
No guarantees though. Looks a bit inconvenient compared to the
kppp/earthlink experience. You may be able to adapt the chat script
given in some of the above links to kppp using it's chat script option.
Some examples (even mentioning compuserve) can be found in the kppp
handbook(in kppp press the button with the "?" on it and check out
chapter 4). Here's a link for the curious:
http://gershwin.ens.fr/vdaniel/Doc-Locale/Outils-Gnu-Linux/Kde/kppp/kppp-4.html
Personally, I was a 15+ year loyal Compuserve customer but dropped them
because of their Linux attitude. Their loss, not mine.
Ed.
Norbert Cartagena wrote:
>
> Hey, all. I'm asking this question on behalf of a
> friend who currently does not have internet access.
> The guy just went gung-ho, full Linux (bye bye
> windows, the guy picked up SuSE). Unfortunatelly, he
> uses CompuServe as his ISP and wishes to switch to
> another that would be compatible with Linux (as far as
> I know, CompuServe uses the proprietary AOL
> authentication protocol). Any recomendations?
> Unfortunatelly, I my experience with dial-ups is weak
> at best.
>
> On a secondary note, the Brandon II meeting, which
> takes place in the Computer Advantage shop on the
> third Thursday of every month at 7pm WILL _STILL_ TAKE
> PLACE THIS WEEK. Just thought I'd make it clear to all
> who might be wondering.
>
> Thanks,
> Norb
>
> =====
> ~ Good evening, Mr. Gates
> . . I'll be your server this evening.
> /V\
> // \\
> /( )\
> ^`~'^
>
> __________________________________________________
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