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Your Qwest Leads To MSN
bee writes: "Qwest.net has announced an alliance with MSN that will 'transition' Qwest's dialup and DSL customers to MSN Internet Access. If you're a Macintosh user, you'll be able to continue on Qwest until they figure out what to do with you. Zero mention, of course, is made of Linux or BSD. Here's the FAQ they're pointing their customers to."
Basically I think the "Windows only" thing is probably only an issue for people with internal Intel DSL routers. Since these things actually sit in a PCI slot, they need drivers and if those drivers are only available for Windows, that's what you have to go with. However when you have an external router, it's different. It has a phone jack on one side, and eithernet on the other. It is actually what talks to the equipment and logs you in and so on, the system behind it has no involvement.
I'm additonally unwilling to leave Qwest since they seem to be the only ISP willing to work with me on the static IP thing. None of the other ISPs I talked to had a workable deal for static IPs, and some just wouldn't offer them at all.
At any rate, I'm not staying with their service just ecause it works with my stuff (I also have a Linux server on the network), but rather because they have the best deal right now. If someone else can offer me something equal or better to what Qwest has, I'd consider switching but I'm not going to move to an inferior solution.
Yep. this guy's exactly right. MSN is just another ISP...most of their suburban lines are sub-let through national chains. They're *almost* a virtual ISP.
I have a lil P200 (fine, yes, it's running Linux) that acts as a dialer and dhcp server, and all I have to do is use "MSN/username" in the dialing script. Works like a charm.
Nary a butterfly to be found.
Personally, I know a few people and have seen a lot of people sign up for MSN when they bought new computers. Seems like a lot of people who bought new computers took advantage of that "sign up with MSN for 3 years, and take $400 off your computer purchase today" offer. That deal helped a lot of people get a computer in their home. Now everyone's locked into a 3, 2, or 1 year contract with them. Sucks, I know.
Hi, I'm currently a Qwest employee and DSL customer I agree that the Transition FAQ looks fairly scary for *nix users but that's just the public image. I have talked to nearly every level of DSL management in my building and Nothing is changing for Linux users. You can still use the same equip and get the same access while keeping the same address (unlike windows users who go to @msn addys). True you do have to use a Cisco 675 but you have to anyway because of the lacking drivers for the Intel modems in Linux... Everything remains the same... Just Relax!
~Cory
Yes. To be more accurate, baseband is called so because the "base" signal is transmitted, that is, the signal that's generated is the one that is transmitted. In broadband, there are multiple signals being transmitted - however, each one has been transformed, so as to occupy a unique "band".
... and using linux, or any other PPP capable device on it is not hard... You do not need to use the software at all, the username just needs to be prefixed with MSN/ and you need the, easily accessable DNS server IP's which tech support would give you in a heartbeat.
Baseband means whatever bandwidth it uses isn't heterodyned up to one of the many "channels" (of whatever bandwidth) stacked one on top of the other in the broadband medium the way that radio and TV signals share the airwaves or cable. In other words if the baseband signal varies between (plucks figure out of thin air or other location) 0 Hz to 3kHz, then it gets received as a 0 to 3kHz signal instead of a 50kHz to 53kHz signal that has to be shifted back down by a local oscillator or detector.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.