I have heard similar stories. Did you register the product with them? I heard that they will absolutely ignore you until you register, but then they are often very helpful.
Sure, you can build one out of an old computer and spare parts. But, think about the physical size, noise of the fans, and electrical consumption. Plus, you could use that old computer for something else. I got a D-Link DI-804 for $51 from Amazon.com this week. $80.00 - $30.00 rebate - $10.00 online coupon + 11.00 S/H. It seems to have all the features you want. It has a simple web interface for basic stuff but it also has a telnet interface for more advanced features. Look at the D-Link site for the product (http://www.dlink.com/products/broadband/di804/).
Note: The picture on the D-Link and Amazon.com websites is of an older design where the four switch ports are on the front, and the WAN port is on the back. On the one I received yesterday, all ports are on the back (much less messy). I emailed them telling them that the picture didn't look anything like the actual product and so they apparently pulled the webpage for the product temporarily.
The setup was painless (basically, just plugged it in, attached network cables, renewed my IP leases, and changed the admin password). I even upgraded the firmware in less than a minute. It is also silent (no fan) and it is about the size of the area of a keyboard between the [ESC] and the right-alt key. It is working great.
It has four ports in the built-in switch. Port one can be used either as a normal switch port or as an uplink. It also has a serial port that you can attach an external modem to share as a backup for then your cable/dsl connect goes out.
For $51, it is basically the same price as the 486 solution that someone else cited as $45, and it even comes with a one-year warrenty (apparently, D-Link used to have a lifetime warrenty but I guess they don't do that for the consumer stuff any more).
CPU 32bits ARM RISC CPU
Memory 512 Kbytes Flash Memory
4 Mbytes SDRAM
Standards IEEE 802.3 10Base-T Ethernet
IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet
IEEE 802.3x Flow Control
ANSI/IEEE 802.3 NWay Auto-Negotiation
Protocols Supported
TCP/IP
NAT
DHCP
UPD
PAP
CHAP
MSCHAP
RIP1/RIP2
PPPoE
Virtual Server
VPN Pass Through Function*
PPTP
L2TP
IPSec
Firewall Protection: Built in NAT firewall using stateful packet inspection
Management: Web-Based - requires a PC, Mac, or Linux based computer with a Web Browser capable of running Java script.
Firmware Upgrade: Web-Based - requires a PC, Mac, or Linux based computer with a Web Browser capable of running Java script.
Ports:
4 x NWay 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet LAN
Port 1 has Uplink/Normal switch
1 x 10Base-T WAN
1 x RS-232 (230 Kbps, male DB-9) - for back-up analog modem connection
LED's
Power
WAN
Console
Link/Act. (Link / Activity)
10/100 Mbps
Power DC 5V 2A
Operating Temperature 0 C ~ 40 C
Storing Temperature -20 C ~ 70 C
Humidity Max 95% Non-condensing
EMI Certification FCC part 15 Class B in US
Have these things been challenged in court? I would guess that they would not stand. I don't know the law very well, but I would think that this is basically a company bribing the government to let it gain land at a discount. I don't see how that following the spirit of eminent domain, but rather is just an abuse of power.
Could you please post some links to information about these two cases? Thanks!
The rumor is that Oracle's developers are afraid to touch it for fear of breaking something, so all new features are bolted on using PL/SQL packages.)
This is not true. There are some serious low-level behind-the-scenes changes coming in Oracle 9i. For example: each tablespace can have its own block size, it will be able to automatically manage file allocation (creating and resizing data files automatically within limits set by the DBA), better manage temporary segments and rollback segments.
Like you said, in 8i they integrated Java into the Oracle server, with an almost-completely-new JVM that supports session-oriented "Virtual JVM"'s for efficiency. They didn't do that in PL/SQL. Most JVM vendors can't seem to do that in ANY language.
That's just a few. None of that happened with PL/SQL. They haven't changed the core because the core is "mature". They've been working on it for 20 years, after all. If you have a METALINK account then you can look at all the bugs they fix in the the "low-level" C code within days or weeks of having them reported. That makes me doubt that they "fear" anything.
And, the fact that they use PL/SQL for MANY features is a tribute to the designers and implementers of PL/SQL at Oracle. In fact, I wish there was a freely-avaialable embedded PL/SQL engine.
Finally, Oracle is buddies with Sun and at one point they had an product called Oracle Appliance that ran on a custom tripped-down version of Sun Solaris and the OS and Oracle came pre-installed as a package. That is probably as close to "Oracle OS" as you will get.
If you sign up at http://otn.oracle.com you can download literally millions of dollars of software from their site. Their software doesn't have any timers or nag screens. You can even get free "Developer" licenses for many of their products. So, for all intents and purposes, Oracle has become a Shareware company, although they don't advertise it. And, in fact, I would say that they are the biggest and the best Shareware company there is. Can anybody think of anybody bigger or better?
However, Oracle won't let you see bug reports for products that you aren't "supported" for on their support site (http://metalink.oracle.com) which requires a valid support contract even to get onto. So, I doubt they are going to become anything like an "Open Source" company.
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I don't know about that. The information I posted is the specification sheet for the router as supplied by D-Link, not anything I compiled myself.
I have heard similar stories. Did you register the product with them? I heard that they will absolutely ignore you until you register, but then they are often very helpful.
Sure, you can build one out of an old computer and spare parts. But, think about the physical size, noise of the fans, and electrical consumption. Plus, you could use that old computer for something else. I got a D-Link DI-804 for $51 from Amazon.com this week. $80.00 - $30.00 rebate - $10.00 online coupon + 11.00 S/H. It seems to have all the features you want. It has a simple web interface for basic stuff but it also has a telnet interface for more advanced features. Look at the D-Link site for the product (http://www.dlink.com/products/broadband/di804/).
Note: The picture on the D-Link and Amazon.com websites is of an older design where the four switch ports are on the front, and the WAN port is on the back. On the one I received yesterday, all ports are on the back (much less messy). I emailed them telling them that the picture didn't look anything like the actual product and so they apparently pulled the webpage for the product temporarily.
The setup was painless (basically, just plugged it in, attached network cables, renewed my IP leases, and changed the admin password). I even upgraded the firmware in less than a minute. It is also silent (no fan) and it is about the size of the area of a keyboard between the [ESC] and the right-alt key. It is working great.
It has four ports in the built-in switch. Port one can be used either as a normal switch port or as an uplink. It also has a serial port that you can attach an external modem to share as a backup for then your cable/dsl connect goes out.
For $51, it is basically the same price as the 486 solution that someone else cited as $45, and it even comes with a one-year warrenty (apparently, D-Link used to have a lifetime warrenty but I guess they don't do that for the consumer stuff any more).
CPU 32bits ARM RISC CPU
Memory 512 Kbytes Flash Memory
4 Mbytes SDRAM
Standards IEEE 802.3 10Base-T Ethernet
IEEE 802.3u 100Base-TX Fast Ethernet
IEEE 802.3x Flow Control
ANSI/IEEE 802.3 NWay Auto-Negotiation
Protocols Supported
TCP/IP
NAT
DHCP
UPD
PAP
CHAP
MSCHAP
RIP1/RIP2
PPPoE
Virtual Server
VPN Pass Through Function*
PPTP
L2TP
IPSec
Firewall Protection: Built in NAT firewall using stateful packet inspection
Management: Web-Based - requires a PC, Mac, or Linux based computer with a Web Browser capable of running Java script.
Firmware Upgrade: Web-Based - requires a PC, Mac, or Linux based computer with a Web Browser capable of running Java script.
Ports:
4 x NWay 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet LAN
Port 1 has Uplink/Normal switch
1 x 10Base-T WAN
1 x RS-232 (230 Kbps, male DB-9) - for back-up analog modem connection
LED's
Power
WAN
Console
Link/Act. (Link / Activity)
10/100 Mbps
Power DC 5V 2A
Operating Temperature 0 C ~ 40 C
Storing Temperature -20 C ~ 70 C
Humidity Max 95% Non-condensing
EMI Certification FCC part 15 Class B in US
It is XHTML. You must have an XHTML-capable browser to see it. Apparently IE 5.5 is not XHTML-capable.
Have these things been challenged in court? I would guess that they would not stand. I don't know the law very well, but I would think that this is basically a company bribing the government to let it gain land at a discount. I don't see how that following the spirit of eminent domain, but rather is just an abuse of power.
Could you please post some links to information about these two cases? Thanks!
The rumor is that Oracle's developers are afraid to touch it for fear of breaking something, so all new features are bolted on using PL/SQL packages.) This is not true. There are some serious low-level behind-the-scenes changes coming in Oracle 9i. For example: each tablespace can have its own block size, it will be able to automatically manage file allocation (creating and resizing data files automatically within limits set by the DBA), better manage temporary segments and rollback segments. Like you said, in 8i they integrated Java into the Oracle server, with an almost-completely-new JVM that supports session-oriented "Virtual JVM"'s for efficiency. They didn't do that in PL/SQL. Most JVM vendors can't seem to do that in ANY language. That's just a few. None of that happened with PL/SQL. They haven't changed the core because the core is "mature". They've been working on it for 20 years, after all. If you have a METALINK account then you can look at all the bugs they fix in the the "low-level" C code within days or weeks of having them reported. That makes me doubt that they "fear" anything. And, the fact that they use PL/SQL for MANY features is a tribute to the designers and implementers of PL/SQL at Oracle. In fact, I wish there was a freely-avaialable embedded PL/SQL engine. Finally, Oracle is buddies with Sun and at one point they had an product called Oracle Appliance that ran on a custom tripped-down version of Sun Solaris and the OS and Oracle came pre-installed as a package. That is probably as close to "Oracle OS" as you will get.
If you sign up at http://otn.oracle.com you can download literally millions of dollars of software from their site. Their software doesn't have any timers or nag screens. You can even get free "Developer" licenses for many of their products. So, for all intents and purposes, Oracle has become a Shareware company, although they don't advertise it. And, in fact, I would say that they are the biggest and the best Shareware company there is. Can anybody think of anybody bigger or better?
However, Oracle won't let you see bug reports for products that you aren't "supported" for on their support site (http://metalink.oracle.com) which requires a valid support contract even to get onto. So, I doubt they are going to become anything like an "Open Source" company.