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Is Linux the answer to dial-up connections?


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I do not spend enough time in France to justify broadband at French prices (I use PlusNet in the UK at £9.75 a month).  In France I can get by without trawling the internet all the time, but when I do want to use it I don't want to spend hours watching paint dry.

I have Vista Home and dual core AMD with McAfee security, so any connection via dial-up starts the laptop screaming for updates which never get finished.  So much for dual core.

I am thinking about Linux, in particular Damn Small Linux which I can download for nothing and create a "live" CD.  This will enable me to boot up Linux from the CD without any changes to my system.  Does anybody have experience of DSL?  Could it give me what I want which is just access to the Firefox browser (which is built in to DSL).  For all other PC needs I can just boot up with Vista.  Also, what about security whilst online via Linux?

Any guidance to save my sanity would be welcome.

Regards,

Chico (definitely non-geek)

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Purely as a LiveCD, then any of the popular distros should suffice. I use SimplyMEPIS permanently.

Your second option is to install Linux and set it up for a dual boot. The LiveCD will do it for you. Third is to dump Windows altogether unless you desperately need it.

Either way you'll be able to browse with the distro's built-in browser - it may come with Firefox, Iceweasel, Konqueror etc. If the LiveCD allows you to access your Windows partitions through something like KwikDisk, then you may even be able to download and save.

But of course you'll still be restricted to dial-up, but without all the popups and upgrade annoyances. As for security, Linux is rarely troubled by viruses and spyware, yet there should be something built in regardless - AV, anti-spam and firewall.

Hope that helps.

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Dial up is dial up of course regardless of which OS you use and it's not the processors fault if Vista updates take a long time, files have to be downloaded.

Vista will only try to update itself if you let it so turn it off or at least set it to notify but not install, if it's up to date when you arrive in France I'm 100% certain that there will be no risk whatsoever in ignoring the odd update whilst you're there. Similarly with your AV, update it and then turn automatic updates off. What little surfing you'll be doing on dialup is unlikely to expose you to anything.

Nothing wrong with going the Linux route but it seems like a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

If you're feeling adventurous why not try Menuet, a complete OS that fits on a floppy but could probably be installed on a USB flash drive instead. Check that your processor is supported though, my Samsung Netbook's Intel Atom isn't unfortunately.

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I was amazed at the speed of these really valuable responses - thanks a million.

I was knocked back a bit to read AnOther's reassurances that there should be no problem in disabling the auto downloads for the limited time I shall be online via dial-up.  I suspected all along that that might be the case, but there is so much stuff coming at us from all directions about internet security that I was scared to take the risk.  If only I had asked the question before I could have saved hours of angst and wasted time searching for solutions.  Thanks AnOther.

Having got this far I thought I should look at the suggestions on offer from you all.  The one that jumped out as I worked through them was the Ubuntu Linux download suggested by NormanH.  I did this with my broadband connection as I am in the UK at the moment and I was gobsmacked at how easily and quickly I found myself with a dual booting system that  gives me all I am looking for.  For anyone else who wants to go down this route, here is a short walk-through.

Go to
http://wubi-installer.org/  Sign up with a user name and password that will enable you to operate as administrator once you system is installed.  Download the Ubuntu 9.04 files and then copy these on to a blank USB stick.  Leave the USB stick plugged in and restart your computer, holding down F12 as it starts the boot up again.  On the next screen select the USB boot up option.  I then got a message to the effect that it could not find a USB device, but when I pressed ESC ( I think you can press any key) it started the whole process including creating a new partition for Ubuntu.

The end result is that when I start my laptop it gives me the option of using Vista or Ubuntu.  The Vista system is exactly as it was before.   The Ubuntu system is an entirely separate operating system which looks like a far more user friendly Linux system than any of the others I have read about.  If I only use it for Firefox, which is far and away my preferred browser, I shall be delighted, but there is a lot more in there which may be useful to me.

I have yet to configure my dial-up connection, but the help page for this looks clear enough.

Thanks a lot folk.  I'm a very happy bunny.

Chico

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Glad you've found a solution that works for you.

Just to touch on the auto updates again, the most recent XP and Vista service packs patched a lot of critical holes and vunerabilities but if you take the time to review individual updates before installing them you'll find that 9/10 address some esoteric and totally incomprehensible facet which is more often than not utterly irrelevent to the average user and can be ignored to zero ill effect.

I update my machines, a mix of XP and Vista, probably no more than 3 or 4 times a year, and then select the updates I install, and to date I have never suffered any sort of security compromise or other significant problems attributable to my heretic lack of due dilligence. I should add that I rarely if ever use IE which is, without a doubt, the most vunerable aspect of any Window OS, so my experience may not be entirely typical but you get the gist.

Something you, may not have realised, and probably many others too, is that even without an internet connection Vista (not XP) pops up and says there are updates to download and the only way it can 'know' that if not on line is by simply recognising that it hasn't phoned home for a while and the truth may be that there are no updates at all ! 

Good luck with Ubuntu

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I have been using Ubuntu for a couple of years now, and Linux for about 8. I have put it on the wifes PC too and she no longer uses Windows as she finds that Ubuntu is much more user friendly.

I do still have a Windoze dual boot on my machine as I have a game that I can only play in that operating system, but find that Ubuntu does everything that Windoze did, but quicker, easier and for free.

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Glad it's working for you.

As I said I use a double boot, and only use Windows for a few things.

When you have the time it is worth getting to grips with the idea of 'repositories'  and how to add them.

These are whole banks of programmes.

Only the most commonly used ones are installed in the basic version.

After you may want to add specific programmes from that main repository.

Later still you may wish to add a whole new additional repository.

A controversial example is Mediubuntu which makes available a number of programmes known from Windows such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Acrobat.

Personally I prefer life without them, but I needed Mediubuntu for getting access to Freebox TV...(I still haven't succeeded)

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[quote user="Chico"]I was amazed at the speed of these really valuable responses - thanks a million.

I was knocked back a bit to read AnOther's reassurances that there should be no problem in disabling the auto downloads for the limited time I shall be online via dial-up.  I suspected all along that that might be the case, but there is so much stuff coming at us from all directions about internet security that I was scared to take the risk.  If only I had asked the question before I could have saved hours of angst and wasted time searching for solutions.  Thanks AnOther.

Having got this far I thought I should look at the suggestions on offer from you all.  The one that jumped out as I worked through them was the Ubuntu Linux download suggested by NormanH.  I did this with my broadband connection as I am in the UK at the moment and I was gobsmacked at how easily and quickly I found myself with a dual booting system that  gives me all I am looking for.  For anyone else who wants to go down this route, here is a short walk-through.

Go to
http://wubi-installer.org/  Sign up with a user name and password that will enable you to operate as administrator once you system is installed.  Download the Ubuntu 9.04 files and then copy these on to a blank USB stick.  Leave the USB stick plugged in and restart your computer, holding down F12 as it starts the boot up again.  On the next screen select the USB boot up option.  I then got a message to the effect that it could not find a USB device, but when I pressed ESC ( I think you can press any key) it started the whole process including creating a new partition for Ubuntu.

The end result is that when I start my laptop it gives me the option of using Vista or Ubuntu.  The Vista system is exactly as it was before.   The Ubuntu system is an entirely separate operating system which looks like a far more user friendly Linux system than any of the others I have read about.  If I only use it for Firefox, which is far and away my preferred browser, I shall be delighted, but there is a lot more in there which may be useful to me.

I have yet to configure my dial-up connection, but the help page for this looks clear enough.

Thanks a lot folk.  I'm a very happy bunny.

Chico


[/quote]

And for us we get your posts with normal size fonts [;-)]

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No longer a happy bunny.  Ubuntu does not support dial-up and although it tells you how to overcome this in nice user-friendly language you have to jump through some very techy hoops to get there - and so far I've failed.  Maybe I'll have another try when my brain has recovered, but I do need to warn anyone who is ready to leap into this that this is not the easy answer to dial-up that I have been crowing about.

At the moment I'm leaning towards AnOther's solution.

Chico

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