Author: Jan Thomas (cache-har.cableinet.co.uk)
Date: 11-05-2001 23:00
Not so. If you are a techie, then theres always a means to achieve the end, its just a matter of how far you want to go....
Screw BT.
Anyhoo. I have a cable internet connection, which is with blueyonder, note - linux is not supported - I have a linux box which is a webserver/firewall, connected to my cable router 24/7.
The ONLY thing they can do to prevent a particular OS using thier dial-up or cable connection is to provide interface hardware that isnt generic enough to be useable by the OS. IE, a software modem that need win98 to work properly. If you have a network card or a modem installed and working on your system, no matter what OS it is, then you CAN connect to ANY isp as long as your protocol suite and client apps supports the required protocols, which is either SLIP or PPP which actually converts the serial modem data into a network stream (not entirely accurate), and TCP/IP for the network application (browser, telnet etc)
The issue with logging in is whether the login credentials are encrypted or not. If the ISP wont talk to you any other way (ie plain text) then you need to have a client that talks CHAP. After authentication it doesnt matter.
<rant>
{The whole point that the internet (arpanet) started in the first place was so that any mainframe could talk to another mainframe no matter what OS either was running} IT WASNT CREATED BY OR FOR BRITISH TELECOM, OR MA BELL. THEY DIDNT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT IN THE 70's...
IT WASNT CREATED SO THAT WE (THE _REAL_ COMPUTER GEEKS) GET TENS OF JUNK EMAILS A DAY PEDDLING SHITE.
</rant>
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