[TriLUG] OT: Dial-Up ISP

[Jason Tower]

> Ack.  Looks like you got one of my hot buttons on this one.  I guess
> I'm saying that you have to be very careful in how you define 'Linux
> friendly'. My personal take on it is that anyone who doesn't hang up
> on you the minute you say that you're using Linux is 'Linux
> friendly', even if they can't help you troubleshoot your
> configuration or tell you exactly what's wrong.  But that's just my
> take.

IMHO "linux friendly" can best be defined as "doesn't require 
proprietary crap to use it".  in this case, a "linux friendly" dial-up 
ISP simply needs to make one thing possible - a standard PPP connection 
can be made with three pieces of info: a phone number, a username, and 
a password.  anything that "requires" some special win32 app just to 
establish a connection is by definition not linux friendly.

case in point: one of my clients last year switched to bellsouth 
biz-class DSL, which uses PPPoE.  since they are using a linux box as a 
nat gatway/firewall, i needed the proper auth info to set this up on 
the outside interface.  the bellsouth techie absolutely insisted that 
you needed to run a win32 app to establish the PPPoE connection.  after 
***three hours*** i managed to get someone on the phone who gave me the 
info i needed to set it up.  i wasn't aksing them to do it for me, i 
just wanted the fscking auth info so i could do it myself.  had they 
provided this upon request, i would call their service "linux 
friendly".  instead, their ironclad insistence that i run windows, even 
when it wasn't actually necessary, won them my "don't ever do business 
with these jackholes ever again" award.

jason