Adelphia rambling

[Gregory J.Neumann]

Bob wrote:
> I do exactly that at home. I have a junk machine that is configured to 
start
> up in init level 3 (no X) and I have it doing ipchains to 
firewall/masquerade. 
> We have a Coyote Linux box set up for the group that we connect to a 
similar
> kind of setup in the Towers. Work fine, last long time...

> The tech support guys are funny. I had the installer going when he showed 
up. 
> He essentially just stood there and watched while I set everything up. He
> said: "I've heard that people could do this, I never saw it before 
now..."

> cool stuff

> Bob

Same thing here.  The guy walked in, I handed him the RJ45 cable end and 
said, "All set.  What are the DNS and DHCP settings?"  He didn't know 
("I'm just an installer ...") and insisted that he had to connect it to 
ONE Win9x computer only, so I shuffled the cables, he was happy.  After 
he walked out, I moved the cable to the firewall, and everybody was 
happy!

I read the service contract 5 times that day, and as long as I don't 
export services off the premises, and don't expect tech support, what I 
do w/ the signal after it leaves the "surfboard" is my business.  I've 
actually had fairly good luck.  But tech support doesn't seem to know 
stuff like "DHCP server" and "primary DNS".  They may not be allowed to 
give that stuff out?  When they crash and burn, that's the only real 
trouble I have.  Adelphia seems to have an annoying habit of changing 
things just enough when they get back up that I have to go through and 
reconfigure stuff.  Like good(?) ol' M$, they seem to want to be able to 
exercise control over your computer when you're not looking and they want 
to keep the stuff "great-big-magic-you-can-no-understand"!  

Linksys really put the damper on the home Linux routers, but I always 
wonder about a "black box" thing like that.  Still, it beats being part 
of Adelphia's big happy "Network Neighborhood"!  ("Please disable file 
and print sharing ...")

When it works, it works well!  Last night I got the ISO's for >Slackware< 
8.0 while my oldest son was either kicking or getting kicked in butt in 
CounterStrike and middle daughter was IM'ing 6 people.  Pretty nice.  I 
don't think our "node" is terribly populated, though.

BTW, If all works well, I've managed to clear my schedule w/ SWMBO for 
the meeting Sunday.  Anybody between Holland and Buffalo via 400 and near 
the route need a ride?

Best regards,
Greg