Subject: [os2genau_digest] No. 589
From: Digest <deadmail>
To: "OS/2GenAu Digest"<deadmail>
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 00:04:05 EST-10EDT,10,-1,0,7200,3,-1,0,7200,3600

**************************************************
Friday 11 April 2003
 Number  589
**************************************************

Subjects for today
 
1  Re:  2GB Filesize limit : Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
2  Re:  2GB Filesize limit : Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
3  Re:  Boot managers & mixed SCSI/IDE systems : Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
4  Re:  Boot managers & mixed SCSI/IDE systems : Robert Traynor  (BobT)" <rtraynor at optusnet dot com dot au>
5   Cable/ADSL and hardware? : Andrew Otte" <citytabn-aotte at powerup dot com dot au>
6  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
7  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : Andrew Otte" <citytabn-aotte at powerup dot com dot au>
8  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
9  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : Andrew Otte" <citytabn-aotte at powerup dot com dot au>
10  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
11  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : Paul Smedley" <paul at smedley.info>
12  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : Paul Smedley" <paul at smedley.info>
13  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
14  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : David Forrester" <davidfor at internode.on dot net>
15  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware? : Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>

**= Email   1 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 06:41:05 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
Subject:  Re:  2GB Filesize limit

Are you sure HPFS386 has a FILEsize limit of 64GB ?? I have seen references say it's only 2
GB.
Partitionsize perhaps 64GB ??

Ed.

Daryl Pilkington wrote:

> Hi All,
> Ed, since you are using 386HPFS with a 64GB file size limit, your 3GB
> tablespace backup shouldn't be a problem?
>
> On Wed, 09 Apr 2003 12:03:59 +1000 (EST), Ian Manners wrote:
>
> >Hi Ed
> >
> >> I have a system to upgrade from Warp Server / HPFS386 to WSeB / JFS. The problem is
> >> that it runs DB/2 and the tables have grown to over 3GB, hence exporting to a HPFS386
> >> drive becomes "interesting". The solution I have at present is to export to a network
> >> drive, which for some reason doesn't appear to have the 2GB filesize limit.
> >
> >The 2Gb limit is I believe related to the kernal version as well, also
> >depends on what is on the other end of the network driver in regards
> >to OS and filesystem, including filesystem version.
> >
> SNIP
> >
>
> Regards,
>
> Daryl  Pilkington
>
> //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration
> O<O  AUSTRALIA
> \_/
> <O>  OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2
>      IBM Certified Systems Expert
>
>         email: darylp at pc-therapist dot com dot au
>           Mob: 0425-251-300
>

>  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   2 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 06:41:59 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
Subject:  Re:  2GB Filesize limit

They've done this before, so call it export or backup - they should know what to do.
(hopefully)

Ed

Daryl Pilkington wrote:

> Hi Ed,
> Err, export doesn't backup the actual DB design, you need to do a
> backup.
> Have you discussed export with the DB2 gurus responsible for your DB2
> server?
> Are they happy with export?
>
> On Wed, 09 Apr 2003 06:42:36 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote:
>
> >I have a system to upgrade from Warp Server / HPFS386 to WSeB / JFS. The problem is
> >that it runs DB/2 and the tables have grown to over 3GB, hence exporting to a HPFS386
> >drive becomes "interesting". The solution I have at present is to export to a network
> >drive, which for some reason doesn't appear to have the 2GB filesize limit.
> >
> SNIP
> >
>
> Regards,
>
> Daryl  Pilkington
>
> //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration
> O<O  AUSTRALIA
> \_/
> <O>  OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2
>      IBM Certified Systems Expert
>
>         email: darylp at pc-therapist dot com dot au
>           Mob: 0425-251-300
>

>  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   3 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 06:44:41 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Boot managers & mixed SCSI/IDE systems

All partitions need to be under the "control" of LVM, whether "compatable or LVM-JFS"
you can't have one drive using the old FDisk and one using LVM (if that's what you're
trying to do).

I have read that Airboot is more flexible, but I have never used it myself, so can't
give any real comments.

Ed.

Daryl Pilkington wrote:

> Hi All,
> Can somebody point me to some good documentation on how to install a
> boot manager that works on a mixed SCSI/IDE system running WS4eB CP3?
>
> I've got a AHA2940UW with 2GB SCSI HDD setup as:
> C: Primary
> D: Logical
>
> 2 40GB IDE
> E: LVM
> F: LVM
>
> Using IBM's Boot Manager comes up with errors.
>
> Would AirBoot solve this problem?
>
> I'm thinking it might be better to make *all* partitions logical/LVM &
> only have the boot manager primary.
> Would this solve problems?
>
> Regards,
>
> Daryl  Pilkington
>
> //// The PC-Therapist, Business Computing Integration
> O<O  AUSTRALIA
> \_/
> <O>  OS/2 Warp, Redhat Linux, DB2
>      IBM Certified Systems Expert
>
>         email: darylp at pc-therapist dot com dot au
>           Mob: 0425-251-300
>

>  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   4 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 08:49:17 +1000
From:  "Robert Traynor  (BobT)" <rtraynor at optusnet dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Boot managers & mixed SCSI/IDE systems

Hi Daryl,

Air-Boot will work for you but you have not detailed what
exactly your problem is.

On another matter, while Air-Boot will boot almost anything you
would wish to throw at it and is LVM compatible, there is
some things you should know.

Namely, you still MUST have an IBM Bootmanager, not to boot
from, but to be a target for the LVM utility.
LVM will not save properly and you will have problems getting
LVM changes to "stick" and/or you may not be able to cleanly
exit LVM setup without a valid BootManager in place somewhere.  

Exception:-  If your system is simple, with Warp4.5/eCS
on drive C:, then you won't need BootManager at all.

So if you are thinking of freeing up a primary partition by 
not installing BootManager, guess again.

In MY case with a fairly complex system, this meant that I 
chose to put BootManager on the SECOND drive, purely as a 
LVM target.  I have also tried it on the THIRD physical
hard drive too. Both work ok.  I have not tried the
4th or 5th hard drives though. The third hard drive
and up are scsi, first and second are both 40gb IDE drives.

As you probably know, the later versions of Warp 4.5x and 
all eCS versions, support BootManager being on any drive 
other than the FIRST physical hard drive.

As long as LVM has a legitimate BootManager to update when
you "exit and save", then LVM will be ok.

I now use Air-Boot exclusively, never boot through the 
IBM BootManager.  That said, Air-Boot is no problem for
someone with good partition knowledge and experience
but the documentation is not extensive.

It is a case of install and play. Most people of Daryls
experience will have it sorted out in 15-20 minutes.
The longest part of the learning experience is waiting
for the machine to bootup to try the settings out
or get back into the config to try something else. etc.

Note:-  You MUST put volume labels on ALL partitions.! 
These are used by Air-Boot to display entries on the 
Air-Boot menu screen.

Have to go, Excessive power interruptions due to storm.
BYE.

Regards,
Robert Traynor (BobT)
   11 April 2003

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 06:44:41 +1000, Ed Durrant wrote:
> All partitions need to be under the "control" of LVM, whether "compatable or LVM-JFS"
> you can't have one drive using the old FDisk and one using LVM (if that's what you're
> trying to do).
> 
> I have read that Airboot is more flexible, but I have never used it myself, so can't
> give any real comments.
> 
> Ed.
> 
> Daryl Pilkington wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > Can somebody point me to some good documentation on how to install a
> > boot manager that works on a mixed SCSI/IDE system running WS4eB CP3?
> >
> > I've got a AHA2940UW with 2GB SCSI HDD setup as:
> > C: Primary
> > D: Logical
> >
> > 2 40GB IDE
> > E: LVM
> > F: LVM
> >
> > Using IBM's Boot Manager comes up with errors.
> >
> > Would AirBoot solve this problem?
> >
> > I'm thinking it might be better to make *all* partitions logical/LVM &
> > only have the boot manager primary.
> > Would this solve problems?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Daryl  Pilkington

   ,-._|\       Robert Traynor        (BobT)
 /  Oz  \      email            rtraynor at optusnet dot com dot au
 \_,--.x/ 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   5 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:43:30 +1000
From:  "Andrew Otte" <citytabn-aotte at powerup dot com dot au>
Subject:   Cable/ADSL and hardware?

Hi,
I have a peer to peer network at home (setting that up is the limit of my
networking knowledge).  Currently I use injoy to share a dial up internet
connection from my OS/2 PC to the Win98 PC of wife and kids.  
Am considering going broadband and am considering alternatives.  I prefer
to use OS/2 and so should I be going Cable or ADSL?  What Hardware will I
need - routers etc.  Or should I use Injoy for sharing like I do at
present.  
Any useful links that would give me more help would be of assistance too?
Thanks

Andrew Otte
Associate Pastor
City Tabernacle Baptist Church
Brisbane, Australia
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   6 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 13:53:36 +1000 (EST)
From:  "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:43:30 +1000, Andrew Otte wrote:

>Hi,

Hi Andrew.

>I have a peer to peer network at home (setting that up is the limit of my
>networking knowledge).  

Good-oh.

>Currently I use injoy to share a dial up internet
>connection from my OS/2 PC to the Win98 PC of wife and kids.  

>Am considering going broadband and am considering alternatives.  I prefer
>to use OS/2 and so should I be going Cable or ADSL?  

ADSL is firstly a question of whether you can get it. Is your home less
than 5km of cable length from your exchange AND does that exchange have
ADSL equipment fitted (Telstra should be able to answer or they can't offer
the service<g>)?

I presume the cable is already strung up in your street? Do you have a)
choice of Telstra and Optus or b) Telstra only?

>What Hardware will I need - routers etc.  
The supplier of the service should have an installation charge for the
so-called "cable modem" (actually some sort of network termination unit),
network adapter plus running of cable to your computer. Read the fine print
carefully. You may be surprised to win a good deal for doing what you want
to do anyway (eg. sign up for a 12-month contract, and get 50% off
installation charge; pay by direct credit and get a telephone calls
rebate). 

I went with Optus Cable (so can't speak about ADSL) but you will find they
all arrange installation to a Win computer only. At least Optus people are
aware of other OSs like Linux, Mac and OS/2. 

For minimum aggro do it that way (NB: to a single stand-alone machine so
they don't get jumpy about shared cable), confirm that the network works to
your place, then transfer the installation settings over to your OS/2 box
afterwards.  More details available in this list when you get closer to a
decision.

Can others talk about the equivalent in ADSL terms?

>Or should I use Injoy for sharing like I do at present.  
Someone else can speak authoritatively here but I think you would use Injoy
Firewall instead of dial up??

>Any useful links that would give me more help would be of assistance too?
>Thanks
>
>Andrew Otte
>Associate Pastor
>City Tabernacle Baptist Church
>Brisbane, Australia

OS/2 = Godzone OS;  Win = Hellzone OS <VBG>

Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldad at melbpc dot org dot au or talldad at kepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   7 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 14:04:36 +1000
From:  "Andrew Otte" <citytabn-aotte at powerup dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

** Reply to message from "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au> on Fri, 11
Apr 2003 13:53:36 +1000 (EST)

Thanks John,
I am in suburban Brisbane and the Telstra site tells me that I can get
either ADSL or cable.  Not sure of telstra cable but would be surprised if
it is not available.
I had a look at the D-Link site and found some nifty gadgets.  ADSL modem
and routers with smarts all in one.  To me it would seem simpler to get
something like this that would take care of all the IP forwarding and I
would simply plug both my PC's (whatever OS) into the router/modem thingy. 
Mind you I didn't check the price of such a thingy.  Is this type of idea
"over the top" for SOHO network like mine?  If I use such a router thingy -
what would happen to my peer to peer connection.  I think I understand how
the 2 PC's would talk to the internet but how would they then talk to each
other?

Andrew Otte
Associate Pastor
City Tabernacle Baptist Church
Brisbane, Australia
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   8 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 14:27:15 +1000 (EST)
From:  "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 14:04:36 +1000, Andrew Otte wrote:

>** Reply to message from "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au> on Fri, 11
>Apr 2003 13:53:36 +1000 (EST)
>
>Thanks John,

Hi again Andrew.

>I am in suburban Brisbane and the Telstra site tells me that I can get
>either ADSL or cable.  Not sure of telstra cable but would be surprised if
>it is not available.

Talk to Optus too, and do the same comparison shopping as you would with
anything else.

>I had a look at the D-Link site and found some nifty gadgets.  ADSL modem
>and routers with smarts all in one.  To me it would seem simpler to get
>something like this that would take care of all the IP forwarding and I
>would simply plug both my PC's (whatever OS) into the router/modem thingy. 
>Mind you I didn't check the price of such a thingy.  Is this type of idea
>"over the top" for SOHO network like mine?  

Yes it probably is over the top, depending on how you use your gear. We
have both machines here on at least 16 hours daily (they are both OS/2), so
extra equipment is unnecessary. It may be different if your OS/2 box was
not on a lot of the time but your Win98 was, and that as a family you had
decided you wanted to connect it direct to the internet.

My reply implied but probably didn't spell out that no additional gear is
required. My only proviso with that is that I recommend you buy your own
network card for the OS/2 box to connect to the internet, so that you have
two network cards. Then you can be sure of good quality and OS/2 drivers,
and you can keep the two networks distinct, with OS/2 managing the
bridging/routing between the internet and the peer network. 

Using what they will supply anyway, you could install and connect direct to
one machine only, and rely on your internal network for the rest. This
implies that the connected machine is always on when the other machine
wants to be online. 

I recommend the OS/2 box be the connected one. Your OS/2 box can
route/share using Injoy Firewall, I think. 

Here, we use SmartCache as a web proxy with web sharing and some good
security controls, plus mail server Weasel to collect mail from our "real"
host and serve it to our internal machines.

>If I use such a router thingy -
>what would happen to my peer to peer connection.  

>I think I understand how
>the 2 PC's would talk to the internet but how would they then talk to each
>other?

The internal network would be the same as now ie. peer network but it would
be totally independent of the Internet connection. 

Hope this is clear.

Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldad at melbpc dot org dot au or talldad at kepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------

PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... HowMuchWorkCouldANetworkNetIfANetworkCouldNetWork?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   9 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 14:39:15 +1000
From:  "Andrew Otte" <citytabn-aotte at powerup dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

** Reply to message from "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au> on Fri, 11
Apr 2003 14:27:15 +1000 (EST)

John,
Thanks for the help.
Yes all is clear - I had not understood that 2 NIC's could be a solution.  
I can boot to Win2k on my OS/2 box - so I would get the installation done
on there - get it working - then set it all up on OS/2.
I do not have a spare PCI slot on my OS/2 box for the extra NIC.  Would a
USB cable modem work with OS/2?

Andrew Otte
Associate Pastor
City Tabernacle Baptist Church
Brisbane, Australia
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   10 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:21:34 +1000 (EST)
From:  "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 14:39:15 +1000, Andrew Otte wrote:

>** Reply to message from "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au> on Fri, 11
>Apr 2003 14:27:15 +1000 (EST)
>
>John,
>Thanks for the help.

No worries Andrew - that's what we're here for, right?

>Yes all is clear - I had not understood that 2 NIC's could be a solution.  
>I can boot to Win2k on my OS/2 box - so I would get the installation done
>on there - get it working - then set it all up on OS/2.

Yes, good move - don't have to swap any hardware over, although you can't
have them both running to cross-check your settings.
Watch out for the NIC they supply though. Some can be cheap castoffs with
Win drivers only. Whoever you sign up with, ask them to give you detailed
specs beforehand so you can chase down what you need for the OS/2 side.

>I do not have a spare PCI slot on my OS/2 box for the extra NIC.  Would a
>USB cable modem work with OS/2?

Yes, if you already have USB support running OK in OS/2.
>
>Andrew Otte
>Associate Pastor
>City Tabernacle Baptist Church
>Brisbane, Australia

[OT Q:] Where is your church located? City centre or one of the many
suburbs? 

Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldad at melbpc dot org dot au or talldad at kepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------

PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... "... It works! Now, if only I could remember what I did." 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   11 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:27:44 +0950 (CST)
From:  "Paul Smedley" <paul at smedley.info>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

G'day Andrew,

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:43:30 +1000, Andrew Otte wrote:
>I have a peer to peer network at home (setting that up is the limit of my
>networking knowledge).  Currently I use injoy to share a dial up internet
>connection from my OS/2 PC to the Win98 PC of wife and kids.  
>Am considering going broadband and am considering alternatives.  I prefer
>to use OS/2 and so should I be going Cable or ADSL?  What Hardware will I
>need - routers etc.  Or should I use Injoy for sharing like I do at
>present.  

When I had Bigpong Cable - I used Injoy Firewall and 2 NICs.  That worked well, however, 
was a bit of a pain when the 2nd PC needed Internet and I was working on the gateway 
PC.

When I changed to ADSL, I bought a D-Link DSL-504 ADSL modem/router to manage the 
Internet connection.  With the router, either PC can be turned on and access the Internet, 
and as it also has a built in 4-port switch, it gives me more flexibility to add extra PCs.

An ADSL modem was about $100 cheaper - but I felt the extra $100 was worth it for the 
flexibility offered.

>Any useful links that would give me more help would be of assistance too?
http://adsl.internode.on dot net - that's who I use - more data - less bucks than Telstra - and 
a CEO that cares about his customers.

Regards,

Paul.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   12 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 19:48:35 +0950 (CST)
From:  "Paul Smedley" <paul at smedley.info>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:21:34 +1000 (EST), John Angelico wrote:

>>I do not have a spare PCI slot on my OS/2 box for the extra NIC.  Would a
>>USB cable modem work with OS/2?
>
>Yes, if you already have USB support running OK in OS/2.

AFAIK a USB cable modem will NOT work in OS/2 - only one type of USB ethernet interface 
works in OS/2..

Regards,

Paul.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   13 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 20:26:26 +1000 (EST)
From:  "John Angelico" <talldad at kepl dot com dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 19:48:35 +0950 (CST), Paul Smedley wrote:

>On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:21:34 +1000 (EST), John Angelico wrote:
>
>>>I do not have a spare PCI slot on my OS/2 box for the extra NIC.  Would a
>>>USB cable modem work with OS/2?
>>
>>Yes, if you already have USB support running OK in OS/2.
>
>AFAIK a USB cable modem will NOT work in OS/2 - only one type of USB ethernet interface 
>works in OS/2..

Oops! Thanks for the correction Paul. 

Best regards
John Angelico
OS/2 SIG
talldad at melbpc dot org dot au or talldad at kepl dot com dot au
--------------------------------------

PMTagline v1.50 - Copyright, 1996-1997, Stephen Berg and John Angelico
.... Success always occurs in private, failure - in full view.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**= Email   14 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 21:48:12 +1000 (EST)
From:  "David Forrester" <davidfor at internode.on dot net>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 12:43:30 +1000, Andrew Otte wrote:

>Hi,
>I have a peer to peer network at home (setting that up is the limit of my
>networking knowledge).  Currently I use injoy to share a dial up internet
>connection from my OS/2 PC to the Win98 PC of wife and kids.  
>Am considering going broadband and am considering alternatives.  I prefer
>to use OS/2 and so should I be going Cable or ADSL?  What Hardware will I
>need - routers etc.  Or should I use Injoy for sharing like I do at
>present.  
>Any useful links that would give me more help would be of assistance too?

Andrew,

I've read the others comments, agree with them.  But, I wrote a long
answer to a similar question a while ago, so I'm going to reuse it,
with some editing.  Hopefully it will help.  And there should be just
enough wrong with it that others can pick it apart :)

Here it goes:

Firstly a couple of links:

- http://www.dslreports dot com/ seems to be the place for all things
broaddband.

- For an Australian viewpoint, try http://www.whirlpool dot net dot au this is
the "Australian Broadband User Community".

- http://www.broadbandchoice dot com dot au/ is associated with the above and
has prices and a good search for all broadband ISPs in Australia

I have DSL.  Its speed is 512Kb  down and 128Kb up. The speed is so
nice, and, it's particularly noticable after returning to modem for a
while (which I did while away for the Christmas break).  My setup is:

- A D-Link DSL-300 "modem".  This is what talks down the phoneline -
modem is probably not the right name, but, that's what they are
commonly called.  It probably should be a router or bridge.

- I have this plugged into a network card in PC running OS/2 and InJoy
Firewall.  InJoy Firewall does PPPOE, NAT (multiple PCs sharing on IP
address on the net), DHCP server and firewall.  This PC is also the
server for my home network.

- The PC has a second network card plugged into a switch.  There are
three other PCs plugged in (plus two that are dead at the moment).

This is basically the same setup I used when I had dialup.  But, using
InJoy Dialer and modem.

There are three alternatives to this that I can think of (I'm quoting
D-Link parts here as they were the most available in Australia when I
got my ADSL connection).

1) A  router-modem such as the DSL-500.  This is basically the modem
plus the function that InJoy firewall does.  It's a good option if you
already have a switch (or hub), and don't want to have a PC running all
the time to share the connection.  It's probably the simplest ADSL
solution.  I don't think the firewall is as configurable as InJoy.  To
my mind, this is the closest to a "set and forget" solutions, so, if I
was helping a non-technical person to get onto ADSL, I'd recommend this
solution (or the next if they had more than one PC).

2) A combined switch-router-modem such as a DSL-504.  It's basically
the DSL-500 plus a 4 port  switch.  If you don't already have a switch,
this is a good option.  This is what Paul Smedley is using.  If I was
starting from scratch now, I'd probably go with this.

3) A "Broadband" router (such as the Linksys BEFSR41) plus an ADSL
modem (the DSL-300).  The router here has all the functions of the
InJoy Firewall, plus multiple ports to plug PCs in.  Most of the
routers seem to be capable of handling either cable or ADSL.  This
setup seems to be popular with cable users.  Some of these also have a
print server or wireless router built into them.

All of the above devices (except the DSL-300) have a Web interface to
configure them.

Note: Since I originally wrote the above, someone has started importing
much cheap versions of each of the above.  See http://www.pcrange.biz/
for details.  The reports at Whirlpool seem to say they are good.

Also, instead of my setup (OS/2 and InJoy), there are dedicated Linux
builds such as Smoothwall or IPCop.  These are supposed to  be easy to
install and are maintained via a web interface.  I considered doing
this as I have an old 486 that would have been ideal for it, but, what
I have works to well to mess with.  One disadvantage of these Linux
builds is that they can't run anything that's not in the build.  So, if
you want to run a server, you have to put the server on another machine
inside the firewall.

The last thing to mention is the different modems.  The DSL-300 is a
small box like an external modem.  It  connects to a PC by a ethernet
port.  There are also PCI and USB DSL modems.  But, there aren't any
OS/2 drivers for these.  And I'm not sure if there are any Linux
drivers either.  But, from what I've read, the PCI and USB modems
aren't very good.

ISPS:

- For a cable connection, there is only Telstra and Optus.  And most
people only have one available to them.

- There are a lot of ADSL ISPs.  Paul and I both use Internode
(http://adsl.internode.on dot net).  I chose them after following the
Whirlpool forums for a while.  They gave very good support there - if
you asked a question about their service, there is a very good chance
it will be answered by their CEO/owner.  He is very up front, and, as
he runs Macs, he is very supportive of non-Windows systems.  

--
David Forrester
davidfor at internode.on dot net
http://www.os2world dot com/djfos2/

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**= Email   15 ==========================**

Date:  Fri, 11 Apr 2003 23:29:37 +1000
From:  Ed Durrant <edurrant at bigpond dot net dot au>
Subject:  Re:  Cable/ADSL and hardware?

If you stay with InJoy, you will need to change to the Injoy firewall product -
checkout http://www.fx.dk  for all the details.

I run this product and am very happy with it. However I installed my solution before
there were any "black box" solutions at a reasonable price.

Now-a-days there's several suppliers that can provide the firewall / natting solution
in a plug it in, turn it on and use any web browser from any of your PCs to configure
it. Some of these devices have 4 or 5 port 10/100 switches in them, some even also
have a print server built in, so if you have an expensive laser or colour printer you
want to share, you can use this as a way of having it always available. These boxes
range from about AUS$200 to AUS$400, depending upon make and features. One point to
note is, if you are connecting to Telstra Cable internet, you need a box with the
"heartbeat" feature available on it. Optus and some other ISPs don't need this though.
When buying the box, make sure the shop knows what you are connecting to (Cable or
ADSL and with ISP), most boxes work across all combinations but some don't.

By the way you still need the broadband modem, these devices connect after the modem
and are then connected to your distribution switch or hub.

Cheers/2

Ed.

Andrew Otte wrote:

> Hi,
> I have a peer to peer network at home (setting that up is the limit of my
> networking knowledge).  Currently I use injoy to share a dial up internet
> connection from my OS/2 PC to the Win98 PC of wife and kids.
> Am considering going broadband and am considering alternatives.  I prefer
> to use OS/2 and so should I be going Cable or ADSL?  What Hardware will I
> need - routers etc.  Or should I use Injoy for sharing like I do at
> present.
> Any useful links that would give me more help would be of assistance too?
> Thanks
>
> Andrew Otte
> Associate Pastor
> City Tabernacle Baptist Church
> Brisbane, Australia

>  

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