Advice

[Ataal]

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm not looking for someone to give me detailed instructions on how to do what I'm trying to do, I'm merely saying what I've done so far and am asking whether this will be a waste of my time.

I was supposed to be moving soon to an area that has Cable/DSL but my plans fell through, so I've been without SEQ for about 6 months now and have been on /gulp dialup. I have an old ISA 56k v.90 usrobotics modem and to my knowledge it is not a 'winmodem'. FCC#0460 Product Code 00568700. I've installed it in my linux box(redhat 8.0) and have been trying to get it to work for about a week now(on and off of course).

To give a little history of what I've done so far...When I first installed it, it showed up as an "unknown device" in the hardware browser and couldn't even get the 'query modem' to detect it in the properties of KPPP.

I read somewhere that you need to make sure the jumpers are not set to PNP. They were, so I changed the jumpers to COM port to 3 and the IRQ to....4 I think, as any other COM port had a serial conflict when I booted.

Now, when I query modem in it seems to detect it, ie... it goes through the ATI, ATI1, ATI2, ATI3, etc... however when I use KPPP to actually dial it says modem is busy or does not respond.

SO, to my actual question, is this even worth it? or do you think it's something VERY simple that I'm too dumb to check, lol. Otherwise, I'm going to have to find a way to get a SMC7004ABR(no credit card), since bestbuy and compusa don't carry them in stock here in reno. Hmmmm ebay maybe.

I was hesitant to post here as it does not technically pertain to SEQ itself, but I figured that many here have tried to get something similar to work and this board gets checked a lot more often than the generic linux boards that I've been posting at. Not to mention, I highly respect many of you here, the combined knowledge on these boards is far superior than anything I've seen so far.

[Mr. Suspicious]

Google groups, query: "ISA 56k v.90 usrobotics linux" (http://groups.google.nl/groups?hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=ISA+56k+v.90+usrobotics+linux&sa=N&tab=wg&lr=)

Google groups, query: "ISA 56k v.90 usrobotics linux HOWTO" (http://groups.google.nl/groups?hl=nl&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=ISA+56k+v.90+usrobotics+linux+HOWTO)

[who_me_use_seq]

Disable your onboard serial device that uses com1 and set the modem to com 1. Com 3 is a fiction unless you have additional nonstandard uart controllers.

[Ataal]

Who_me:

Thanks, I'll try that when I get off of work.

Mr:

Believe me, I would never have started this thread without checking google groups first, in fact I have 3 threads started there already, no replies yet.

[Mr. Suspicious]

Just trying to be helpfull.

[Ataal]

I know you are, hope that didn't sound rude, but google is usually the first place I look.

[Ataal]

Changing it to COM1 got me a little farther. It now actually dials, appears to connect, then disconnects after 1 to 2 seconds. I've done a search and found a bunch of "find out how your ISP wants you to log in" guides, but unfortunately most of the tools they want you to use takes a helluva long time to download over dialup, I started to download some but the dependencies were larger than the actually programs themselves, sigh.

I've tried a bunch of different settings, some helped a little some made it worse. If I can't get it to work tonight, I think I'm bagging the whole idea.

Thanks for your help. I really do appreciate it.

[fryfrog]

If I were you, I would maybe give FREESCO a try (http://freesco.org or http://freesco.sourceforge.net). It is a linux router that supports both modem and network card routing/firewall. It is a single floppy disk and used to (when I used it) run on an i386 w/ 8mb ram.

Since it was designed to reduce the chore of creating a linux dialup or network router, maybe you will have a more successful time with it. Perhaps just getting it working in freesco will give you enough to get it working in your linux distro if you want.

It packs quite a few router useful features like DHCP server, auto-dialing (and disconnecting) and lots of other little things. And its only a floppy disk :)

[monklett]

You might also check out IPCop. Its a great opensource router/firewall based on Smoothwall. Similar features to Freesco and comes with a fancy web-based management interface. Also has advanced features like integrated intrusion detection via snort.

As I recall, the recent version supports concurrent connections with both modem and DSL/Cable.

Check it out at www.ipcop.org. It rocks.

[fryfrog]

i'll second ipcop, it is very sweet. i did not realize it had modem support though. its been a while since i ditched freesco, then ipcop for a linksys wap/router. i know its not as cool, but it does what i need and is quite a bit smaller.

[Ataal]

I'd like to thank all of you for your very helpful suggestions, but now you're going to hate me lol.

First off, I'm not asking for a step by step 100 page .pdf guide on how to set up ipcop or freesco, I'm just trying to get a general idea of what those programs will do for me in my situation. Does that mean I can keep my modem in my winxp box? Or does it have better support for the modem in my linux box? I've never used a software based router/firewall(other than zonealarm, if you can call it that), so I'm just trying to get an idea of where to start my 'search' next. Thank you in advance for anything you can share with me.

[monklett]

www.ipcop.org

You need a dedicated box to run the firewall on. Any old machine will do; I use a P-90 with 32 megs of ram and a 600 meg HD. You also need a network card and your modem.

IPcop is a cut down linux distro, so it runs your modem, just like any linux install would. Thus, you cannot use a winmodem; check linux compatibility lists and make sure your modem and network are supported. It has a web-based interface, so you configure it with a brower from your desktop machine; you don't need a keyboard, mouse, monitor, or any other hardware.

To use, you install IPcop, and plug your hub into the card and your modem into the wall. It then configures your modem and internet connection and transfers packets between that connection and your internal network. This is the essence of a firewall; good packets go thru to the internal network, bad packets don't.

Thats about it. I believe that freesco is about the same, although its even more cut-down than ipcop and probably doesn't even require that a hard drive be installed in the firewall machine.

[monklett]

I should add that some people also use their firewall machine as their ShowEQ machine, and have an advanced configuration that allows them to perform both duties on the same box. Since all packets are going thru the firewall anyway, this makes it easy to look at them and decode the ones needed for ShowEQ.

In your case, however, you would likely be better served getting a dedicated firewall machine (get a p-100 or something on eBay for $40 or whatever) and leaving ShowEQ on your existing linux box.

Yes, thats 3 computers, but separating these tasks will be much easier to set up and configure.

[fryfrog]

i'm gonna have to agree with monklett, it may seem annoying to have 3 computers doing the work of what 2 computers might be able to do... but its worth it. the ONE time you absolutly trash your showeq computer trying something new, you will be very glad that you didn't also trash your firewall/router at the same time.

ipcop and freesco are slimmed down linux distros, if you have a hard drive and a pentium class computer i would suggest ipcop (http://www.ipcop.org) but if you are really pressed and all you have is a 386 w/ 8mb ram and a floppy drive give FREESCO (http://www.freesco.org) a try.

these are not really software firewalls in the same sense that blackice and zone alarm are. but they are also not really hardware firewalls like a cisco or linksys device (well, actually some nokia and cisco firewalls run a version of unix...). it is a stand alone, fairly simple linux installation that happens to specialize in making the setup of your router/firewall easier.

its been a while since i've tried either of them, but i think you would like ipcop more IF you have a pentium cpu w/ 16mb+ of ram. FREESCO can be installed to a hard drive (boots much faster, good way to go) AND it has TONS of addon packages that can give it samba, ftp, web server and many other options (most of which aren't usually a good idea to run on a firewall though) :)

[Ataal]

Oh wow, that's pretty sweet.

Actually, I just switched my seq from my pII450 to a pIII550, and the 450 is just sitting under my desk anyway. Looks like I'll have a use for it afterall.

I'll give it a shot, been reading the FAQ on IPCop for a while now and it looks promising, although I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have any driver/compatibility issues.

Thanks again for the suggestions.