PeoplePC dialup not compatible with Linux

[CMonster]

I use DSL with dslextreme.com, but just out of curiosity I clicked the add banner for PeoplePC dialup that was flashing on this site; I had suspected that this was a "win-isp" since it seemed to require their special "software" and I wanted to let them know that Linux users are PC-people too.

long story short -after a quick email to info@peoplepc.com I got an answer this morning, they said "PeoplePC software is not compatible with Linux." It seems they do not offer a standard ppp dialup --

Well, that is another dialup I won't be recommending to anyone. :D

[deanrantala]

If someone is absolutely bent on using AOL
(or people-pc) then you need to download pengAOL to do the special dialing.... Not hard to do at all, but it is an inconvinience that is not really worth the hassle...

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Did they specifically say that you needed an AOL/Juno/NetZero like client to dial up their servers? I mean, if you talked to any average tech support person who is clueless about Linux, you'll probably get the safest response they can think of -- "No, we don't do Linux, only Windows."

If they use PPP dial up, then you should be good to go. Otherwise, I'd find another ISP. Who needs all of the junk those clients provide, anyways? I can find all of the music, movie reviews, recipes, and spam I need all on my own...

[El_Cu_Guy]

There are a number of low cost ISPs out there that don't require special software. Who cares if some of them don't support all platforms?

I was researching various ISPs to serve as backups or replacements for my dad. His old ISP Sunflower went belly up and once bought out by KCplanet (WebOne). That was a pain. Right now he uses Juno (paid account).

He needs to run Mozilla because some javascripts (various pop ups) crash IE. Juno serves as a bloated front end for IE without all the "extras". I found that resources seem to disappear quite often. Sometimes it's Mozilla sometimes it's Juno. Closing one or the other results in a huge resource gain. I've never seen Mozilla do this any other time. Juno gives me stupid errors like A required resource was. Was what?

Look for these ISPs. Some are as low as $5.95/month for unlimited access (old ads sometimes post them lower). The only downside is that sometimes they go belly up or get absorbed by crappy companies like United Online (Juno/NetZero).

[CMonster]

I was not shopping for an ISP. I was just curious about what PeoplePC offered for $10.95 a month .... I mean the add banner was right there so why not take a look?... -I am also well aware that there are many ISPs offering dialup, and many of the cheap ones offer a standard ppp and it seems kind of funny to me when the little startups require customers to use proprietary software to connect.

I also am in the regular habit of letting "win-service/win-hardware/win-software" vendors know that we Linux users are out here in hopes that attitudes might start changing (it has to start somewhere), and I thought I would share that with some other Linux users.

My current ISP DSLExtreme (http://www.dslextreme.com) offers standard ppp $9.95 monthly (though, as stated, I have been using their DSL for a while)

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Originally posted by CMonster
I was not shopping for an ISP. I was just curious about what PeoplePC offered for $10.95 a month .... I mean the add banner was right there so why not take a look?... -I am also well aware that there are many ISPs offering dialup, and many of the cheap ones offer a standard ppp and it seems kind of funny to me when the little startups require customers to use proprietary software to connect.

I also am in the regular habit of letting "win-service/win-hardware/win-software" vendors know that we Linux users are out here in hopes that attitudes might start changing (it has to start somewhere), and I thought I would share that with some other Linux users.

My current ISP DSLExtreme (http://www.dslextreme.com) offers standard ppp $9.95 monthly (though, as stated, I have been using their DSL for a while)

That's a noble thing to do, IMHO. But, like I said, if the company offers plain old PPP service, you should be able to connect a Linux box to it.

Take Comcast High Speed Internet for instance. They say to use their service, they require a Mac or a Windows machine. Little do they know I'm running FreeBSD 4.6 on it!

[El_Cu_Guy]

CMonster--

What you fail to understand though is that it's much easier for these half-a**ed here today gone tomorrow ISPs to support a single platform. Quit b****ing. If you don't like the idea of proprietary software being a requirement then don't use it.

It creates a revenue stream and offers at least some attractive feature to users. Ads generate revenue and an always available portal can be an advantage to some lusers.

I certainly would never do what you did because I understand this concept. The only beef that I would bring to the companies attention is the lack of ability to dock the "panel/console" they stick on you desktop.

[glussier]

long story short -after a quick email to info@peoplepc.com I got an answer this morning, they said "PeoplePC software is not compatible with Linux." It seems they do not offer a standard ppp dialup --


Just for the sake of it, I called PeoplePC and sure enough, the software is not required. The software uses a standard ppp connection, the only thing the software provides is the possibility to call their closest phone number.

You won't see too many ISP supporting Linux, thought most of them can be used under Linux. Maybe, if and when Linux is more widespread, then you'll see more isps supporting Linux.

[El_Cu_Guy]

So in other words it provides a wizard for retrieving access numbers easily and automatically dials the next number(s) if one or more is busy.

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Just a thought...

Is this the same PeoplePC company that was offering a computer that you could pay $24.95 a month for with internet access?

I guess they weren't making enough money off of the computer side of the deal. I remember the commercials with the little kid explaining the economics of renting a PeoplePC computer.

I wonder if anyone ever rented one of these machines and installed a free OS on it? :eek:

[MkIII_Supra]

Internet connections require a couple simple things:
1. An ISP with a valid account (yours...)
2. A DNS server (provided by the ISP...)
3. Standard network protocols (Uh... last I checked Linux has them...)
4. A Linux compatible modem

Done.

It's all network protocols, do I know what they are? No but I know that all... and I mean ALL computers that connect to ANY network MUST use a common language / protocol to do so. DHCP is a prime example, I had an account with Road Runner in San Diego, been using Linux with them for over a year, finally experienced a problem (was there end not me) anyhow tech support argued that there was no way I could connect to thier service without thier proprietary software. Once they got the network up and running I called the guy back told him to ping and id my machine, gave him my IP to even help out. Never heard so muc apologizing before....

Bottom line is EVEN WITH WINDOWS!!! YOU DO NOT NEED THIER SOFTWARE!!! I connect my Linux machine and my girlfriends Win2K system to my Earthlink account and neither of us has any of thier software installed.