Linuxathome.net

i'm thinking of upgrading to mandrake 9 after having a horrible experience with 8.2 (i feel linux deserves another chance)

anyway, previously, in 8.2 i had internet connection problems. i'm on optus@home cable. (thankfully not capped yet)

however, i have a USB modem. and in win32, i can't get anything if i plug it into an nic.

however, being completely different from windows, is it possible to get the USB modem working with a NIC in linux?

i just need help setting up the modem as i'm at a complete loss as to wtf i'm doing.

*note i haven't installed it(mandrake) yet ~ so i'm not sure about problems with 9*

any replies on experiences with using USB modems with linux is welcome. thanks in advance.

btw, my modem is a Motorola Surfboard USB Cable Modem SB4100.

It should work fine with a NIC. As long as the NIC is supported (just about any brand/model will work) you shouldn't have a problem.

To setup your network (it worked for adsl) all you do is install the NIC, plug in the motorola, install mandrake (I like 9.0 ... 8.2 refused to work for me, but 8.0 and 7.* worked fine).

When mandrake is almost finished installing, it will ask if you want to setup a network. Let it autodetect your device, then tell it you're on cable.

I suggest you DON'T try getting the most up to date security fixes during install ... if the network setup didn't work properly, mandrake setup hangs trying to find security fixes online (I gave up after 30 minutes and rebooted).

Can't help any more than that, coz I don't have a motorola or optus setup.

Good luck.