[Techtalk] Linux and home Internet connections

[Mary]

On Mon, Aug 22, 2005, Dan wrote:
> I live in the UK, and I'm planning on getting a home Internet connection
> for a Linux box - not a permanent connection, just something I would use
> a few times a week for web surfing.
> 
> I have some questions before starting:
> 1) What type of connection is easiest to setup/configure (e.g., ADSL)?
> Is there any that uses a standard network cable and DHCP?

What you seem to want here is what is usually called a "ADSL router" or
"ADSL modem/router". Essentially the idea is that the modem has inbuilt
DHCP and routing for you and you just plug machines into it with a
standard ethernet cable. You generally configure them by going to a
webpage

There are a few varieties:
 1. modem/router with USB connection only (cheapest, least likely to work with
    Linux)
 2. modem/router with ethernet connection for single computer
 3. modem/router with multiple ethernet connections (most expensive,
    obviously convienient for home network)

With ADSL modems, just ask two questions: "does it have ethernet?" and
"is it a router as well as a modem?"

Generally cable modems are much more proprietry and locked up. But then,
Australia only has two cable providers so the UK might be different.

> 3) Is any Linux distro particularly friendly to Internet connections?

For what you're talking about, they're probably much of a muchness.
There's minimum Linux configuration needed if your modem is doing all
the routing work: all distros are pretty good at being DHCP clients. I'd
go for (a) whatever distro you know or if you don't know any distros (b)
whatever is easiest to install. I haven't done a Linux install for 18
months (I use it all the time, I just don't install it very often), so
others may be better placed to tell you which one currently has a nice
installer and good user tools.

-Mary