>-snip-
All that HW/SW and everything is working automatically, no driver installs? That would be impressive. Now doesn't road-runner require its own software?

No driver installs necessary. Not even rr. (I could have used CUPS for my Lexmark z52, but lexmark supplies a Linux driver for it and I installed that. The driver came bundled with the SuSE CD, IIRC) Impressive it is! (Understand that I don't use WinModems or WinPrinters, etc..., although some of these devices are configured automatically too.)

RR states that they only support Apple Macs and WinXX OSs. That doesn't matter, because the Linux installation of RR is clean as a whistle and automatic too. As it comes to you, the Toshiba router is configured as a DHCP server by rr. You connect it to your eth0 (in my case) card with an ethernet cable. When you power up the Toshiba sees the ethernet card and makes a connection to it. That occurs while you are booting. You get three green lights. If you tried to browse at that point you'd get a "can't find host" message for any URL you'd try. But, you run the YaST Control Center, off the main KDE menu, and select the Network option. It detects the ethernet card and presents you with several configuration options. Just select the DHCP option and click the checkbox which allows the DHCP server to overwrite the /etc/resolv.conf file. The resolv.conf file contains names-IP address matches and is used primarily during boot, before the DNS is active. When the YaST Control Center Network option closes, it runs the necessary setup scripts automatically and transparently. Done. No reboot necessary. You can start browsing. You then can configure your smpt.XXX.rr.com email and news.XXX.rr.com connection.

You can browse to your local rr website and setup your email aliases, and change the password on your master alias (your login name). Lightening fast. I've clocked my connection at 2.195Mb/sec, but there are some rr ISPs in Rhode Island that are going at 8Mb/sec!
2Mb/sec is sweet! That's around 230Kb/sec, 10 times faster than my ADSL connection.
JLK

>
>>
>>Here is what triggered this missive: at work during the last week alone, my Win2000
>>workstation has crashed more than a dozen times, even with the careful attention
>>of 6 MSCE's. Our last attempt at using the MS help desk was no more fruitful than their
>>freely available Knowledgebase, but took a couple of days and cost $320, IIRC.
>>
>
>Now this does not reflect my experience with W2K Pro. The only crash I've had is after installing some freebie CD-burning utilities from the net. It turned out that this app replaced some OS-supplied drivers with their own.
>
>I would take a hard look of what software you have installed, especially SW that runs in the background.

VFP6, some VFP apps, Lotus Notes, QuickTime plugin, Windows Player plugin, Quatro Pro and Word Perfect. That's about it. My box is a workstation on a Novell network using 10/100Mb ethernet, but it runs the Microsoft client. We've played with sever clients and releases.

I usually have VFP, Lotus Notes and IE open at the same time. Within VFP I can sometimes have two, three or four different projects open at the same time. I have OpenOffice 641d and WinCVS installed too (two weeks ago), but the crashes were occuring long before they were installed, and their frequency hasn't changed a bit since those two apps were installed.

It's driving our MSCEs nuts. A couple are also running W2K. One has never had a crash, the other crashes once or twice a week. They do not do any developing.

The biggest offender is Internet Explorer. When it closes, if I get a "Can't find (hexaddr) at (hexaddr)" type message it is only a matter of time before things start disappearing and I end up with a BSOD (my backround is blue, so when desktop icons disappear only the blue background is left) and lockup, save for the task manager. So, I reboot right then to avoid losing stuff later. If you click the upper right "X" close button on a VFP window, or on IE, and it doesn't close immediately you can wait anywhere from 5 to 60 seconds before it finally closes. If you get impatient and click the "X" again I will get an immediate BSDO and lockup.
I've gone as long as five days without a W2K crash.

Eventually, I will probably do the MS mantra, part three: reinstall.