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Connecting to the Internet© Copyright Darrell Anderson. I experienced one major hurdle while trying to connecting to the internet. Apparently neither of the distros I installed would auto-recognize that my modem was installed at COM2 (/dev/ttsy1). Once I figured this out I was able to proceed with other configuration tasks. Mandrake assumed that my primary internet connection is a network interface card instead of a modem. Three-fourths of the world is still on dial-up, so I do not know why such an assumption should be made. I also do not know why Mandrake could not auto-configure the modem. I eventually used KPPP to get configured. I ran some firewall testing and the best I could run was to find all my ports “closed” rather than as “stealth.” For a home system on a dial-up, running with all ports closed instead of stealth is safe, but is annoying when I am accustomed to several years of running stealth. I also finally realized that firewalls in Linux are conceptually different from Windows. I am accustomed to a rules-based approach and Linux does not use that philosophy. I also finally realized that the firewall products offered for Linux are not true firewall packages but only GUI front-ends for the embedded Linux IP Tables firewall protection. So much to learn— Finis. |
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