Is Broadband Ready for You?

• Is Broadband
  
  Ready for You?
  
  
  
  What exactly is broadband? Do you really need it? What exactly would you use
  it for? What choices are available? How do they compare? What equipment do
  
  you need? Who can provide you with a broadband connection? While every-one
  
  these days is talking of broadband, the answers to these questions are not
  
  clear. In the articles that follow, we’ll answer each one of these.
  

• Why
  
  Broadband?
  
  
  
  Broadband can take your Internet experience much beyond downloads and give
  you access to a lot of useful applications
  

• Getting
  
  Ready for Broadband?
  
  
  
  An overview of how various broadband technologies are set up 

• How
  
  DSL Works 
  
  
  
  Digital Subscriber Line is becoming a popular broadband technologies. Here's
  a look a different types of DSL and how the technology works
  

• Understanding
  
  Cable Modems
  
  
  
  A look at the different types of cable modems and how they transfer Internet
  data over your cable TV network
  

• DOCSIS
  
  
  
  DOCSIS is a set of specifications that define the requirements for
  interoperability between cable modems and the cable network
  

• Broadband
  
  in Thiruvananthapuram 
  
  
  
  User experience shows that broadband has a long way to go here

• Broadband
  
  in Delhi
  
  
  
  Internet over cable performs better than dial-up, not to mention the savings
  in telephone charges
  

• Security
  
  with Broadband
  
  
  
  Your 'always on' Internet connection makes your PC more susceptible to
  security hazards. A look at the threats and precautions you can take
  

• Films
  
  Online
  
  
  
  Technologies like DivX and DeCSS have set the stage for distributing
  good-quality digital video online. What does the future hold?
  

• Broadband
  
  Services Providers in India 
  
  
  
  Just like the ISP boom some time ago, a wave of broadband service providers has now hit the
  market. The players include existing ISPs who’ve begun providing broadband services, as well as new
  
  players like Spectranet who deal exclusively in broadband. Here are some of the
  
  players and the services they provide. This list is in no way exhaustive, and
  
  you’re likely to see more broadband players emerge in the near future.
  

• Broadband
  
  Hardware Providers in India 
  
  
  
  With broadband emerging in a big way, several vendors have started fueling
  the market with lots of broadband equipment. Here’s a list of some vendors and
  
  the equipment they have on offer. This list is in no way exhaustive as it covers
  
  only a few vendors and some of the products they offer.
  

muLinux

A fully-configurable, application-centric and tiny

distribution

muLinux installs on the Windows or DOS partition and requires

a minimum of a 386 processor with 8 MB of RAM. It bundles many packages

including those for console, networking, and X-Window.

Let’s get straight into setting it up. Copy the directory

mulinux from the /os directory on the CD to C:\. Unzip ‘DOS TOOLS.ZIP’ in

the same directory. Now restart the computer in full DOS mode. Change to the

directory C:\MULINUX and type ‘INSTALL’. In the first screen, select the

second option, which would install muLinux in the directory C:\LINUX. The

compressed archive is uncompressed and then the system reboots. After the

reboot, go to full-DOS by using the F8 key. Change to the directory C:\LINUX and

type ‘LINUX’. This will start up an interactive setup where you’ll go

through a massive (but very helpful because the configuration files need not be

edited later) question and answer session that covers the entire range from

setting up your keyboard to setting up networking.

You are asked to create a swap space, which can be skipped if

you have enough RAM say more than 128 MB. Otherwise leave swap file name as

/SWAP/LINUX.SWP. The swap file size can be selected to 64 MB.

You are asked to configure keyboard and also some add-ons

including X-Windows. Select Skip when you are asked to upgrade, as these add-ons

have already been setup. Specify the serial and parallel ports to which your

mouse, modem, and printer are connected. Remember ttys0 is COM1 and lp0 is LPT1.

Let mouse protocol be the default.

For networking, you are asked for the model of your Ethernet

card and only six network card models of EtherLink, Intel, RealTek, and AMD are

supported. Then though a series of questions, which are well explained, you can

configure your network, NFS services for Linux–Linux sharing and SAMBA for

Windows-Linux sharing. If you choose to have PPP support, you can configure your

dial-up connection. Subsequently you can configure Fetchmail for retrieving mail

from a POP3 account. muLinux auto detects your IDE CD-ROM drive. Finally you can

decide what daemons or background processes you need to run at startup.

You are now given the login prompt. Login, start up X-Windows

using the startx command and you are ready to swing!

FreeDOS BETA5 ("LARA")

Full distributionIf you are a DOS lover, you’ll love this

This is a free and fully MS-DOS compatible OS. System

requirements are minimal and it installs on a x486 with as little as 8 MB RAM.

The distribution on the CD has zipped files and you need ‘UNZIP’

(included) to extract the installation disks. Keep a pack of formatted 3½"

floppies at hand. Through the DOS prompt, Unzip ‘BASE1. ZIP’ using the

command UNZIP BASE1. ZIP —d A: (note the lowercase -d). This is the only

floppy you need for the Mini FreeDOS distribution. For the full version, repeat

the unzip process with rest of the install disks. Now you need to install the

Boot floppy image. Use ‘RAWRITE’ (included in the package). Run RAWRITE from

DOS prompt, read the .BIN image file (MINI.BIN for Mini version and FULL.BIN for

Full version) and write to a preformatted floppy in A: drive. Now you are ready

to install FreeDOS.

Reboot and start your PC with the boot floppy you created.

You are left at the DOS prompt. You can install FreeDOS in a folder in the

existing partition or work purely on FreeDOS. Use FDISK and FOR MAT at the

prompt in the latter case. Then run INSTALL at the prompt. Give the location

from where you’ll install as A: and the destination can be C:\FDOS. Pop in the

install floppies you created one after the other. The process is a bit slow due

to slow FDD access. Alternatively you can install from the hard disk directly.

Note, however, that in this case you’ll have to unzip all the install floppies

in one single directory say C:\FDINSTALL and give the source path accordingly

after booting up.

The package also includes the Seal GUI for FreeDOS.

MINIX

A small, free UNIX clone for those who want to peep into Unix

Unlike Linux which requires at least a 386 processor to run,

Minix can be run even on an 8088 or 80286. Basic memory requirements are as low

as 3 MB.

On our CD we have the 386 precompiled binaries (i386.tar).

The procedure for Minix installation is outlined in readme.txt and install.txt.

Unzip the i386.tar using Winzip to get the three files Root, Usr, and Usr.taz.

Then you create the Minix bootable floppies using FDVOL utility. This is also

included on the CD. These floppies are then used to boot the machine and install

the OS. We have also included zipped files for the compiler, debugger,

networking utilities, etc, in the package. DOSUTILS come in handy to prepare

your hard disk for the installation.

Shekhar Govindarajan and Ashish Sharma