The aol, adsl and wireless challenge

bendy

I have a tricky problem to solve, and I'm hoping a clever gentoo user can help.

The challenge is this - my Mum is not very computer-literate, and as a result is using win xp on a laptop, and aol to connect to the net. I realise that this is an unfortunate state of affairs but I live a long way away and so can't persuade her otherwise.

However, she is about to upgrade to aol broadband (adsl) from dial-up. Also, she has just got a new laptop with built-in wireless. Great I thought, I'll set up a wireless access point for her to save trailing wires around the house.

There are 2 problems with this plan:

1) She's using aol.
2) Her adsl modem plugs into a usb port.

My first thought was to replace the usb modem with an ethernet one, and plug an access point into it. However, when looking at adsl modems the tech data always states specifically that they are NOT aol compatible. Does anyone know why?

So, plan B - build a little box using a via epia board and plug the usb adsl modem into it. Then get a wireless card and run, say, the HostAP drivers. This box could then also be a print server, which would be nice.

So, will this work? I can think of 3 problems:

1) Are there linux drivers for the usb modem (which I have no details of as yet).
2) If there are drivers, will it connect to aol, or do they have some funny windows-only protocols or connection software?
3) If I can connect, will the aol client software still work behind a nat router.

I realise that there are a lot of questions in the above, and I doubt there are many gentoo aol subscribers, but I would be grateful for any pointers.

I have googled this, and know that there is software to allow linux to dial-up to aol, but does anyone have any experience of adsl and wireless?

I'm in the UK, in case it matters.

Cheers,

bendy.

coondog · Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 2:32 am Post subject:

Well i have AOL DSL in the united states and found that there is only one wireless router that is compatible with the AOL service provider. It is a linksys Wireless B router... unfortunately you need to make sure that when inserting the router cd to choose the AOL cd option, and you'll be set.

bendy · Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 2:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the reply - I thought this thread was dead !!

Does your AOL DSL modem come with a usb connection, or ethernet?

bendy.

coondog · Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2003 3:26 pm Post subject:

I have both on my modem but i use the ethernet connection it's much better ... and then in windows i setup a PPPoE connection and put as my username: src02@aol.com
and then password and so on

bendy · Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2003 4:06 pm Post subject:

My biggest problem is that the adsl modem is usb only, so it needs something to drive it. As far as I know, there aren't any wireless routers that will connect direct to a usb modem.

coondog · Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:28 am Post subject:

you're seriously shit out of luck, if i were you i would get a hold of another dsl modem. Or find a windows box and use drivers on it