Re: tlug: diald (was: mouse fixed; now what about email)

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> In the very informative log of a Windows 95 session that Kei
> posted, Windows was seen responding with PAP authentication
> after it was requested from the IP side.  Does this then
> mean that if the ISP side requested CHAP, Windows would just
> die?  If so, you're right; that's stupid.  But I still hope
Probably. The typical M$ way....
> see Linux do things as well as the other guys.  I look
> forward to a day when it will do *everything* better :-)
Most of the stuff it *does* already better. And don't forget
that Linux is a helluva lot more sophisticated than anything M$
churns out. Like a Jeep compared with space shuttle. Astonished
that it is easier to operate a Jeep than a space shuttle ?
> In some ways, I'm inclined to say that as far as getting a
> PPP connection going is concerned, it wouldn't be hard to do
> better, in so far as on both MacOS and Windows, this isn't
What is difficult with PPP ?
> as easy as it ought to be.  I get tech support calls all the
> time from people having trouble with both of those
> platforms.  The problems come in two areas: the procedure
> seems to be either poorly documented or not documented at
> all on both Windows 95 and MacOS, and it's made more
> difficult than it needs to be by the facts that you have to
> set things up in two different pieces of software and that
> both have less than interface design.
Neither Mac OS nor Windows have been *designed* with networking
in mind. Linux has.
> My hope for Linux is that there will be a nice, easy-to-use
> connection tool for Linux where users have to put in their
> id and password, select their modem from a menu (or can put
> in a manual init string if it isn't there), and there
> information such as DNS server names, etc.  While you can do
Hmmm....and users have no fucking idea of init strings, DNS etc.
etc.....good luck.
> this on both Mac and Windows, the procedure isn't nearly as
> good, simple, or transparent/intuitive as it ought to be, so
> this is a place where it would be really nice to show the
> ease of use kings how it ought to be done :-)
Don't forget: TCP/IP networking is not child's play. Networking
in general IS complicated stuff and many problems are not even
addressed yet. TCP/IP, furthermore is very old and its framework
has been designed back in a forlorn era when big networks didn't
exist yet. So it gott cluttered with add ons in an ad-hoc manner
just to propel it a bit further along the way. Today many things
in TCP/IP networking are difficult to understand from our basis
of knowledge - they are unnecessary complicated and often in the
way towards a streamlined design. It has LOTS of idiosyncrasies.
So, I fear, without some healthy knowledge about how networking
operates in general and TCP/IP peculiarities in particular,
you're bound to run into trouble with pretty much any system
very soon - it would probably require advanced AI to make the
system understand all that. Today pretty much science fiction, I
fear.......

Sorry, if I destroyed any illusions......

                              Karl-Max Wagner
                              karlmax@example.com
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