Topic 'Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...' in forum 'TekSavvy' - dslreports.com

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:17:17 EDT

anon posted : I found an Intel 4004 that I had kept from a calculator that they threw away in my 2nd summer job. It would worth $300 today if not for the fact that it is the cheap plastic package mass produced version instead of those ceramic gold packages.

There are ebay auctions for older computers. (Not sure if people are actually buying though.) Heck I could get a few new motherboard for some of the prices they are asking for. :P

»www.ebay.com/sch/i.html? ··· tium+isa

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:51:58 EDT

Inssomniak posted :

said by revelations:

Well why would anyone want to keep old garbage around

nostalgia, collector, interest in the technology.. etc

Hell I just picked up a rare 1965 zenith console colour TV with 24 vacuum tubes in it, its CRT is a 21 inch completely round tube. It predates even the first colour NTSC broadcast in Canada.

Why?

An interest in the early days of colour TV. In fact, I picked it up in Chatham!
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Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:23:22 EDT

revelations posted : Well why would anyone want to keep old garbage around,

From my experience people keep old crap around for other purposes; ping attacks etc,

getting a P4 HT would be great they are cheap etc

But I would not support any legacy hardware or OS for that matter

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:02:17 EDT

alienzzz posted :

said by Ott_Cable :

I have a few 8-bit ISA 10baseT here if you are interested. Piles of 16-bit one too. I was tempted to wire the 8-bit to a microcontroller, but I have an ARM with 1 gigbit Ethernet in my dockstar.

You are unlikely able to find BNC to RJ45 converters, but I have 4 or 5 AUI (DB15) to 10baseT converters.

I have tons of old junk, although I threw most of it away. It was lots of fun to play with a few years ago but now I have been focusing on starting a family, so that one day I can get my kids to walk in my geek steps. :D

Nowadays I am getting rid of P4s... but still conserve a few older gems for posterity. After all they are great for someone to learn the basis of how computers work.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:54:23 EDT

PlatooN posted :

said by revelations:

I do not see the point of keeping old legacy hardware,
I work in support it annoys me to no end people keeping old hardware and software, then they expect support with it,

If you decide to continue to use this hardware then you support it, TEK or any other ISP should not be responsible to support old hardware to work on their network.

I would like to know the real reason you keeping this hardware ?

Sounds fishy to me

why do you care what hardware the guy chooses to run?

sounds fishy to me

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:45:16 EDT

revelations posted : I do not see the point of keeping old legacy hardware,
I work in support it annoys me to no end people keeping old hardware and software, then they expect support with it,

If you decide to continue to use this hardware then you support it, TEK or any other ISP should not be responsible to support old hardware to work on their network.

I would like to know the real reason you keeping this hardware ?

Sounds fishy to me

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:34:50 EDT

anon posted : I have a few 8-bit ISA 10baseT here if you are interested. Piles of 16-bit one too. I was tempted to wire the 8-bit to a microcontroller, but I have an ARM with 1 gigbit Ethernet in my dockstar.

You are unlikely able to find BNC to RJ45 converters, but I have 4 or 5 AUI (DB15) to 10baseT converters.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:14:37 EDT

alienzzz posted : I actually have a PC-XT (8 bit ISA) compatible Ethernet card. A true gem in terms of rarity, but a piece of crap in terms of design. :D Sadly I could never find a working BNC to RJ45 adapter to try it out and see its blazing performance.

Btw, remember the old PC-XT bus hard drives? My god. I am amazed the PCs ever evolved into anything.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:00:02 EDT

revelations posted : Look at Kijji there is plenty of decent HT Pc's for cheap, no sense keeping this legacy stuff around,

I do not see any reason to keep these old dinosaurs around from a Support stand point, I would not support these machines.

Support for these machines for connection could result long support calls.

So the best thing is upgrade

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:22:49 EDT

anon posted : The the old days, you could get 10Mbps card on the ISA bus. There are 10BaseT version of the cards. I got a whole box full of those.

If not, there are almost always have an DB-15 AUI port that you can to attach an expensive 10BaseT dongle.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:07:38 EDT

Gone posted :

said by gyp_sy:

How much RAM could that thing have? 4MB? 8MB?

The max a 386SX can address is 16MB, so that probably answers your question :p

1-4 would be my guess, but I had one with 6.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:52:47 EDT

anon posted : i just dont understand it....cost cant be an issue because you should be able to find pentium 4's nearly free these days. FactoryDirect outlets in Ontario sell them for about $60-$80

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:33:30 EDT

gyp_sy posted : You've never seen a 10baseT ISA card? Hell, you can even still get them at places like A1 in Etobicoke (used, but they still work). It was the easiest way to transfer stuff to my old 486 back in the day - crossover cable. The days before I had a router, switch, or even a hub.

The only reason a 386 would be fairly useless on the web today is the sheer amount of information to store and process in even the most simplistic website (and most commonly used protocols and the apps that use them). How much RAM could that thing have? 4MB? 8MB?

'Great' for IRC and basically anything text-based though ;)

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:30:21 EDT

vitesse posted : How do you connect the 386 to the net? I'm curious? they maid Ethernet card for this architecture? I would think only 10base2 card are available. I remember at my school we had no direct access to tcp/ip over the network and we had to use emulator to broadcast tcp/ip over the 10base2 (We had a novel netware network.)

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:43:10 EDT

HiVolt posted :

said by Mark2 :

The reason I hesitate and ask for advice is because I use 3 ANTIQUE computers (1991 386 SX running DOS and 2 old Pentiums) to access the 'net and so far the Bell setup works with them.

Jeebus. Are you in the GTA? At my work I have a few retired Pentium 4 machines that are gonna go to the electronic recycler.

You can have one if you want, if you pick it up. I'll toss in a legit copy of WinXP Pro too if you're all about keeping legal.
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Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:36:34 EDT

taraf posted :

said by Mark2 :

I've got Bell's Essential Plus (2.4 Mb/s, 2 GiB cap). It's fast enough but the cap is killing me. I can get 40 GiB extra fro $5/mth but TekSavvy's plans are way cheaper.

The reason I hesitate and ask for advice is because I use 3 ANTIQUE computers (1991 386 SX running DOS and 2 old Pentiums) to access the 'net and so far the Bell setup works with them.

Does anyone have any experience with using vintage equipment with TekSavvy?

With TekSavvy specifically? No. That said, any TCP/IP compatible equipment with an Ethernet connection should be able to any TCP/IP-capable router (which basically means anything on the market today). You can get 10BaseT Ethernet cards for anything more recent than a C=64 on e-bay, and you can even get 100mbit Ethernet cards for anything with an ISA port. Install a compatible TCP/IP stack (that'd be Trumpet Winsock on a 3.1 machine, or you could be sane and install Linux), and you're off to the races.

In other words, there is absolutely no reason you can't use that '386 with TekSavvy. Your existing router should work fine with it, and even if it isn't, your old equipment should work with any router as long as you're using TCP/IP.

That being said, ever hear of Dosbox? It would let you run the old games without needing the old equipent... :)

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:27:31 EDT

anon posted : I don't think you will have any trouble since you use a router.

On a different note you can use DosBox to play all those games old DOS games on Windows XP or Windows 7.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:19:21 EDT

anon posted :

said by Goldielover:

Until 4 years ago I had a working 386 DX. Didn't take it online, though. Still have some of the games it played. I have an elderly Pentium III 450 Mhz running 98SE which has an ethernet card and is quite capable of going online with Teksavvy or my back up dial up account. Don't use it every day anymore, but it still comes in handy as a back up if either of the two newer ones decide to play up.

My newest is a Pentium II 400MHz. It can watch YouTube XL (which is what kills my usage :). Glad to hear that yours has no problems with TekSavvy. Makes sense now that I think it through, it only has to deal with the router.

My 1991 386sx 20 MHz, 2 MB RAM still prowls the net using MS-DOS 6.2. Not the Web but I daily TELNET to a MUD which I've been frequenting since 1992. All it needed was a NIC and a packet driver.

The newer Pentiums are both set up to dual boot to either DOS 7 or Win9x so I can keep playing all my DOS games like Civ, MOO, MoM, V4V, WaW, NetHack, AoR, etc.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:34:08 EDT

Goldielover posted : Until 4 years ago I had a working 386 DX. Didn't take it online, though. Still have some of the games it played. I have an elderly Pentium III 450 Mhz running 98SE which has an ethernet card and is quite capable of going online with Teksavvy or my back up dial up account. Don't use it every day anymore, but it still comes in handy as a back up if either of the two newer ones decide to play up.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:28:47 EDT

JC_ posted :

said by Mark2 :

said by Inssomniak:

said by Mark2 :

The reason I hesitate and ask for advice is because I use 3 ANTIQUE computers (1991 386 SX running DOS and 2 old Pentiums) to access the 'net and so far the Bell setup works with them.

You don't use those for everyday computing do you?

Of course I do.

Wow I haven't seen a 386 SX, well in about that long!. What do you run on that, windows 3.0? My first X86 computer was just that, an IBM compatible 8086 XT. It ran at 4mhz.

Win95 and 98 on the '97 and '99's. I don't touch Windows 3.0. I hate Windows anyways. I use DOS whenever I can. I've also got a 1989 Amstrad PC running at 8 MHz. It's not 'net connected though.

Im sure TSI internet will work just fine, the underlying IPv4 technology hasn't changed in all those years.

Yes I suppose the real question is whether the new modem I'd have to buy from TS would be compatible with my DI-604 router (2002) as that in fact is the junction between all my old computers and the modem. Perhaps I worry too much.

A router is a router, as long as it does TCP/IP it will work. If you're going to get 10/12/16 tiers just get a modem only device if you get the 25 tier you will need to put the modem that they give you into bridge mode.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:57:20 EDT

anon posted :

said by Inssomniak:

said by Mark2 :

The reason I hesitate and ask for advice is because I use 3 ANTIQUE computers (1991 386 SX running DOS and 2 old Pentiums) to access the 'net and so far the Bell setup works with them.

Re: [DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:41:43 EDT

Inssomniak posted :

said by Mark2 :

The reason I hesitate and ask for advice is because I use 3 ANTIQUE computers (1991 386 SX running DOS and 2 old Pentiums) to access the 'net and so far the Bell setup works with them.

You don't use those for everyday computing do you?

Wow I haven't seen a 386 SX, well in about that long!. What do you run on that, windows 3.0? My first X86 computer was just that, an IBM compatible 8086 XT. It ran at 4mhz.

Im sure TSI internet will work just fine, the underlying IPv4 technology hasn't changed in all those years.
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»www.optionsdsl.ca

[DSL] Considering switching but...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:19:35 EDT

anon posted : I've got Bell's Essential Plus (2.4 Mb/s, 2 GiB cap). It's fast enough but the cap is killing me. I can get 40 GiB extra fro $5/mth but TekSavvy's plans are way cheaper.

The reason I hesitate and ask for advice is because I use 3 ANTIQUE computers (1991 386 SX running DOS and 2 old Pentiums) to access the 'net and so far the Bell setup works with them.

Does anyone have any experience with using vintage equipment with TekSavvy?