eepc waste of money

[The Real Andy]

I get real suspicious about your knowledge when you use restart in
conjunction with Linux updates. I haven't needed them, even with
kernel updates.

That the whole point of trialing something isn't it? Unpack it, follow
the prompts and see what happens. I did exactly what it told me to do,
just as any non technical user would. Considering I deal with non
technical users it kinda makes sense to do this

 

[Charlie E.]

With ICS, ICS is the DHCP server. With my wireless setup, my adsl
router is the DHCP server. I am fairly sure that the Netcomm router is
linux based. My mates dlink router is linux based. I could not obtain
and IP address from either. So that is 2 routers, so I am guessing
that the problem is with the EeePC. As for ICS, well an ethernet
connection to my router worked fine so I would suggest that ICS was
the problem. I have used ICS plenty before with and without problems,
so if I had spent more than 5 minutes on it I could probably have got
it working. Same goes for the wireless

All of this has nothing to do with the fact that I could probably get
it working if I really tried (just like the 3g modem) but the point
was that it failed out of the box. If you handed the device to someone
without technical experience then it would be a total waste of money.
IF I take a MS laptop, it almost always works, MS or linux host, and
certainly takes less effort.

Again, try turning off the firewall for a moment when you are trying
to get a new IP address. Sometimes the settings for that are so
extreme that it even blocks those messages...

Charlie

 

[[email protected]]

....

Next couple of  weeks I will go buy the XP version which i think is
about AUD100 more.  Will be interesting to see how it performs on the
limited hardware provided.

When we visited a friend's house, our friend pulled out a WinXP
eeePC. "Neat!" I thought. Then we tried to surf the web with it.
Sooooo sllllooooowwwww!!!!! (And it wasn't his wifi either. FireFox
took eons to start up.) I thought the slowness was from crapware
bloat, so I tried the usual tricks: Regedit, HKLM\Software\Microsoft
\Windows\Currentversion\Run. Nothing obvious that could be
eliminated.

I'm hoping the Linux version is faster.

Also the tiny keys take some serious getting-used-to.

Michael

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

...



When we visited a friend's house, our friend pulled out a WinXP
eeePC. "Neat!" I thought. Then we tried to surf the web with it.
Sooooo sllllooooowwwww!!!!! (And it wasn't his wifi either. FireFox
took eons to start up.) I thought the slowness was from crapware
bloat, so I tried the usual tricks: Regedit, HKLM\Software\Microsoft
\Windows\Currentversion\Run. Nothing obvious that could be
eliminated.

I'm hoping the Linux version is faster.

Also the tiny keys take some serious getting-used-to.

Michael

I wonder if it's the SSD.. my MSI Wind is quite acceptable. Plug a
real keyboard and monitor into it, and it looks a bit pokey, but given
the size and weight (and VERY long battery life with the enormous pack
I added) it's more than okay.

 

[[email protected]]

It depends on your definition of 'fast'.

Firefox launching within 5 seconds of double-click, as opposed to 20+
seconds?

The screen is a bit small for web browsing, but I am used to huge LCD now..
Anyways, I installed the 'opera' web browser on my eeePC 701.
And I have been using that almost exclusively,
Even its email works....
Opera has a view mode for small screen too, probably for mobile phones.
The F11 key gives you full screen, without all the space taking toolbars,

Yes! F11 is mandatory on that small screen.

 

[Nobody]

All of this has nothing to do with the fact that I could probably get
it working if I really tried (just like the 3g modem) but the point
was that it failed out of the box. If you handed the device to someone
without technical experience then it would be a total waste of money.
IF I take a MS laptop, it almost always works, MS or linux host, and
certainly takes less effort.

It's possible that this is "a feature, not a bug". Whereas Windows tends
to sacrifice security for the sake of usability, Linux tends to be the
other way around.

I wouldn't be too surprised if you had to explicitly tell it to use DHCP
to obtain an IP address, or if you had to explicitly configure the
firewall to permit the communication, or if you had to explicitly tell it
which WiFi network and/or the WEP/WPA key to use.

 

[The Real Andy]

It's possible that this is "a feature, not a bug". Whereas Windows tends
to sacrifice security for the sake of usability, Linux tends to be the
other way around.

I dont think that is true these days.

I wouldn't be too surprised if you had to explicitly tell it to use DHCP
to obtain an IP address, or if you had to explicitly configure the
firewall to permit the communication, or if you had to explicitly tell it
which WiFi network and/or the WEP/WPA key to use.

Probably. I intened to have a look at it soon. My interest at the
moment is getting the AVR32 (AP7) stuff running. Awesome bit of gear.
Probably have a stuff around with the EeePC this weekend.

 

[The Real Andy]

I wonder if it's the SSD.. my MSI Wind is quite acceptable. Plug a
real keyboard and monitor into it, and it looks a bit pokey, but given
the size and weight (and VERY long battery life with the enormous pack
I added) it's more than okay.

Browsing on the linux version is not that great either. Its ok, but
not as fast as winodws or linux running on a real PC.

 

[[email protected]]

Browsing on the linux version is not that great either. Its ok, but
not as fast as winodws or linux running on a real PC.

Ah.

If it's just browsing on the go you want, why not try a PDA smartphone
like the BlackJack? Some plans even allow tethering to a laptop
(using the smartphone as a modem)

Michael

 

[[email protected]]

I wouldn't be too surprised if you had to explicitly tell it to use DHCP
to obtain an IP address

CTRL_ALT_T

sudo dhclient eth0

 

[The Real Andy]

Ah.

If it's just browsing on the go you want, why not try a PDA smartphone
like the BlackJack? Some plans even allow tethering to a laptop
(using the smartphone as a modem)

Michael

I actually dont want it for anything Just bought it to see if it
might be usefull for some of my customers! For mobile customers, the
size and cost of these things cant be beat. Give a tech a laptop and
he will break it. Give him an EeePC and he will also break it, but at
least the EeePC is cheap. Be a great tool for
programming/configuring/diagnosing embedded hardware devices.

 

[The Real Andy]

CTRL_ALT_T

sudo dhclient eth0

No DHCPOFFERS received.

No need to use the terminal, the UI works just fine.

Tried turing off all encryption on the router. Checked the DHCP server
on the router, plenty of addresses available.

Just bought a new laptop for the yacht club, came with vista home
premium. Turned it on, pointed it to wireless connection and hit
connect. Worked first time. Definately a problem with the EeePC.
Checking the Eee forums suggests that I am not alone. No doubt there
is an answer in there but have run out of time to play with it at the
moment.

BTW. Totally OT, but I need a laptop with ubuntu, can anyone point me
to a particular model that will involve the least amount of work to
install?

 

[Andy]

No DHCPOFFERS received.

No need to use the terminal, the UI works just fine.

Tried turing off all encryption on the router. Checked the DHCP server
on the router, plenty of addresses available.

Just bought a new laptop for the yacht club, came with vista home
premium. Turned it on, pointed it to wireless connection and hit
connect. Worked first time. Definately a problem with the EeePC.
Checking the Eee forums suggests that I am not alone. No doubt there
is an answer in there but have run out of time to play with it at the
moment.

BTW. Totally OT, but I need a laptop with ubuntu, can anyone point me
to a particular model that will involve the least amount of work to
install?

booted into the bios first time ever and noticed wireless was disabled.
funny, beause the blue wireless light was on. boot into linux, set up
wireless connection to use wep again, this time i set key number explicitly
and now it connects. not sure if it was key number, because i tried with no
encryption and still did not work