I found a nice deal on an old thinkpad 755C while on vacation. 486/50, 20M/340M, active matrix, and a 14.4 modem tossed in.
It came with the gates virus, which I'm currently removing. ANd of course, the only people with the keys to the room with the pcmia network cards are not here, so I"m loading from disks. Once I have the basic systems installed, I need to connect it to my main machine, which is where the oddities come in. I need to a) figure out the ppp connection to the main machine on my desk. This doesn't strike me as too hard; I should be able to survive this from faqs. b) the tough one: figuring out the multiple-serial line balancing for slirp. To make matters fun, the lines are asymmetrical. I have a 9600 ISN (no, not ISDN) line into my apartment, which is unmetered. This connects directly to the university network, as is the big machine. It is an 8 bit connection, but the stupid little box has hardware ^S/^Q trapping. Send a ^S (including the microsoft close-double-quote, which is ^S with bit 8 high, and you're frozen until you reset the line, or a ^Q comes from the remote (pure genius in that design :). I can also connect by an 8-bit clean 14.4 modem connection when they're not tied up. Ideally, I'd like to have the machine attempt to keep the 9600 line up, and be able to tell it to add the 14.4 when it needs it. Is this doable? And while I'm at it, it seems to me that someone mentioned some linux thinpad utilities a while back; does anyone recall? thanks rick -- These opinions will not be those of ISU until it pays my retainer.