Why do Indian ISPs need dialer?

Being a European on a business trip to India, I am sad to say that broadband in India is the *worst* I've seen in the world... and I travel a lot.. Even in poorer countries in Africa they have better speeds. I share your woes, dear Indians. 😢Anyway my question is.. I just checked into a hotel, that proudly displayed "broadband available on request". After making that request, a guy came into my room and pulled a RJ45 cable out of the window and asked me to install a dialer on my windows PC.. After telling him that I run Linux, the dude says there is no way I can connect.. he must install a dialer to connect. As far as I know the dialer is simply an interface for a PPPoE connection.. I tried to explain this to him but he wouldn't listen..Anyway so I'm now without Internet. After doing some research, I found that every company in India installs a dialer on your PC.. furthermore, the dialer is windows executable... how pathetic. Firstly I don't understand how they can have the audacity to install an executable on my private PC. What if it contains a virus or opens up a security hole???And this "dialer" business is too old anyway.. most good ISPs overseas do not require authentication, or even if they do, its via a web interface.Can anyone explain to me this "dialer" business?? Also can anyone tell me if there is any ISP that does not require dialers and even better, provides wifi/wimax connectivity??

this is very shameful for indian ISPs. I dont know about this dialer thingy. And wifi is pretty expensive. U can try with TATA braodband. They provide wireless conectivity.

not every isp in india requires a dialer. i have been to Hotels where they provide internet through wi-fi... you pay and they give u the password to get connected to the local network.

not every isp in india requires a dialer.

i have been to Hotels where they provide internet through wi-fi... you pay and they give u the password to get connected to the local network.

Yes I guess 4 or 5 star hotels would have wifi. However, my hotel is kind of cheap (the money goes from my pocket, unfortunately).

As an alternate question, are there any hotspots in Pune where I can take my linux laptop and connect to wifi?

I am also considering installing XP and dual booting from it just to be able to connect to the net.. once I have the dialer, I might possibly be able to figure out how to connect pppoe using linux.. any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Roberto

there must be restaurants or cafe houses in pune where wifi should be available... to get an independent connection you would need proof of address which i think would be hard for you to get if you are not an indian resident.

I think Tata offers on the go wifi access . its there in delhi , search for a hotspot and see if you find one by the name of Tata Indicom , it has a web based login system and you can recharge your account online

here you go :
Tata Indicom WiFi, wifi, wireless internet, Wi-Fi India, wifi in cafe, wifi on airport, wifi in india hotel, wifi hotel, wifi enabled hotel, wifi at restaurent, wifi India, wifi enabled, wifi providers, wifi service, wifi hotspots, wireless broadband

select pune and find a hotspot

and which ISP does the hotel have , because some do have linux versions of dialers (though they arent needed as most distros have inbuilt PPPoE)

I think Tata offers on the go wifi access . its there in delhi , search for a hotspot and see if you find one by the name of Tata Indicom , it has a web based login system and you can recharge your account online

and which ISP do they have , because some do have linux versions of dialers (though they arent needed as most distros have inbuilt PPPoE)

I will find out once I go home tonight. At the moment I am in my office using the office lan..

PS, the office lan has several restrictions which make it unsuitable for my personal use, for instance:
cannot connect laptop to office network
cannot browse some sites (i guess they use keyword filtering)

I will check out the Tata option. It seems nice.. a prepaid service would be excellent.. since I dont have Indian permanent address or rations card.

even for prepaid you would need to supply some documents. i guess you should check with your co-workers... they might be able to help u out.

I dont think you need any verification , their site allows you to select a plan >> enter your details >> enter credit card details >> get the serial number instantly and access internet

Godzilla, Don't generalize based on a trivial experience in a non-star hotel of Pune. Broadband in India is still in its infancy but it is not that bad either. If you are saying the Linux has a lion's market share in the West and that the field representatives there are well versed with handling Linux requests, I beg to differ with you. Have seen/experienced similar things in the United States. Here's the solution: (Assuming the hotel has given you a user-id and password) 1. Connect the LAN cable to your laptop. 2. Open the terminal. Type $sudo pppoeconf 3. Type your sudo password 4. This opens up a pppoeconf dialer on your Linux. (I am assuming you are using Debian/Ubuntu. If you are on Fedora, I have no clue.) 5. Let it search for the access concentrators on eth0,1 etc. It will find it somewhere and ask you for your credentials. Supply these details and choose the default answers for the rest of the questions. 6. Now, you can check the status of your connection using the $plog command. 7. You can turn off the connection by typing: $poff dsl-provider 8. You can turn on the connection by typing: $pon dsl-provider If these doesn't work, you can still install the dialer on your Linux using Wine.The best option would be to track down any Barista Cafe or Pizza Hut - These are normally wifi hot spots.Cheers Venu

I dont think you need any verification , their site allows you to select a plan >> enter your details >> enter credit card details >> get the serial number instantly and access internet

cool! i never knew TATA provided this service.

checked out their website. here it is.
https://services.vsnl.net/new/buy_online_wifi.jsp

if you have one of your accounts with the service providers mentioned in the list given here, you can access your account using TATA wifi.