[ale] Screwed by PPP0E

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Thu, 2005-06-02 at 02:23 -0400, Raylynn Knight wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-06-01 at 07:12 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> > Raylynn Knight wrote:
> <SNIP>
> > > 
> > > I'm with speedfactory and I don't have PPPOE.  Perhaps its because I pay
> > > for extra static IP addresses.
> > 
> > This is likely true.  Care to share what you're paying and what your 
> > speed is?
> > 
> I have the SpeedHome Platinum DSL (3M x 384K) + 5 Residential Static
> IP's for 69.95 per month.

	Are you SURE you don't have PPPOE?  I was under the impression, from
them, that PPPOE has always been required for that setup from Speed
Factory.  

	That particular configuration is normally PPPOE but the PPPOE link may
be (probably is) managed by your dsl modem.  It plays PPPOE with SF and
provides you with a /29 and acts as a router between the two, which is
why the "5" addresses.  A /29 has 8 addresses and you loose one to the
"all zeros" network address, one to the "all ones" broadcast address and
one to the router address itself, hence 5 "usable" addresses.  I
remember one person telling me (I think it was at an AUUG meeting) of
switching a modem in that configuration into passthrough mode and using
all the addresses.  You could hook up something like a LinkSys WRT
wireless router to something like that and have the static addresses out
on your wireless.

	If you look on one of your systems at the interface configuration and
you see a netmask like 255.255.255.248, then I can almost guarantee that
you have PPPOE, it's just being managed by that modem so you don't see
the magic being performed under the hood.  You'll probably also find
your default route is the .1 address in that /29 (which would be the
modem's address on your side).  If you put the modem in "passthrough"
mode, then you would have to manage the PPPOE yourself and you would
find those addresses routed to you, through it.  In managed mode, you
just use dhcp to pull down addresses, but they come from the modem.

	A lot of people MAY have PPPOE and not realize it.  I've played with
routers from BellSouth and Speed Factory and you can run them in managed
mode, where they manage the PPPOE for you, or in passthrough mode where
you are expected to manage that connection.  IIRC...  On at least some
of the BellSouth provided dsl modems, you have to go to the "expert"
side of the configuration menus to find that option, but it's there.

	Mike
-- 
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw at WittsEnd.com  
  /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/       |  (678) 463-0932   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 307 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part