Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 01:49:34 -0800 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "R. W." <list-freebsd-2004@morbius.sent.com>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: DSL support Message-ID: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNCEJLEPAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <200411070039.45830.list-freebsd-2004@morbius.sent.com>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of R. W. > Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 4:40 PM > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: DSL support > > > On Saturday 06 November 2004 15:34, Mark wrote: > > I am on sbc dsl and found this page covered the setup. > > > > http://renaud.waldura.com/doc/freebsd/pppoe/ > > > > On Fri, Nov 05, 2004 at 09:54:30AM -0800, William Scott wrote: > > > Dear Sir or Madam, > > > > > > Is there any support/documentation for configuring FreeBSD for > > > use with a DSL modem (my ISP is SBC)? > > I recently had some trouble in setting up an ADSL modem (it didn't work > with 5.2.1). What I did in the end was buy a 4-port ADSL NAT router, > and I think it's actually for the best. They are quite cheap these > days, and they have some strong advantages over a basic modem. > Hi R.W., I work at an ISP and before anyone goes running off and buying a ADSL router please consider this. We have recommended these for the past 3 years now, for DSL lines, ever since we started selling DSL. The big advantage of them from our point of view is that windows systems tend to not get infected with viruses as rapidly - thus we get fewer support calls. The primary one we have always recommended has been the Linksys BEFSR41. This one has several advantages - it can act as a router -or- address translator, it has logging, and can send the log to a remote syslogger host. (there is a program someone wrote for FreeBSD that captures the log output, BTW) HOWEVER - we are no longer recommending the Linksys devices. Why - because over the last 3 months we have had an increasing number of them which have been installed for several years, just fail. And the failures aren't pretty. Usually the packet flows through the router start getting slower and slower, and the user gets an increasing number of disconnections from websites and such that they go to. It is insidious, and very very difficult to tell the difference from either a congested ISP or virus activity, so most often the user just gets more and more dissatisfied with their DSL line, never realizing it's the cheap router that's the problem. When things get bad enough they start power-cycling the router and that 'fixes' things for a few hours, and the customer gets the impression that this is 'normal' for these devices. It has almost cost us several customers as the customer blames the ISP for slowness and not their $35 cheapass device. And initially when it started happening, we didn't catch on that quick. And we have spent far too much time with troubleshooting them now. Unfortunately a number of business customers we have, put these devices in a couple years back when they signed up, and now these are coming back to haunt us. And the thing that really scares me is that we have recently had a few of these problems show up with dlink and other manufacturers devices. I am just hoping that this isn't the start of a trend. Today what we recommend ethernet-to-ethernet Cisco routers or Cisco PIX firewalls for businesses. The PIX and modern Cisco IOS can be setup to speak PPPoE directly. And a used 10-user PIX 501 can be had on Ebay fairly cheaply, I have seen them go as cheap as $200, and it is ideal for a home setup - assuming that is, that someone at the house is really in to networking and wants to work with the real equipment that industry uses, not the toys that you get at Fry's. And for home users that are technical but too cheap to do that, I tell them to use a PC setup as a router, NOT one of these. Unfortunately we have way too many nontechnical windows users who these devices are pretty much the only way they have of putting up a firewall. Nowadays when I talk with one of them I put the Fear of God into them about these devices with instructions to call immediately if they notice the slightest problem with their connections, and I cross my fingers that when the time comes for the device to die, that they remember what I told them. One last thing with these, while they can do a lot, if you need to run a pptp server, it is very problematic to get them to work. At least when using a FreeBSD system as a router, you get a real public IP number on the outside interface, rather than everything being private, and if you want to run a server, you will have fewest problems with this setup over the long run. Ted
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