[H-GEN] adsl help

[Tony Nugent]

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On Fri Feb 07 2003 at 18:49, Sandra Milne wrote:

> We have recently re-acquired my brother's adsl modem. The problem is, we're
> not sure about how well it was kept by the person who was 'minding' it for
> him. Is there anyone living in or near Annerley who would be willing to
> test out an Alcatel Speed Touch Home -- the ones that Telstra used to give
> out (I have no idea if they still do). We'd be extremely grateful.

I live on the Gold Coast, so I don't qualify on that point.  But I
do have an adsl connection with one of those beasts.
If are near the GC and want me to test it for you, let me know.

(Those particular modems have a security problem with back-door
access and so on, but that's another story.  If you want details
then I can dig up some URLs).

> We're also curious as to how to get this to go under linux. It appears to
> have an ethernet port on the back (marked 10Base T/MDI-X), and another port
> that doesn't look like rj45 which is marked ATMF-25. (Go easy on me, I've
> only ever done a cable modem setup and that was so easy it was almost a joke.)

It's almost as easy (easier?) to use as cable:)

An RJ11 connects it to the phone line.  If you are using a phone
with it (which is usually the case), then you'll need to use a
splitter going to the phone with a little filter on it.  You should
have got that too, if not then ask for it (or you'll need to
purchase another one, not cheap).

The RJ45 goes into an ethernet card into your computer via a
standard crossover cable).  You can then connect this computer to a
hub via an second eth card and get it to route and masquerade for a
LAN (trival with linux).

The software used with it is called pppoe (ppp-over-ethernet),
commonly supplied in a package called rp-pppoe (rp for
roaring-penguin).  Basically it acts like a ppp dialup (err, that's
exactly what it is:) but it has it's own config file and, unlike
cable, you don't (unless you pay big bucks) get a permanent IP or
even a leased dhcpd-like IP with it (it's different every time you
reconnect).

It works well with linux, stable as a rock (apart from the usual and
rather frequent problems on the telstra side of the link).

> Replies about testing the modem should probably go off-list as it's not
> really on-topic.

Oops, the reply-to header already did it's trick :)  Besides, I
can't see why others wouldn't be interested so I don't think this is
_too_ off-topic, n'est pas?

> thanks,
> 
> Sandra.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Tony

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