mattabat wrote:
Most ADSL modems provide routing functionality; I only had to go out and buy a new $AUS40 8 port switch (with 10/100 autoswitching!) - now I find the single Ethernet port on my modem no longer worries me 
'Most' don't, but some do... and it cuts a few ways. For instance, SBC-Yahoo (last I checked) still ships a straight Efficient Networks bridge for their PPPoE service, with the 2Wire products offered as a paid option (how I heard about that brand in the first place)... Qwest, I've discovered, run PPPoA on the wire, and are shipping an Actiontec modem-router to make that type of provisioning useful* -- which, unfortunately, has some bizarre quirks** in the present firmware that makes setting up a software PPPoE client (or a third-party router) seem like a walk in the park.
*I hope I have those details right; I gather DSL is 'always' based around ATM on the wire, but what matters is the type of framing expected at the endpoints. Anyone familiar with Qwest want to correct me on that -- if the thing is normally run as a PPPoA client, but has the option to work in the bridged mode I'd usually use to run 'software' PPP on a known-PPPoE link, what the heck would that give out the Ethernet side, PPPoAoE?
**For being a combo device, there's a bug that appears to manage to hose DNS traffic running through it under an 'interesting,' if somewhat common set of circumstances. I'm not sure if this relates to something trying to be a transparent proxy, or just a glitch in Linux/IP[Chains?|Tables?] and the way their device uses it, but I've reported a reproducible scenario to them, so maybe Qwest customers will be able to use Firefox on platforms that've heard of IPv6 shortly. :-?
