Help choosing a good router for PPPoE on Pacbell DSL

[cot]

Hi, I am using Pacbell DSL, which is PPPoE (using Enternet). I remember seeing a while back that some of these new DSL router/firewalls were getting PPPoE support, but at least one of them was initially buggy.

Can anyone give a good reccomendation on a router for this purpose (extra helpful if you're on pacbell PPPoE too ) Cheap is good, too.

Thanks

cot

 

[dirtboy]

From Netgear's site:

My ISP uses "PPP-over-Ethernet" (PPPoE). To access my DSL account, I use Dial-Up Networking. Is my router compatible with this?

Yes. The RT311 and RT314 support PPPoE. When using a router for a PPPoE connection, you should remove or disable the PPPoE driver software (such as WinPoET) on your PC, and you do not need to run Dial-Up Networking in order to access the Internet.

http://www.netgear.com/support/support_rt311/applications/faq.html

 

[Mday]

you can also use the linksys router.

 

[Vegito]

Okay, heres the dish.. netgear is cheaper then the linksys BUT theres some circulating rumor that netgear recalled some of the router due to firmware error. Can't confirm but look around.

 

[rectifire]

Recall rumor is totally untrue. What happened is that the configuration software that came with the RT311 was found to have a major bug that prevented some computers from booting into Windows........and so Netgear advised everybody not to install or use the software that came with the router.

http://www.timhiggins.com mistakenly characterized this as a recall of the RT311 router itself, which he later retracted because it was starting rumors and speculation (just like the one that made you start this thread.) It was a recall of the software that came with the router, not the router itself. In truth, the router is still a fine piece of hardware. If you would like to verify this info, go to http://www.timhiggins.com/support/rt311help.htm#Alert to check out the situation.

 

[cot]

Thanks for the replies! I just got the netgear from Fry's (blech).

Its support for a few dynamic IP DNS services (dyndns.org is one) is what pushed me in that direction. I'm setting it up now, I'll let you know how it goes

cot

 

[Shuxclams]

Cot,
Pacbell CNAMES the IN_ADDR.arpa file unless you have enhanced service, any chance of hosting is pretty scant if thats why you went with the DNS support.


SHUX

 

[Vegito]

man, I been putting it of since I didn't want to get stuck RMAing.. but you understand right .... I didn't read enough..

 

[cot]

Sorry Shuxclams, but you are losing me here. Not entirely sure what that means.

You know how these dynamic dns services function? They give you a name like yourname.theirdomain.com. Then you run client software on your machine that connects to theirs and updates your ip whenever it changes. Has nothing to do with changes to the actual DNS structure, since it is just a subdomain of their already registered domain name.

All the netgear router does is put the client ip updating software in the router, which is pretty cool. That way it will automatically update when your IP changes so that you don't even need to run anything special on your machine.

Supposedly, you can also set up a real domain name (mydomain.com) and set the zone file on the DNS server up so it is "aliased" to the dynamic name. So mydomain.com -> myname.theirdomain.com -> dynamic IP updated by software.

I am using http://www.dyndns.org for the dynamic IP stuff, and will probably use http://www.granitecanyon.com for the DNS serving of the real domain name.

cot

 

[cot]

So I should mention that I did get the netgear router working pretty easily after getting it home. The current bios supported PPPoE so no risky updating to do).

Works great, just as seamless as NAT when I was running a FreeBSD machine as a router.

The dynamic DNS thing seems to be working too, pretty cool!



cot

 

[Shuxclams]

the IN_ADDR.arpa is your reverse DNS, Pacbell has CNAME'd or aliased the record so that no reverse can be done until you pay the $70 a month for the enhanced. Try http://www.scarieville.com, no name resolution, if you look it up via whois etc... you will find that all is set correctly except the IN_ADDR.arpa, which is controlled by Pacbell, and I talked with the admin's there and they won't allow me authority over the record till I pay up......is suck



SHUX

 

[cot]

But how would this affect the method I described? The name resolution of scarieville.dyndns.org is handled by dyndns.org, not the same way as scarieville.org, right?

So that should work, as long as they have the correct IP number in their database.

Unless I'm totally confused about this.

cot

 

[cot]

BTW if you are correct then this is one more reason I am going to dump Pacbell ASAP.

I'm thinking Pheonix/northpoint. As soon as my 1 yr term is up.

I am still pissed that when I moved they put me onto this crappy ass Dynamic IP/PPPoE 5hit. Made my nicely sey up FreeBSD server stop working.

EDIT: BTW i can ping myserver.dyndns.org, but I'm not running a server yet, so I don't know conclusively that it works yet.

cot

 

[Shuxclams]

My domain is resolved to my IP but it does not get returned to you because one of the records is contrlled by pacbell, it's basically "hidden" from use, I can serve up pages and send mail etc......though IP only, until, I have authority of the record. If there is indeed a way to get around this I am all ears. BTW I have a static IP and have my DNS at granite as well.



SHUX

 

[cot]

Wait, so what is it you can't do? I am a bit confused, not too versed in DNS stuff.

I have a subdomain provided by dyndns.org

so its myname.dyndns.org. I can ping it from another machine (actually not a local one, i ssh'ed there and pinged back to me).

I can nslookup myname.dyndns.org, and get the correct ip number from that remote machine as well.

You say you can't access your webpage through typing in the domain name?

Can you ping your domain name as i can w/ my subdomain name?

As I understand it, all I need to do now is setup my domain name at granitecanyon or some such, and there is a way that you can set the domain name as a sort of alias, to point at myname.dyndns.org, and I cant see why that wouldnt work.

The only info in the official DNS's would be that entry, that myrealdomain.com -> myname.dyndns.org. Then the machines would go to dyndns.org, and get my current IP (since it's dynamic for me).

Also, they do offer "static IP" service at dyndns.org as well, maybe to get around the problem you are talking about.

Maybe? I hope so, I want to get this running.

cot

 

[cot]

Another note, i just installed warftp and again, sshing to another machine that isnt local. I can access this machine just fine by using the subdomain given by myname.dyndns.org - all that's left is the realdomain.com aliasing!

cot