Switch on PPPoE, attached to Apple Airport or other wireless access point. How to do.

[Eug]

I'm thinking this:

DSL over PPPoE --> DSL modem --> 4-port switch

4-port switch --> PC
4-port switch --> Apple Airport --> iBook

Am I OK if only the 4-port switch supports PPPoE? Or do I need the PC, Airport, and iBook also to support PPPoE as well? What about file sharing between the iBook and PC?

I'd get a Windows 2000 laptop, but wireless on one of these is even more expensive, and my main use for the laptop will be for surfing, with some PowerPoint on business trips thrown in.

By the way, are the switches programmable to take my login and password or is that done from the PC? Does the switch log back in in case of dropped connections?

Where is the best place to read about this stuff? I don't know anything about PPPoE and DHCP and subnets, etc.

 

[jsm]

I am actually using an Airport on my NAT based network. It works great for all of my laptops. I currently have the Airport set up as a hub.

I think as long as the PPPoE based switch is always connected or knows to connect when a request outside of your network is made, you should be fine.

If you need more info on networking, check out Practically Networked. You can manage your Airport from a PC as well. There is software I found for this on Sourceforge that is pretty good. Let me know if you need the link to that.

Wireless on a PC laptop isn't too much more expensive than for a Mac. I got an Orinoco gold card for about 150$ out the door.. which is decent, but I am sure you can find them cheaper on PriceWatch.

BTW - you may want to get a Orinoco Gold card for your Airport and pull out the Orinoco silver for security reasons. Or, you may just want to restrict your access to the wireless network via MAC addresses. The last think you need is some guy with a 802.11 card on his laptop hopping into your network or stealing bandwidth from you.

 

[Eug]

Thanks. Is the Airport to Linksys BEFSR41 switching router going to be a problem?