Canberra Linux Users Group (CLUG)

Sam Couter | 5 Jun 2002 11:11

Re: Questions

James Ring <sjr@...> wrote:
> On a related matter... those of us who are cursed with Telstra ADSL

On this point, I'd just like to mention that according to an email I've
been sent, Telstra has again offered a "Get out of ADSL free" card. You
even get to keep your ADSL modem if you like. This is pretty neat for
those of us who were away during the extremely short February offer.

So what I want to ask people is: Is an ADSL modem an ADSL modem, or are
there different breeds of ADSL modem? If I want to switch to a different
ADSL provider than Telstra, is the same ADSL modem going to work?

The modem Telstra gave me is an Alcatel Speed Touch Home, if that makes
a difference.
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Sam "Eddie" Couter  |  mailto:scouter@...
Debian Developer    |  mailto:eddie@...
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Patrick Cole | 5 Jun 2002 17:42

Re: Questions

Wed, Jun 05, 2002 at 07:11:26PM +1000, Sam Couter wrote:

> James Ring <sjr@...> wrote:
> > On a related matter... those of us who are cursed with Telstra ADSL
[...] 
> So what I want to ask people is: Is an ADSL modem an ADSL modem, or are
> there different breeds of ADSL modem? If I want to switch to a different
> ADSL provider than Telstra, is the same ADSL modem going to work?
> 
> The modem Telstra gave me is an Alcatel Speed Touch Home, if that makes
> a difference.

An ADSL modem is a an ADSL modem :)

The speed touch home will work on pretty much all ADSL providers in
australia.  The only thing that really varies with adsl modems is the
interface to the computer (USB, Ethernet, etc) and hence how they
interpret or bridge(PPPoE) the ATM encapsulated PPP frames.  

If you are interested it's actually possible to turn your ST Home into
an ST Pro and have it do NAT, DHCP, DNS and firewalling -- handy and
cheap (done it heaps of times). All you have to do is toggle a software
register and viola.

The ST Pro does ppp internally (PPP over ATM) so it's also a tad faster
than bridging the ppp frames over ethernet.

--

-- 
Patrick Cole <Patrick.Cole@...>
Programmer, the John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU

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Sam Couter | 6 Jun 2002 02:48

Re: Questions

Patrick Cole <z@...> wrote:
> The speed touch home will work on pretty much all ADSL providers in
> australia.  The only thing that really varies with adsl modems is the
> interface to the computer (USB, Ethernet, etc) and hence how they
> interpret or bridge(PPPoE) the ATM encapsulated PPP frames.  

.. which is the main reason I ask. If I sign up with a provider that
only provides USB ADSL modems, I'm screwed. If I can keep my ethernet
one from Telstra, I'm set.

> If you are interested it's actually possible to turn your ST Home into
> an ST Pro and have it do NAT, DHCP, DNS and firewalling -- handy and
> cheap (done it heaps of times). All you have to do is toggle a software
> register and viola.

This sounds like a cool idea. Just one problem - Alcatel's ADSL modems
have serious well-known vulnerabilities in them. It'd be foolish to rely
on them for firewalling until those vulnerabilities are corrected. They
can be broken from remote locations so badly that they need to be
returned to the manufacturer.

It'd be way cool otherwise.

> The ST Pro does ppp internally (PPP over ATM) so it's also a tad faster
> than bridging the ppp frames over ethernet.

And would free up my PPPoE linux box for other uses.
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Sam "Eddie" Couter  |  mailto:scouter@...
Debian Developer    |  mailto:eddie@...

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