PPPOE ADSL connection

[Alastair Preston]

On Tuesday April 18 2006 03:05 pm, Thilo Six wrote:
> Alastair Preston wrote the following on 18.04.2006 21:29:
>
> <snip>
>
> > all I had to do was configure the ethernet connection to my ADSL modem to
> > use DHCP (and disable pppoe).  What does the ISP's tech support say to
> > do?
>
> Are you sure your ADSL modem isn´t a ADSL router?
>
> bye Thilo

Yes, it's a modem, not a router. To be specific, a Linksys ADSL Ethernet 
Modem, model ADSLME1.   When I first got it, I, like many others, followed 
the instructions in the ADSL-HOWTO, and set up rpppoe before connecting.
While that document does state that some ISP's use other protocols than pppoe, 
it's setup instructions then go on in the apparent assumption that pppoe is 
the only protocol the reader is likely to encounter.

When subsequent attempts to connect failed, I called the ISP's tech support.
The tech then informed me (1) that the HOWTO's instructions were completely 
wrong for their connections, since they do not use pppoe, (2) that I should 
disable or remove the pppoe client (I did the latter), and (3) that I should 
simply enable a DHCP client.  Following his instructions worked....

Mind you, I gather I was lucky to talk to a tech who actually knew Linux, 
rather than one who had the stock "we only support Mac and Windows" response
on his cue card.