[CLUG] Chorus Powernet

[Jerome KIEFFER]

Peter Flynn wrote:
> Can some ADSL guru please answer me some dumb questions:

not yet guru ... but soon
 
> a. This is a regular Ethernet card and Cat-5 connection, right?
>    IE, Chorus leave behind a wall socket I can plug into.

no it is not that simple, you need a filter to separate the phone line
from ADSL channel, you may pay, or not, it depend on how it is done.
For me it was free : just a plug with 2 different output. You just have
to plug the phone where it is written phone and the modem where it is
written ADSL. 

After that you have the modem. some of them (the elder) have ethernet
(10baseT), so you need a ethernet card in you computer. This works under
ALL OSs, especially linux. The probleme is that the modem is more
expensive (+30Euro). The protocol is either PPPOE (ppp over ethernet,
with a modified ppp daemon) or PPPTP

Now most ADSL-modems are USB, especially the Alcatel SpeedTouch, because
there are cheaper. the protocol is PPPOA (ppp over ATM)
   
> b. Does "always-on" imply a fixed IP address? If not, what
>    does it use, something vaguely similar to DHCP? IE can
>    you run a persistent server?

No! your IP address change every 24h : there is a 5 sec deconnection.
For the servers : of course, you have to use a dynamic-DNS
(www.dyndns.org) and it works good. 
 
> c. What can they do to screw things up for us (like someone
>    mentioned them maybe running NAT).
> d. If (a) is .TRUE. what's to stop me connecting my machine as
>    a gateway and passing packets to/from my home LAN as I do
>    at the moment via dial-up? No way I can afford their corporate
>    LAN-connection prices for a home network.

In France (I'm french, living in FRANCE), it is almost legal : you rent
a certain amount of BW, you can do what you want with it.
 
Bye
-- 
Jérôme
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