[ILUG] Eircom PPPOE, MTU and ADSL Debian confusion

[Conall O'Brien]

On Sat, Feb 11, 2006 at 01:26:48PM GMT, Michael Christopher Woods 
<woods.mc at gmail.com> incoherently babbled:

Hello,

> I'm trying to set up my Debian Sarge box with Eircom's ADSL stuff.

Disclaimer: I'm only familiar personally with Eircom DSL lines and 
Debian servers, using DSL modems I've sourced elsewhere.

> I gave up in the end and ran the PPPOE tool 'pppoeconf', and entered the
> default user name / password provided by Eircom. My net connection now
> seems better. But I'm confused, has the connection improved because I
> changed the MTU settings ? or because the PPPOE demon is running? - I
> don't know much about PPPOE. Have I done the right thing my running
> pppoeconf and setting that up ?

I've never used pppoeconf, I just configured pppd the roaring penguin
pppoe module.


What value have to set the MTU to? I find 1492 is optimal with my setup.
 
> Is PPPOE an authentication protocol ? 

No, it's a protocol encapsulated inside another protocol. But since 
PPPoE is Ethernet over PPP, you're using PPP authentication, just like 
dial up connections can use.

> wouldn't that be hidden by the
> ADSL modem / wireles router Eircom provides ?

That depends, how have you configured your DSL modem/router? 

I've heard reports of an Eircom supplied DSL modem (I think it was the 
Caymen, iirc) which can run in a bridging mode, which requires PPPoE on 
whatever box use as a router behind it.


If you think the delay you're experiencing is related to IPv6 DNS
lookups, you could disable IPv6 as someone has given instructions to do.
But why would you when setting up IPv6 is so easy - see
http://ipv6.eircom.net/ or http://www.sixxs.net 

-- 

Conall O'Brien

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