Topic: ADSL in UK

[Rick Jones]

Will 5.5 or 5.6 work with BT's ADSL in the UK? I gather our ADSL here is slightly "different" from what most of the rest of the world uses, though I don't know the exact technical details.

It's also PPPoA, and I've only seen PPPoE referred to in the SME docs. If I use a second NIC and an ethernet/ADSL modem, will it all work "out of the box" if configured for an ethernet modem?

If not, can it be tweaked, and how?

TIA
Rick Jones

[Huw]

Hi,

Yes, it works a treat.  I use a dlink ethernet modem and now e-smith hosts my web site, e-mail, webmail and as a favour for a mate who can't get a really big mail box a web mail account for him too.  Just beware of the 'feature' of the dlink box in that it wants the same MAC address to work (search these fora).

Huw

[Rick Jones]

Thanks, good to know.

I was using SME 5.5 as server/gateway on ISDN with no trouble. I've now gone to ADSL, and bought a router as I thought it would be more secure and reliable (not that Linux wasn't, but I thought I'd avoid too many eggs in one basket).

So SME is running as server-only with a bit of port forwarding on the router. Linux has been running non-stop for weeks, but I've lost count of the number of times the router's crashed. So much for a reliable "black box", and do I not enjoy upgrading firmware

I can switch the router to "direct" mode so it's effectively nothing more than an ethernet modem, which I'm strongly tempted to do as I suspect everything might just be rather more reliable.

Cheers, Rick

[Bill Talcott]

Rick Jones wrote:
>
> I can switch the router to "direct" mode so it's effectively
> nothing more than an ethernet modem, which I'm strongly
> tempted to do as I suspect everything might just be rather
> more reliable.

That's probably best. If you're actually using the SME for more than a simple internet-sharing gateway, routers and port forwarding just seem to add problems to the mix. An SME can do everything a black-box router can, and then some. While Linux is by no means perfect, I prefer an open source OS that people actively work on, as opposed to some proprietary router OS, many of which seem to have issues of their own.

[Rick Jones]

Bill

Thanks for your thoughts. I admit I was rather naive about routers when I ordered it - I wasn't expecting something quite so "soft"!

The lack of Linux support for PCI ADSL modems also put me off - were they better supported I'd have just swapped out the ISDN card for ADSL, which would have been my ideal option. Faced with external modem + extra NIC (no USB on this mc/), a router was scarcely more expensive and seemed to offer more.

Hindsight is always 20/20

[Huw]

I knew you where going to say that.  
Joking appart, I preffer hardware that does one job hence the 'modem only' option.  This means that if all fails I can connect with any machine, even one running (sporadicaly) windoze.  Elsewhere on these fora I have posted a query re dyndns, e-smith is so stable (and my modem, well done d-link) that dyndns complain 'cos I don't update often enough i.e. my IP stays the same.  BT seem to issue 'semi static' ip's so if you re-connect fairly soon you get the old one back.  I have been told they use a radius server vs dhcp I have no idea what the real (to the user) difference is, can someone enlighten me (all of us)?

Huw

[Jeroen]

Rick Jones wrote:
.....
> Faced with external modem + extra NIC (no USB on this mc/)
.....

USB and modems is asking for trouble. Take for instance VIA chipsets and ADSL modems.

[Rick Jones]

I've tweaked the dyndns scripts in SME so they update DynDNS with the external WAN-side IP. I run them from cron, an hourly one that checks if the IP has changed and updates if it has, and a monthly one that updates unconditionally. That way it fits in with DynDNS rules, and if the router restarts the IP is updated within the hour.

Even with dyndns running "out of the box" you can easily add a cron.monthly entry so you keep dyndns.org alive.

Rick

[zac]

pci adsl modems can work quite well under linux; just check what chipset it uses. many of them use a chipset made by itex, who went under last year. the linux support for these modems can be called spotty at best - you can (apparently) make it work, but it can also take days to fail to work.

in australia, there is a company called traverse (http://www.traverse.com.au) who distribute an internal adsl modem with the pulsar chipset, i believe they have a distributer in the u.k. for them as well. (http://www.msdist.co.uk/) ... at any rate, check out the traverse web site for all the details.

hth,

z.

[Rick Jones]

Interesting info - thanks!

I'd noticed when searching the Web for "PCI ADSL modem" that a lot of the hits were in Oz. Seems they must be more keen on internal cards than most other places - strange the way regional preferences develop!

The Pulsar card uses the Globespan chipset, same as used in my router - and many others - so should be reliable.

I see you have to build the drivers for your Linux kernel - anyone tried this in SME? I may give it a shot. If the drivers build it might be worth looking at getting a card.

Cheers

[chris snow]

Has anyone had any success compiling/installing the pulsar pci drivers?

Do the drivers offer a persistent connection (as is provided by the ipcop pulsar drivers), or with the sme need a reboot everytime the connection drops?

TIA.

Chris

[Rick Jones]

I've now installed a pulsar, and switched from using a separate router box. The setup works really well.

I got plenty of help from the tech guy at Traverse, though the driver he initially sent for 5.6 wasn't quite right - I had to use his online driver engine to compile the correct one (all a case of getting the right kernel headers).

In PPPoA mode (UK), the link is controlled by pppd, essentially the same as dialup, just there's no dialling phase. pppd will restore the link if it fails, or at least it will in most circumstances. I've had two or three instances since installing it when it has died simply due to "no response", which is not the same as a true "dropped connection". The latter generates a hangup signal, and pppd will re-connect.

With no response, pppd just gives up, takes the interface down, and sits there. It's not really a driver issue. If you send pppd a hangup signal manually it reconnects.

I've added a bit of scripting to the ip-down event to try to catch this and restart automatically, but of course since doing that the line's been reliable, and it's been up continuously for at least 2 weeks now!

If you want more detailed info on configuration setups and tweaks, drop me an email.

Rick

[Chris Snow]

Hi Rick,

I would really appreciate more information + your scripts.

Thanks,

Chris