Topic: switching ISP

[dwater]

Hi,

Our company is switching which company provides the connection to the internet.

Currently, we use a company that gives us a UTP cable to the door, and a fixed, private IP address. We have a direct connection to their MAN (metropolitan area network) and no authentication is required.

We are changing to a company that (as far as I am aware) also gives us a UTP cable to the door, but we get a dynamic, public IP address and have to authenticate using a username and password with PPPoE.

I have looked it up and see that PPPoE is supported by SME server, but I don't see any way to configure it apart from the admin console 'configure this server' option, which is quite clear that it is only supposed to be used once.

Is there another option for changing network configuration?

Max.

[wyron]

No, you just go ahead with the admin console!
The server will probably require a restart when you're through.
I take it that your connection through this server-gateway is just for browsing the internet, not for hosting mail or webpages to be accessed from the outside.

[dwater]

No, you just go ahead with the admin console!

OK, great

I do notice that most references to PPPoE seem to refer to DSL, but my service isn't using DSL, as far as I can tell. I don't suppose that's a problem, is it?

The server will probably require a restart when you're through.

Yeah, probably best with such a major change.

I take it that your connection through this server-gateway is just for browsing the internet, not for hosting mail or webpages to be accessed from the outside.

Well, initially, sure, no services to the internet side of the server, just as we have now; but, eventually, I would like to offer some services (IMAPS, OpenVPN) either on the server or back through the server. I realise I'll need to configure some DDNS service, but I haven't looked into that yet. I have heard about a local (Chinese) service which I think does DDNS called 'Peanuthull'...is there any reason I should choose a local service over one offered in the US?

Hrm, thinking about it, I wouldn't need DDNS unless I wanted to host a web server or something like that. Right?

Max.

[wyron]

To tell you the truth I never utilied PPPoE myself, since I have always hosted my own services, and therefore had fixed ip (by far the easiest config to set up).
I just went through the possibilities (out of sheer curiousity) when I first installed some years ago.
To the best of my recollection the SME covers most of the possibilities.
The manual will tell you for sure if your ISP-setup is possible, but I think it will have to be really 'cranky' for SME not to have it covered in basic setup.

[dwater]

To tell you the truth I never utilied PPPoE myself, since I have always hosted my own services, and therefore had fixed ip (by far the easiest config to set up).
I just went through the possibilities (out of sheer curiousity) when I first installed some years ago.
To the best of my recollection the SME covers most of the possibilities.
The manual will tell you for sure if your ISP-setup is possible, but I think it will have to be really 'cranky' for SME not to have it covered in basic setup.

OK. Thanks for your help

Max.

[dwater]

Hi,

I've switched ISPs and PPPoE is working like a charm; changed via the admin console as recommended - no problems at all.

Now I have a public/routable IP address, I want to host our web site locally. This will need a Dynamic DNS server.

We have our own domain name which seems to complicate issues, so I need advice.

I am running SME 6.0. I see the admin console lists some DDNS services.

Can someone tell me what I need to do in order to get our company's web site (http://www.jingmei.org/) hosted on our local network (probably via port forwarding)?

We're a non-profit org located in Beijing, China, so are looking for a free service.

Max.

[dwater]

Hrm. I had a thought.

http://www.jingmei.org/ is currently hosted at fastmail.fm.

I could just make http://www.jingmei.org/index.html an http redirect to the (dynamic) IP address of my server, and write a ddns-style script to upload a new index.html file each time the IP address is changed.

Is this a good idea? Sounds a bit messy and a potential maintenance problem...

Max.