[SGVLUG] DSL: static or faster?

[Charles N Wyble]

On 03/09/2010 12:02 PM, Emerson, Tom (*IC) wrote:
> Hello Claude - to answer your questions to me originally, I still have 
> 384k sync (up and down) for the same reason as you (static IP and a 
> specific clause in their TOS that allows me to "run a server")  A few 
> weeks back I was cold-called to "upgrade" to u-verse, and I 
> specifically asked them if they provided a static IP - she had to ask 
> someone, but did come back and say "yes, that is included" - I'm not 
> really holding my breath, but it does sound like a step in the right 
> direction.  (also, while talking to the cold-caller, I mentioned I 
> wasn't interested in the "other" features, so I was told I needed to 
> shop online for it as she could only sell me a "bundle", but it was 
> available separately.)

Yep. You can get internet only.

> For a while I was without phone service at all [good with the bad - I 
> was "on" the internet too much anyway, so this provided a nice break - 
> besides, the only people that called ME were telemarketers...]  turns 
> out they had replaced the local "green box" with a new "beige box" 
> about 50 yards farther away [but still close enough I could hit it 
> with a strong throw - it's downhill :) ]  and when they did, they 
> forgot to connect my line (or else the connection was "loose" and 
> finally fell off)  In any case, that new "beige" box is, of course, 
> fiber; the last couple hundred yards is likely copper, but maybe they 
> could run fiber as well (not sure what the reqs are at that distance)

Look into VDSL for all the details. Fiber in the loop, fiber to the node 
are a couple things to look up. If you want to really get down and 
dirty, buy a copy of Implementing ADSL.

> since my "modem" is the old "alcatel 1000", which apparently is a 
> piece of crap (though it works fine for me), if I "upgrade" I'll 
> probably be given a new modem (and, as someone pointed out, probably 
> be forced into ppoe or similar)  Does anyone know what the actual "top 
> speed" for the alcatel is?  maybe I can convince them to simply 
> upgrade the existing connection if it will work...

What's wrong with PPPoE? I run a PPPoE client on my Cisco 1841 edge 
router and just leave the modem in bridge mode. This lets me have full 
and complete control over my WAN connection. Port forwarding/QOS etc 
etc. DHCP is a huge amount of overhead and security risk. One giant 
layer2 domain. Ethernet doesn't scale for WAN access networks. With the 
PPPoE stuff everyone is in their own vlan and it's a point to point 
technology. It's somewhat convoluted, but works very very well. Look at 
Redback or Ericson products, l2tp aggregation etc etc.

Maybe I should give a talk on this or something....

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