Slashdot Mirror
SBC Wants To Switch DSL Format To PPPoE
Mr. Haplo writes: "Looks like SBC's at it again. According to this story, SBC wants to change everyone's DSL connection to PPPoE. The article goes on to say that the California Public Utilities Commission and the ISP Association are filing complaints against SBC and PacBell over this. It doesn't mention anything about SDSL connections, however, so I don't know what they'll do, if anything, about them. They do say that business services would be left alone, though, so I assume this means just about any SDSL services (I hope!). Someone needs to take a baseball bat to SBC's executives."
Really, someone must have had their head screwed on a little less than tight with this one. PPPoE is a nice idea, and it's in fact a really clever hack, BUT IT'S NOT A GOOD METHOD OF CONNECTION. It's a clever hack in the same way that PPP-over-SSH is a clever VPN tactic, but if I were to suggest to my boss that we use PPP-over-SSH for the VPN on our corporate network I'd be laughed out of his cube. I don't know why some DSL companies (*cough Verizon cough*) think that this is a good idea over normal DHCP. In the meantime, I think I'll stick with the 10 static IPs that SpeakEasy.net will allow me with my home service using a normal ethernet router, thank you.
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
Well, PPPoE is a pathetic, half-assed kludge. It's a dynamic IP addressing scheme that tries to put the PPP protocol over lines that really don't need it, mostly to save ISPs money because they can use a lot of their old modem equipment. The result is an inefficient protocol that takes a chunk out of your network's maximum transfer unit, which slows things down and screws up a lot of stuff. If you've ever done NAT behind a PPPoE network, you will discover how crappy it really is.
But that's not really what they're complaining about. They're complaining because SBC wants to prevent any of the ISPs that use their lines from being able to give DSL lines static IP addresses. Which means you can't get a static IP dsl line at all.
They already use PPPoE for most new lines, but you can usually find ISPs willing to sell you a static line as well. This would mean that you couldn't get a static IP address on anything less than a much more expensive buisness class DSL line, even if a third party DSL provider really wanted to sell you one.