As others have mentioned, it's PPPoE. If you run Linux, go here. If you run Win98/ME/2000, go here. If you run Mac OS X, click the button in the Network panel of System Preferences.
PPPoE is a software protocol, like TCP/IP or IPX or AppleTalk - it has nothing to do with your line. You probably have an Ethernet bridge of some sort, which takes your Ethernet connection and tunnels it through some other kind of network, where it's bridged back to Ethernet on the other end. This is completely transparent to your software - it looks like Ethernet the whole way, but it's not.
I would think, that customers with all-fiber connections could just be wired directly into the Internet...or is this assumption a fallacy?
That may be true, but A) it wouldn't be DSL, and B) it wouldn't run on your telephone line.
DSL, by nature of the technology, ONLY runs on a copper pair. Not fiber. If you have a clean copper pair from your house to the phone company's central office (CO), and you're within the distance requirement (generally around 15,000 feet), you should be able to get DSL. The DSL signal will be split off, and connected to a DSLAM, while the analog signal goes to the regular phone system.
If you only have a copper pair from your house to a junction box somewhere, and then fiber from that point to the CO, the only way to make DSL work on your line is to A) run a new copper pair all the way from the CO to your house (which would probably put you out of range), or B) install a piece of equipment in that junction box such as a miniram or remote DSLAM, split the DSL signal off there, and then use fiber to connect the miniram or remote DSLAM to equipment in the CO. Both of these cost money, and the phone company doesn't like spending money they don't have to spend. If you can get them to do B, though, your connection should be awesome, because your DSL loop length will only be a couple thousand feet to the junction box.
The whole point of DSL is to provide a cheap connection on existing wiring. The existing wiring was not designed for it. If you think about it, it's pretty amazing that it works at all. If you don't qualify, don't bitch at the phone companies too much, and please, PLEASE don't bitch at the ISPs (who have no control over your phone lines).
As the article said, Hormel hasn't changed their policy on this in over a year - seems to me I remember that policy being on their Web site at least three years ago. They DO object (at least officially) to the use of their logo, or pictures of their product (such as the one Slashdot uses) being associated with junk e-mail, but they do NOT object to the use of the word "spam" (in lower-case letters) to refer to same.
The USS Galaxy was built in 2357 at the Utopia Planitia ship yards on Mars. Designed to be the state of the art exploration Starship, the Galaxy class was an enthusiastic effort. The Starship was commissioned in 2360 as the USSGalaxy NX-70637. It's Captain was the decorated Vulcan, CaptainShoak.
The USS Galaxy was a great success under the command of CaptainShoak. However, great expense over runs put the Galaxy class project in jeopardy. In late 2360, CaptainShoak was pivotal in getting Starfleet command to use the a Galaxy class ship as the platform for the USSEnterpriseNCC-1701-D. The Enterprise was originally slated to become the Enterprise class ship, using the cheaper Nebula platform. Captain Shoak argued that the flag ship of the federation should be the best ship Starfleet could build, and the Galaxy class was it. Captain Shoak was successful. The Enterprise became a Galaxy class Starship and breathed new life into the Galaxy class project. But in so doing, Captain Shoak diminished the uniqueness of his own vessel. Now the Federation wanted to keep the Enterprise in the Alpha quadrant, since it was the flag ship, and assigned the USS Galaxy, now rid of all the developmental and design problems, out on deep space exploration.
The USS Galaxy was assigned to the boarder of the Alpha and Gamma quadrants. There it carried out it's mission of space exploration and charting. For many years the USS Galaxy carried out it's mission under the loyal crew and command of the Vulcan Captain. But the USS Galaxy received none of the glory or fanfare that the USS Enterprise-D received, being the Flag ship of the Federation and stationed in the Alpha quadrant.
In 2371, When the USS Enterprise-D was lost on Veridian III, The USS Galaxy once again became the premier Galaxy class Starship. With the recent Borg threat to the Federation, and the lack of powerful Starships as a result of the loss at Wolf 359, the USSGalaxy was restationed back in the Alpha quadrant where it could more readily defend the Federation planets from any outside threats.
Just three months after the loss of the Enterprise-D, Captain Shoak was diagnosed with Bendii Syndrome and retired from Starfleet to return to the planet Vulcan. His command of the USSGalaxy was turned over to his first officer, RobertEdwardLeePrice, who is currently the Captain of the USSGalaxy.
The rest of that is: "We are believers in the Golden Rule. In all our dealings we will strive to be friendly and courteous, as well as fair and compassionate. "
Earthlink has recently begun offering static IP addresses on residential ADSL service for an additional $10 per month. It's only available in certain areas right now, and only through Covad. Earthlink's static IP service still uses PPPoE, but you get assigned the same IP address every time you connect. Ask the sales rep about it when you sign up; they'll let you know if it's available and make sure you get what you need.
As you'll see on the site, Earthlink is already very aware of the existence of the site, and hasn't taken any action yet, aside from refusing to host it themselves.
So, your main argument against DSL is that it's not available to everybody. This seems to piss off a lot of people for some reason. Limited availablity doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the technology, it just means not everyone can get it. Not everyone can get it means don't bitch at the companies offering it if your phone line doesn't qualify!
Keep in mind that many of the things you're complaining about - poor support, price gouging, complaints about what you're using the line for, networking multiple computers - are entirely dependent on the ISP you choose, and there are a LOT of ISPs to choose from, with different policies. If you don't like it, choose a different ISP.
Here's a rant against @Home that might interest you.
Can someone explain to me how assuring your customers you won't sell their data, then telling them that you're going to sell their data anyway even though they told you not to, isn't deceptive?
Today's Apple developer has an out, something they never had before. Darwin and GNUStep. So if Apple slaps the developers about, they can bail to a larger market of Unix running GNUStep.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't really understand how this is an "out" for developers...
Don't forget that the MPL allows AOL to take the Mozilla code, modify it, package it up as a proprietary closed-source browser (or include parts of it in another proprietary closed-source app) and either give it away or sell it.
Explain to me why this is less ominous than the APSL?
I've heard about that. What's really funny is, Motorola used to make its own computers - the StarMax line on Mac clones. My roommate used to have one. Kinda weird, a Mac with PS/2 ports (in addition to ADB) and (at a time when other Macs used DB-15 VGA connectors) an HD-15 VGA connector. And a mid-tower case made of metal, not plastic. Employees of the company that manufactured them weren't allowed to use them.
Too bad Microsoft doesn't appear to understand it. They must be more threatened than I thought.
Of course Microsoft understands, but that view isn't good for their business (so they think), so they're trying to pretend it's not true, and convincing everyone else of same.
I remember hearing that many years ago, The Coca-Cola Company would send a representative around to various eating establishments, and order a Coke, and if he was given a beverage other than Coca-Cola, the company would fine said establishment for abuse of their trademark.
Did you read the article, or just start posting? It should be pretty obvious from the article that UNIX is now a trademark of The Open Group. Mac OS X does not conform to the specifications for UNIX operating systems, as defined by The Open Group. Like Linux, it looks pretty much like UNIX (the main problem is that different UNIX-like OSes are different enough to require some adjustment to an application's code for each OS it runs on, and Mac OS X is new enough that this has in many cases not yet been done).
Does it meet your requirements? Well, perhaps you think that should be the question, but that wasn't the question, now was it?
Slashdot Mirror
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That may be true, but A) it wouldn't be DSL, and B) it wouldn't run on your telephone line.
DSL, by nature of the technology, ONLY runs on a copper pair. Not fiber. If you have a clean copper pair from your house to the phone company's central office (CO), and you're within the distance requirement (generally around 15,000 feet), you should be able to get DSL. The DSL signal will be split off, and connected to a DSLAM, while the analog signal goes to the regular phone system.
If you only have a copper pair from your house to a junction box somewhere, and then fiber from that point to the CO, the only way to make DSL work on your line is to A) run a new copper pair all the way from the CO to your house (which would probably put you out of range), or B) install a piece of equipment in that junction box such as a miniram or remote DSLAM, split the DSL signal off there, and then use fiber to connect the miniram or remote DSLAM to equipment in the CO. Both of these cost money, and the phone company doesn't like spending money they don't have to spend. If you can get them to do B, though, your connection should be awesome, because your DSL loop length will only be a couple thousand feet to the junction box.
The whole point of DSL is to provide a cheap connection on existing wiring. The existing wiring was not designed for it. If you think about it, it's pretty amazing that it works at all. If you don't qualify, don't bitch at the phone companies too much, and please, PLEASE don't bitch at the ISPs (who have no control over your phone lines).
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The USS Galaxy was built in 2357 at the Utopia Planitia ship yards on Mars. Designed to be the state of the art exploration Starship, the Galaxy class was an enthusiastic effort. The Starship was commissioned in 2360 as the USSGalaxy NX-70637. It's Captain was the decorated Vulcan, CaptainShoak.
The USS Galaxy was a great success under the command of CaptainShoak. However, great expense over runs put the Galaxy class project in jeopardy. In late 2360, CaptainShoak was pivotal in getting Starfleet command to use the a Galaxy class ship as the platform for the USSEnterpriseNCC-1701-D. The Enterprise was originally slated to become the Enterprise class ship, using the cheaper Nebula platform. Captain Shoak argued that the flag ship of the federation should be the best ship Starfleet could build, and the Galaxy class was it. Captain Shoak was successful. The Enterprise became a Galaxy class Starship and breathed new life into the Galaxy class project. But in so doing, Captain Shoak diminished the uniqueness of his own vessel. Now the Federation wanted to keep the Enterprise in the Alpha quadrant, since it was the flag ship, and assigned the USS Galaxy, now rid of all the developmental and design problems, out on deep space exploration.
The USS Galaxy was assigned to the boarder of the Alpha and Gamma quadrants. There it carried out it's mission of space exploration and charting. For many years the USS Galaxy carried out it's mission under the loyal crew and command of the Vulcan Captain. But the USS Galaxy received none of the glory or fanfare that the USS Enterprise-D received, being the Flag ship of the Federation and stationed in the Alpha quadrant.
In 2371, When the USS Enterprise-D was lost on Veridian III, The USS Galaxy once again became the premier Galaxy class Starship. With the recent Borg threat to the Federation, and the lack of powerful Starships as a result of the loss at Wolf 359, the USSGalaxy was restationed back in the Alpha quadrant where it could more readily defend the Federation planets from any outside threats.
Just three months after the loss of the Enterprise-D, Captain Shoak was diagnosed with Bendii Syndrome and retired from Starfleet to return to the planet Vulcan. His command of the USSGalaxy was turned over to his first officer, RobertEdwardLeePrice, who is currently the Captain of the USSGalaxy.
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The rest of the CV&Bs are here.
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Would you rather have your service provided by a bunch of Cox?
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Keep in mind that many of the things you're complaining about - poor support, price gouging, complaints about what you're using the line for, networking multiple computers - are entirely dependent on the ISP you choose, and there are a LOT of ISPs to choose from, with different policies. If you don't like it, choose a different ISP.
Here's a rant against @Home that might interest you.
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Maybe it's just me, but I don't really understand how this is an "out" for developers...
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Explain to me why this is less ominous than the APSL?
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Of course Microsoft understands, but that view isn't good for their business (so they think), so they're trying to pretend it's not true, and convincing everyone else of same.
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Does it meet your requirements? Well, perhaps you think that should be the question, but that wasn't the question, now was it?
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