Re: ADSL on Telstra Bigpond ('new' 4 port Alcatel Speed Touch Pro

["Andrew Smith" <rhml k1k2 com>]

> From: "Andrew Smith" <rhml k1k2 com>
> 
>> But I am getting somewhere with this problem ...
>> There does appear to be a startup script problem with RedHat 6.2 It
>> would appear that not having an ifcfg-eth0 during boot
>> makes eth1 and eth2 fail to start up during boot (is this a feature?)
>> 
>> Maybe there are other problems with using eth0 as the pppoe
>> connection (thats the next thing to search for in google - or
>> maybe I'll just swap eth1 and eth0 and see what happens)
> 
> For what it is worth I am running an RP_PPPOE ADSL link here in 
> Southern California. I let eth0 be the internal network. That seems to
> be the easier way to get it all to work. Then I left eth1
> unconfigured for the PPPOE connection. In /etc/modules.conf I have two
> "alias ethX ne2k-pci" lines. The first line has eth0 and the
> second has eth1. Now for your situation wherein you apparently wish to
> use the first found NIC for your PPPOE connection it would be
> worthwhile, perhaps, to try swapping the lines in modules.conf.
> Presuming the same type NIC as I use the lines would then become
> 
> alias eth1 ne2k-pci
> alias eth0 ne2k-pci

Lucky for me all 3 cards are different:
eth0 ADSL (not pppoe) 10Mb is rtl8139
eth1 New ADSL 10Mb is ne2k-pci
eth2 Internal network 100Mb FDX is tulip

<snip>

>> 1) the original email after signing up online (31 Dec) was not sent 2)
>> a person forgot to put my details into the computer to send out
>>    the modem when the exchange cabling was done so my modem wasn't
>>    sent out
>> 3) the ADSL cabling at the exchange wasn't done properly and I chased
>>    it up on Thu afternoon (got the modem on Thu morning), they got
>>    back to me on Fri afternoon and I then had to wait until after the
>>    long weekend to get it fixed on Tue (yesterday)
> 
> Hey, that's par for the course with telcos rolling out DSL. Once they
> get used to it things seem to go smoother.
> 

Yeah - but Telstra is the biggest Telco in Australia (and the only one with
copper cable in the ground) and they are supposed to have been doing ADSL
for around a year now :-(
Until about 10 years ago they were the only Telco, and were Government owned
And just to show how arrogant Telstra is:
I got a letter in the mail today (I connected windows for the first time
2 days ago) that said my monthly fee is now $6 more than when I signed
up - and I have no option but to accept or cancel! ($89 -> $94.95)
They say in the agreement that they can change the price whenever they
like.
They have changed all the pricing plans so that business connections are
the same price (i.e. major drop in price) as residential connections and
I guess decided to offset some of the cost by making a lot of residential
customers pay extra!
(There is no exaggeration or misinformation in any of what I have said!
Check whirlpool.net.au and of course telstra.com to see the pricing)

<snip>

> If the Linux machine is a different machine you could entertain
> yourself. Place a hub in the connection from the modem to the Windows
> box. Install the Linux machine on the hub. And run tcpdump to monitor
> the exchanges during the Windows machine booting. That is how I learned
> for sure that PPPOE was in use. Once you get the entire exchange
> process nailed and check for keepalives you have to run, note that some
> are internal to PPP, you can setup to mimic it on the Linux PPPOE.
> That's what I did with the setup for Earthlink via Verizon here. (But
> then, I have no fear working with those sorts of problems. I'm too dumb
> to know that they are supposed to be difficult.)
> 
> {^_-}

Well I finally tried a colletion of hardware configurations:
Firstly reset the Alcatel to factory defaults then:
1) Swap eth0 & eth1 (and they are staying that way!):
   didn't fix anything
2) connect eth1 (pppoe line) to the rest of the network and tcpdump:
   I got the 3 PADI packets showing up - so it's not a 6.2 problem - Yay
   (though I still think that eth1 & eth2 failing to initialise when
     there is no ifcfg-eth0 is a bug - but have to wait until I download/
     check the latest errata first when the new line is up :-)

Oh well - off to Alcatel support ...

So noone actually has a 4 Port Alcatel Speed Touch Pro?
Wow - I'm first on this mailing list :-)

-- 
-Cheers
-Andrew

MS ... if only he hadn't been hang gliding!