Errr! DSL is here, DSL is gone.

bscott at ntisys.com bscott at ntisys.com
Mon Jul 14 18:12:48 EDT 2003


On Mon, 14 Jul 2003, at 12:00pm, pll at lanminds.com wrote:
> 2 weeks ago I checked with Earthlink, DSL Reports, and Verizon.  All 3
> locations stated I was within 9000 feet of the CO, and could order DSL
> service.  This week, as I'm about to order, I went and checked, and only
> Verizon is stating that I'm eligible for DSL.

  Well, I certainly wouldn't put it past Verizon to be screwing with people,
but on the other hand, remember that DSL is inherently unpredictable in
availability.  DSL is basically hooking digital equipment up to physical
wiring that was intended to run a fairly low-grade analog signal.  
Sometimes you get lucky.  Sometimes you don't.  To make matters worse, many
times, nobody (literally) really knows what the wiring in an area is like.  
The only way to find out is to have someone physically go and test the line.  
So the web-based "qualifier" you type your phone number/address into, while
not quite worthless, is a far cry from a definite answer.  Combine that with
the fact that many of these companies are making half of this stuff up as
they go along, and, well... don't be surprised by anything.  :-)

  We share our office building with another company.  We have the same
street address.  Same power line.  We can get DSL.  They can't.

> But can't you just build a kernel with PPPoE support?

  Not even needed.  Many (most?) Linux systems acting as PPPoE "clients" run
the Roaring Penguin PPPoE client, which is implemented using userland
software and the regular PPP interface.

  http://www.roaringpenguin.com/pppoe/

> I really haven't kept up with the changes from ipfwadm->ipchains->
> iptables ...

  Here is most of what a SOHO router does in eleven iptables commands:

	# config
	LAN_DEV=eth0
	PUB_DEV=eth1

	# policy actions
	iptables -P INPUT   DROP
	iptables -P OUTPUT  DROP
	iptables -P FORWARD DROP

	# clear everything
	iptables -F
	iptables -X

	# any packet can be sent from this host
	iptables -A OUTPUT -j ACCEPT

	# any packet can be forwarded out via public
	iptables -A FORWARD -o $PUB_DEV -j ACCEPT

	# any packet via loopback (localhost) can come in
	iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT

	# any packet part of an already-established connection can come in
	# connections get established by sending packets out (see above)
	iptables -A INPUT   -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
	iptables -A FORWARD -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

	# masquerade anything going out via public
	iptables -t nat -A FORWARD -o $PUB_DEV -j MASQUERADE

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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