[olug] [OT] Suggestions on Qwest DSL options

Phil Brutsche phil at brutsche.us
Mon Sep 1 21:47:41 UTC 2008


First off, we have Qwest at work.

Based on my experiece...

a) Tell them you want the DSL modem in bridge mode right away. That way
you can use a business-class firewall (PIX/ASA, SonicWALL, Netscreen,
whatever), a WRT54GL running DD-WRT, or anything else that strikes your
fancy, as long as it supports PPPoE.

You could use your own router too, but they only support a very small
number of models. Anything else and you're on your own.

We use a WIC-1ADSL+NM-2FE2W in a Cisco 3640. I have sanitized sample
configs for PPPoE+stateful firewall, PPPoA+stateful firewall, and
ethernet<->ATM bridge if you want 'em. You should be able to get a Cisco
837 pretty cheaply; were I in your situation that's the route I would go.

b) If you don't tell them the above they'll send you a consumer device
of some sort that has NAT+stateful firewall turned on.

In my experience, they won't care one iota about multiple computers or
multiple OSes using their 'net connection; they only support Windows &
Mac OS X, and by support I mean they'll help you if you have trouble
with something.

Oh, and I have found that using plain ribbon telephone cables has caused
problems with signal quality - all our problems went away after we put
some RJ11 ends on a standard CAT5 cable. That was on a 30' or so run
from the wall jack.

OBrien, Timothy wrote:
> Having Cox for the last 9 years (at least), and owning my cable modem and
> such; jumping to DSL has me a little uncomfortable. Any
> thoughts/suggestions? Anything I need to be worried about running mutiple
> platforms (Linux/BSD/WinDoz/Mac) behind my own router?

-- 

Phil Brutsche
phil at brutsche.us



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