[Gllug] Recommendations for network card and adsl modem (or router)

[John Edwards]

On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 09:46:43PM -0000, Peter John Cameron wrote:
> After nearly three weeks of trying, I've given up with the alcatel
> speedtouch modem. Short of throwing it out the window, I can't do anything
> with it other than initialise it. I tried PPPoA and got nothing beyond LCP
> timeouts. I tried PPPoE (with a downloaded br2684ctl) and though I get
> "ifconfig nas0" returning an ethernet address etc., the "pppd nas0 &" call
> complains about nas0 being unknown. Ho hum. I give up.

What model of Alcatel is it ?
I've setup the Speedtouch Pro and Speedtouch 510 (both ethernet), 
it can be done but they are not the easiest of boxes to work with.

I don't think PPPoE is used for a BT based ADSL line in Britain, 
which are PPPoA with VPI=0 and VCI=38. This following page may help 
if you have a Speedtouch Pro:
    http://www.ipcop.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/IPCop/IPCopFAQ#Configuring_the_Alcatel_Speedtou


> I'd like some recommendations for a decent external ADSL modem (or router)
> plus network card. I only have a standalone PC at home. There are plans for
> a network but that probably won't happen this year.

It's hard to give a recommendation without knowing your requirements, 
but the DLink 504 has quite a good range of features and has a 4 port 
10/100 switch (the 500 does not and is slightly cheaper). Only drawback 
is that you will need a Windows to upgrade the firmware to version 2, 
as the version 1 that is usually shipped is quite bad.

I also know a couple of people who are running the Pulsar PCI card 
which has some good Linux support:
    http://www.traverse.com.au/products/default.asp?p=8

ADSL guide has some product reviews, but mainly from a Windows users 
point of view:
    http://www.adslguide.org.uk/


A good network card would be a 3com 905 or Intel EE Pro (cost ~25 GBP), 
but for a simple link to a ADSL router an RTL8139 card would probably 
do (cost ~10GBP).


> I'm in Surrey so I'd also be interested in knowing where I could walk in and
> buy the equipment (I try to avoid PC World if at all possible).

I've not seen any high street shop with a good range, and have bought 
most of the stuff from suppliers or over the phone from people such as 
dslsource.co.uk or dabs.


-- 
#------------------------------------------------------------#
|      John Edwards    Email: John.Edwards at uk.com            |
|                                                            |
|     "Security vulnerabilities are here to stay."           |
|   Scott Culp, Manager, Microsoft Security Response Center  |
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