[clug] [forsale] purchasing DSL modem/router: who can supply?

[Neil Pickford]

Sounds like something I did recently.

I was originally looking for a ADSL Modem/PCI card and found that very 
few are now available, and those that are available do not perform 
reliably all day every day. (they lock up)

At the end of my quest I ended up with a Web Excel 4 port ADSL Modem 
Router ($109 locally from AB&T Systems) which does everything from 
acting as a full bridge PPPoE modem thru to the NAT/Router modes.
You only use one ethernet port but I have found it very reliable.

I am told that since it uses the same conexant chip and topology as the 
Netcomm NB1300 you can use the Netcomm firmware upgrades if you ever 
need to in the future.

The underlying product seems to be a puretek PT-3812
see http://www.puretek.com.tw/product/adsl%20modem/adsl%20modem.htm

A very interesting (read attractive) mode it does have is (Transparent) 
Half-Bridge mode where the modem handles the PPPoE/A connection and 
exports the assigned ADSL ethernet address & data to the ethernet 
interface so that the machine on the otherend of the ethernet cable 
thinks it is directly connected to the ADSL/ISP provider.  This works 
fine using a WinXP machine, however I stuffed around with Linux and this 
Half-Bridge mode for about a week before falling back to using Full 
Bridge mode and Roaring Penguin PPPoE for the Linux Box.

Has anyone managed to get Half-Bridge mode working with Linux?

Neil Pickford

Alex Satrapa wrote:
> On 13 Dec 2004, at 16:23, Drew Parsons wrote:
> 
>> I'm looking to buy a DSL modem and a Wireless router separately.
> 
> 
> On a similar bent, does anyone know if/where I can buy an Ethernet ADSL 
> modem? I don't want a m/router (which is what Drew is after), I just 
> want a modem - it needs to be Ethernet because all the routers I have 
> access to support PPPoE and not USB/PPPoA.
> 
> Regards
> Alex
>