On Thu, 25 May 2000, Jon Bloom wrote:
> > I should qualify that statement. Most DSL connections won't require
> > authentication. Pacific Bell here in California might be requiring
> > authentication for their cheapest DSL connection. I don't have all the
>
> Some DSL providers (including the one I'm connected via) use PPToE,
> and require login, instead of DHCP. I can conceive of DHCP systems
> that require login, although I don't know of any off-hand. (For
> example, imagine a system where DHCP supplies your IP address but you
> have to log into the gateway machine before it will route that address
> to the Internet.)
Yup, many ADSL providers (including the largest local one here) now run
Cisco's SSG (Service Selection Gateway) which allows you to select which
ISP you connect to. You get either static or dynamic (DHCP) private (10.x,
192.168.x) addresses first, then you fire up a web browser, and log in on
the SSG's web server using your ISP's account. Then you get routed through
an ATM PVC to the ISP, which does NAT to the ISP's public address pool. If
this is your scenario, and SSG is the thing they run, I (and probably at
least a few hundred others 8-) have written a perl script to log in to the
SSG.
(This might sound sucky, but the SSG and NAT timeouts here are not too
bad, over 24H anyway, so there's no need to login every time you fire up
the browser. And you get to choose the ISP => competition => cheaper
prices, hopefully.)
- Hessu
