DSL is just a digital subscriber line. It uses a modem on ONE pair of wires
to the telephone office and a digital signal. The modem normally operates
in one of two ways, bridging between your LAN and the ISP's connection, or
routing.
What you need to know is that it connects to ethernet. Your gateway can be
one computer and masquerade everyone to the internet through it or it can be
the DSL modem connected to a hub (and every one of your computers plugged to
the hub will need a REAL internet number)
You also need to live within 2-3 miles of the nearest telephone substation
or it won't work at all, Even within that distance, the loop has to be
tested for attenuation and noise. Oddly enough, within that distance,
DSL/ADSL
"loop certifies" more often than ISDN service.
DSL/ADSL is usually sold by the telco as a service. You still need an ISP
who will connect you to the internet. MAXIMUM available speeds are
1Megabit/s Up and 7 Megabit/s Down. Usually the speeds sold are quite a lot
slower, The reason for speeds different in two directions? Most
subscribers DL far more than they upload. The "A" in ADSL is for
"Asymmetric".
DSL is young technology. It is usually low-priority for telco service, so
your line is likely to remain broken longer than if you were subscribing to
ISDN, if ever it breaks.
As far as setup. that is VERY dependent on your choice of ISP. Some support
only bridging mode, others support only routing. Some hardware will also do
only one or the other, and hardware usually has tro match on both ends. My
Cisco 675 will NOT work with what OTZ Telephone Cooperative has here even
though they are only one Beta connection at present, they are already
committee to equipment that does only routing mode. Even though the Cisco
will do both, they say it will not work with their equipment.
I haven't seen any RFCs on DSL, so I don't know if standards exists or if
it's a series of proprietary wars. After a cursory search of the web, looks
like it is a technology originally intended for video transmission, and I am
uncertain whether one or several standards for the signal modulation exist.
Anyway, from your software's point of view, DSL is an ethernet connection to
the internet )or to an intranet, depending on application( , and the setup
of the modem you do over the phone with your network support people (from
the ISP or the intranet you are connecting to).
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There's your primer |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hope it helps.
Civileme
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I am having a hell of a time to get a DSL tut that is understandable.
> Can someone please direct me to a good place to show how to set up DSL in
> Linux?
>
> thanks
> jerrud
--
Civileme Say: "Buy a HOBGOBLIN computer! No one promises to be faster or to
have more bells, whistles and lights than we do. Included at NO extra charge:
Sledge for reshaping case after shipping, spare Leds, 3 oz commercial grade
silicon for repairs to ICs (with easy-to-follow instructions) and our OWN OS!"
