> It seems that they have a device ( modem ) that has to be used to give > IP address by "dhcp" to all systems.
Most of the UK's ADSL network is PPPoA rather than the more common PPPoE you might see elsewhere in the world. You generally need an ADSL modem to present an Ethernet connection to your preferred firewall/router (pfSense one assumes :-) ) > And even if you want to give Static IPs ( routable on the Internet ) > assigned to you by BT on any of your servers you should first assign > the server an IP in the local range through dhcp and then get into the > BT device's web interface and assign the Static IP through that > interface to the appropriate server. The device provided by BT is usually a re-badged Thomson Speedtouch in one of its many guises. Essentially it's a router with an inbuilt ADSL modem and a cut-down web interface. The "assign an IP in the local range and assign the Static IP through that" is essentially the same as pfSense's 1:1 NAT capability by another name. > How do the British people use pfSense as the firewall while using BT > as their ISP? Simply use a PPPoA ADSL modem/router with NAT disabled. From your static IP range, give the modem one, pfSense another, and what you have left you can use on the servers. The phone line (RJ11) goes into the ADSL modem, the modem (RJ45) goes into your pfSense box. Personally, my inclination would be to not use BT as my ISP, but that's purely a personal opinion. Unfortunately over the last year or two the UK has seen a few large ISPs offering stupidly low prices without sufficient network investment to cover the bandwidth requirements. Generally, this means that around 4pm when the kids come home from school, speeds drop off and latency skyrockets. Most ADSL providers in the UK use the BT network to deliver the ADSL to the end user, but have much more control over things like traffic routing, IPs, etc. once it leaves the BT network and ATM layer, so you can safely use an ISP apart from BT without the end user having to use different equipment or get different lines put in. > I asked the sysadmin there and he said they just use the firewall on > the BT device (modem) and that the device cannot be done away with or > configured to allow us to define static IPs on the interface of our > Servers using the config files on the servers Operating System. > Is this true? No, absolutely not. You can use any PPPoA capable ADSL modem/router. If your ISP has assigned you a range of static IPs (e.g. a /29) I tend to put the ADSL modem on one of them, pfSense on another, leaving 4 IPs for distribution between servers as required. The ADSL modem/router doesn't need to be anything fancy - you aren't going to be using its firewall - it exists purely to convert to an Ethernet presentation. I use cheap £20 Dynamode R-ADSL-C04 units. They're Conexant-based, reliable, easy to configure and low-cost. > And what are the other ISPs other than BT in U.K especially in the Bolton > Area? (shameless plug) We are an ADSL provider to the whole of the UK through BT's wholesale network and can provide blocks of static IPs as required. I don't want to go into commercial stuff on this list, so please contact me off-list if you want to pursue this. (/shameless plug) Regards, Chris -- C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited For full contact details visit http://www.minotaur.it This email is made from 100% recycled electrons --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
