DSL with PPPoE vs ADSL

[shabbs]

My first high speed connection was an RADSL one (Rate-adaptive DSL) from Bell back in '97. It was 2.2Mbps and at that time, that was ludicrously fast for home 'net connections. Ahhh... the good old days.

With all these DSL-types out there, it's no wonder the customer is getting confused. I guess it's easier for the provider to blanket everything as "DSL" and keep it simple.

[grog]

Originally Posted by I_Want_My_HDTV

I used PPPoE over dialup modem back in 1992 or so.

Since a lot of this thread is about (in)correct terminology I can't help but nitpick this one. I doubt you were using PPPoE in 1992 since the spec for PPPoE didn't come out until 1999.

You're thinking of plain old PPP which is Point-to-Point Protocol. PPPoE was extension of PPP to allow PPP over Ethernet (the oE part of PPPoE). Also, to be really precise, even PPP didn't exist until 1994. Back in 1992 you would have been using something like SLIP (Serial Line IP).

And I remember very well the days that Walter is referring to when Bell switched to PPPoE. I had the original 1 meg modem service and at first it just used regular ethernet and DHCP. Then they switched to PPPoE and the initial software support was horrible (buggy client, significant performance impact, constant dropped connections, etc.).

The main reason Bell (and others) went down the PPPoE path was it made it much easier to allow third party ISPs to provide DSL service. Bell would provide the DSL connectivity (they had to, they owned the phone lines) but then via PPPoE you could authenticate to an ISP other than Bell and have them provide your actual Internet service.

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

You caught me on that one. It was PPP over dialup of course, not PPPoE. It was SLIP before PPP as well. IIRC, there was another program before that which predated them both. I forgot about SLIP and the other program until you pointed out my error.

[shabbs]

Originally Posted by grog

Back in 1992 you would have been using something like SLIP (Serial Line IP).

Ahhh... that takes me back. Dialing into our school's RAS servers, logging into the Linux boxes, running SLiRP and firing up Mosaic. Good times.

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by I_Want_My_HDTV

You caught me on that one. It was PPP over dialup of course, not PPPoE. It was SLIP before PPP as well. IIRC, there was another program before that which predated them both.

I think that was VT100 emulation over a dialup connection to a BBS.

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

There was that too. :yuck:

I had login access to a Unix server so I could install my own client/server programs. It made for some interesting times. I could use UUCP and download/compile programs on the server and my local FreeBSD system. That beat out local BBS systems on all counts. There were a few programs around that predated SLIP for TCP/IP access.