I have Earthlink DSL and my in-laws also have Earthlink DSL. We both have the same modem and both use Macs. We live about 30 minutes apart and are both serviced by the same phone company, Bell South, or whatever they are called this week. Our DSL is set up to connect via DHCP but hers connects via PPPoE. I set them both up, way back when and I suppose I just followed Earthlink's instructions at the time, but why would we connect via different protocols? BTW, she cannot connect using DHCP, I tried. I have not tried to see if I could set ours up to connect via PPPoE or not. We have always used DHCP since we got DSL.

The only other difference is that we have an Airport Extreme Base station for our wireless computers and we have one computer connected via Ethernet. She has just the one computer connected via Ethernet through the modem with no router.

If any of you network experts out there want to educate me about why the difference, I would be happy to learn.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2007 08:00PM by rgG.

It's because you have a router and she doesn't. Your Router is making a PPPoE connection to the DSL Modem, and you are making a DHCP connection to the router. She is making a PPPoE connection directly to the DSL Modem.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2007 08:06PM by GGD.

Wow, isn't it nice to get a fast, straightforward, easy to understand answer?! Even I understand the answer, although I'd never really thought about it.

It may have nothing to do with having a router. Some DSL providers use PPoE and others use DHCP. Earthlink has used both at different times and placaes. If you do have a router, that or the DSL modem can handle the PPoE login or establish the DHCP connection. You can connect to your router if you want and see if it is using PPoE or DHCP to handle the DSL or WAN connection.

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Thanks for the answers. If I wasn't afraid of messing up our good DSL connection I would try to connect the eMac directly to the modem and see if I had to connect via PPPoE, but since it ain't broke, I don't think I will try to fix it.

Thanks again, that does make it a bit clearer.

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Roswell, GA (Atlanta suburb)

Quote
JoeH
It may have nothing to do with having a router. Some DSL providers use PPoE and others use DHCP. Earthlink has used both at different times and placaes. If you do have a router, that or the DSL modem can handle the PPoE login or establish the DHCP connection. You can connect to your router if you want and see if it is using PPoE or DHCP to handle the DSL or WAN connection.

I'd be interested to know how an ISP would provide DHCP, an TCP/IP protocol, over POTS.

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It is what it is.

DSL is not POTS. Once the DSL modem connects with the DSLAM at the switch, how the network addresses are handed oout can be either PPoE or DHCP. The choice is up to the implementor.

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