[ale] Cablemodem problems (Charter); DSL maybe

[Ken Cochran]

>Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:19:31 -0400
>From: Brian Pitts <brian at polibyte.com>
>To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
>Subject: Re: [ale] Cablemodem problems (Charter); DSL maybe
>
>Ken Cochran wrote:
>  nastiness just to have Internet access that works at all. :-(
>>
>> b.  NAT issues
>>     I see the little Westell modems from Bellsouth at customers'
>>     homes & notice the following:
>>     -  The modem itself handles the PPPoE/PPPoA stuff nowadays,
>>        so no need for that on the client computer.
>>     -  The client computer gets a gets an RFC1918 private
>>        address, 192.168.100.x iirc.
>>
>>     My own internal private network is also RFC1918 & 192.168.x.y.
>>     If I change to DSL with its required PPPo{EA}, it appears
>>     that I'll become "double-NAT"ed; is this a problem?  If so,
>>     how do I deal with it?
>
>Solution 1 is turn off your existing network equipment or modify it to
>disable NAT functionality. Solution 2 is put the Westell in bridged
>mode. There should be old ALE threads about this.
>
>http://fastaccess.drivers.bellsouth.net/documents/Westell_Guide.pdf
>
>-Brian

Don't know how feasible Solution 1 is; my "main machine" is also
the NAT/firewall (multiport NIC, FreeBSD, etc.).  Looks like to
turn off NAT would mean exposing all internal machines directly
to the Westell, thereby negating any of "my" firewall.

I was thinking about bridged mode but I'm leery of my own
machine(s) handling PPPo{AE}.  It really looks like I'm between a
rock & a hard place.  Cablemodem has been fine when it works but
I think I'm getting pretty much nothing but BS from Charter.

-kc