Speeding along on the internet again
Well, as you can see from Rob's post we are back up again thanks to a connection on some better copper between us and the CO in addition to the demise of the old POTs splitter. SBC made it all right in the long run, as always, and we had good ADSL connectivity by 7:00 pm or so yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasted the rest of the evening trying to get the SBC install CD to actually install on one of several computers so it could set up the PPOE and step me through the registration process. No luck there (I won't bore you with the tech support non-answers), but I found and installed what software I needed to get the damned PPOE working and also found what I needed to do to connect to register from the Mac instructions. Apparently Mac users are not forced to let some install program do everything for them with no written explanation of what's going on. I eventually connected to the registration server where I got to read the terms of service agreement. Big "oops" here since I had failed to realize that I would only be allowed one IP address. All my fault because I didn't ask questions, but I was driven purely by desperation to get a DSL connection that I could afford and quite frankly, this was the only option that fit the budget. The TOS did support what the salesperson had told me which was that I could connect multiple computers, but I discovered I had to provide my own router for this since the modem is just a simple bridge with no firewall. Ah well, I decided to accept the TOS and figure something out after a bit of sleep.

Today I spent a lot of time exploring options. I prefer OpenBSD as a firewall/NAT anyway, but I've never set one up for PPOE and without the source on CD that wasn't going to be a quick fix since it would probably take a day or more to download it over dial-up (if someone knows how to setup OpenBSD off a boot floppy and use PPOE so you can ftp the source for the install, please let me know for future reference.) I could scrape up the money and order an OpenBSD CD, but that's not a quick fix either. Damn it, I finally have DSL again and I want to use it. NOW, not another week from now and I don't want to coordinate access with my husband or decide which computer gets the single connection. *stamps her feet and throws a mini temper tantrum*

Okay, on to other options. I could turn my W2K server into a router, but I refuse to put a Windows server on the internet without a firewall, no matter how hardened and patched. The various software NAT/firewall options for W2K server are a bit expensive and even the cheap $50 D-Link router from Office Depot seemed a stretch given our budget. I could always sell the (rather expensive when new) Netopia SDSL router on e-Bay or something, but that's definitely not a quick fix. Decisions, decisions.

After all was said and done, I decided to raid the bank account and buy the D-Link router. Call me weak, call me an internet junky, call me a fool and I'll probably regret this at the end of next week when we are down to rice, beans and Ramen noodles (thanks to Nicole for the Ramen reminder.) Then again, I can have Ann's Cheese Ramen soup while I enjoy the Launchcast Plus that came free with this SBC account. And I happen to really like my Cheese Ramen soup :)