user ppp and PPPoE bridging

[Nikos Vassiliadis]

On Tuesday 23 October 2007 21:04:48 freebsd at dreamchaser.org wrote:
> This is a zyxel 642r modem; I can't try my other modem, a cisco 678,
> because it doesn't support a vci > 63.

Oh cisco :) Be thankful to cisco for not creating
other proprietary protocols to replace the existing
ATM/DSL combination :)

>
> The modem is set to use VC-based multiplexing, vpi=0, vci=100
> These are the parameters used for PPPoE, and I presume are still
> required as part of the ATM layer when bridging.
>
> I am assuming there should be no need for my ISP to be notified that I
> am trying to use bridging in the modem, since it should be transparent
> on their end.  They claim not to support bridging, but I don't see how
> they can say that, other than that they don't want to deal with the
> support issues.  Is this a reasonable assumption?

My knowledge about ATM is minimal. So, I don't realy know how to answer
to your question about bridging being transparent to the ISP. But I can
tell you for sure that ISPs do not bother if you cannot connect using
FreeBSD and PPPoE. You are mainly on your own.

I assume that if you use the same settings your modem uses
to do PPPoE it won't make a difference to the ISP end.

You said you had wrong encapsulation type. Did you make any progress?

> The packets are clearly reaching the modem, as it records them as
> received. 

Can you also check the number of cells going out/coming in from the ATM
interface?

Nikos