PfSense and aDSL

Guest

Im wondering about the following, and if its not "easily" done maybe with a bounty?

The standard setup:
www > adsl modem > pfsense > LAN.

What i would like to have:
www > pfsense > LAN.

The question is if its possible to make pfsense act as a modem in addition to router/firewall?

My dsl connection requires the following settings;

"MPoA (RFC1483/2684)"
"MPoA Mode" "Enable"
"1483 Bridged IP LLC"
"Obtain an IP Address Automatically"

So in theory its just a dhcp client :P
Give me a shout..

hoba

A DSL-Modem is some kind of mediaconverter (DSL->Ethernet). It's not that you just have to teach your networkcard something. You need a special piece of hardware for this to work. It's far more than just a DHCP.

JeGr

Now from my little knowledge from the past (geez, studying is that far away now) there might be (very) special circumstances in which you could say "all I need is DHCP", but these are rare and depend on the tech and how your country and provider does ADSL. I can remember differences between germany (PPPoE) and Austria (PPPoA) and special cases such as yours seems to be. But these are not the common scenarios and therefor would lead to confusion, wether pfSense can actually act as some kind of modem or not.

hoba

To be even more specific, PPPoE happens on 2 wires (usuall 4,5 of an RJ45) whereas ethernet happens on 4 wires (1,2,3,6). Besides that the complete way of transferring data is different. You can't make a PPPoE-Modem out of a standard NIC.

jahonix

Well, actually IPcop is able to serve installed DSL modems so you get one neat "doing it all" box.

I've done this about 2 years ago - and I was constantly looking for an IPcop replacement.
First I used m0n0wall, now i AM STUCK WITH (actually my caps lock is…) pfSense and loving it.

I don't want to see DSL modem support in pfSense.
External is quite fine and works with any combination of service (ADSL, ADSL2+, SDSL, VDSL, cable, SAT, ISDN, analog, you-name-it) as long as it has an ethernet port on it.
Once you start supporting one of the above you have to do so for all (in the long run at least).
The guys from the core team have better things to do with their time. Definetly!

jahonix

Gertjan

@jahonix:

Well, actually IPcop is able to serve installed DSL modems so you get one neat "doing it all" box.

A DSL PCI card modem device ?!! Why not, as long as it exposes on the PCI side a compatible Ethernet (chipset) interface. Even pfSense will handle that one then…

External is quite fine and works with any combination of service (ADSL, ADSL2+, SDSL, VDSL, cable, SAT, ISDN, analog, you-name-it) as long as it has an ethernet port on it.

Another service : in France I tend to say that they also serve as a seperate surge component… :D keeps the lightning out of my box.

hoba

Another service : in France I tend to say that they also serve as a seperate surge component… :D keeps the lightninig out of my box.

Good point, I actually have seen several DSL-connected devices (build in cards/modems) blow up by lightning too. ::)

jahonix

@Gertjan:

A DSL PCI card modem device ?!! Why not, as long as it exposes on the PCI side a compatible Ethernet interface.

Well, if I remember this one right, they were offering special drivers for some brand(s?) that had to match built numbers of the distribution etc.
I doubt they were serving an ethernet-like interface to the host machine.
And manufacturers were quite limited. Very limited at that time (I haven't looked since then).

jahonix