Frequently asked questions regarding AmigaOS and DSL/cable services
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$VER: Amiga-DSL-FAQ.txt 1.17 (18.03.2000)
Copyright © 1999 by Holger Kruse
Q1: Can I connect my Amiga to a DSL or cable modem service ?
A1: Perhaps, that depends on the service. With the right software and
hardware it is OFTEN but not always possible to connect an Amiga to
a DSL/cable service. It depends on how the individual service works.
Q2: Can I connect my Amiga specifically to
A2: Unfortunately that kind of question is not easy to answer, because
names such as 'RoadRunner' do NOT represent a single technology. They
are just marketing names that companies use to advertise their DSL/cable
service. The actual technology being used for such a service often varies
with different markets (i.e. cities), in particular for large, national
providers such as Time Warner, Media One etc., so whether you can access
that service or not (and how to do it) may vary with your location.
In order to find out whether you can use a particular service in your area
with AmigaOS you should either find out if another Amiga user in your area
is already using that service, or ask the provider precisely about the
technical details of the service, and then use the following information
to figure out for yourself whether it will work.
Whether you can access a DSL/cable service with AmigaOS and what software
and hardware you need depends on the following four criteria:
1. What kind of hardware does the DSL/cable service use ?
2. What kind of protocol does the DSL/cable service use to carry
IP traffic to you ?
3. How are IP addresses assigned ?
4. Is authentication (username/password) required, and if so, how
does it work, i.e. what protocol is used ?
Here are the most commonly used variations:
1. What kind of hardware does the DSL/cable service use ?
a) "An external DSL/cable modem with an Ethernet connector. No
other hardware (analog modem etc.) is required. Ethernet
is used in both directions (upload/download)."
In that case you can use any Zorro-II or PCMCIA Ethernet
board (or a GG2-Bus-Plus board together with a supported
ISA Ethernet board) in your Amiga. Personally I would recommend
one of the newer boards, e.g. Ariadne-II, or a used A4066. Some
users have had problems with A2065 and Hydra boards in combination
with DSL/cable servers, at least with some versions of the
drivers. Also watch out that your Ethernet board supports the
type of connector your DSL/cable modem has (e.g. 10-Base-2
or 10-Base-T), and in the case of 10-Base-T check whether
the DSL/cable modem is designed to be connected to a hub or
a node (computer), because that may affect cabling. You basically
need the same kind of cabling you would need to connect a PC
to the DSL/cable modem, so your provider should be able to provide
you with proper cables. For more information on cabling see the
various Ethernet FAQs on the web.
For software you need a TCP/IP stack which supports
Ethernet drivers (AmiTCP, Genesis, Miami or Miami Deluxe),
and a driver for your Ethernet board, either a SANA-II
driver (works with any stack) or an MNI driver for
Miami or Miami Deluxe.
b) "Same as a), but the Ethernet connection is only used for
download, not for upload. A separate analog modem and a
phone line is needed for upload." You will never find that
kind of setup with DSL, but some cable providers use it,
e.g. Media One in the Deerfield Beach, FL area.
Same hardware criteria for your Amiga, except you also need
an analog modem (28.8 or 56k) connected to your phone line.
For software you need a TCP/IP stack which supports
multiple interfaces, i.e. AmiTCP, Genesis or Miami Deluxe.
Standard Miami will not work with this setup.
c) "Anything else, e.g. DSL/cable modems on ISA or PCI boards,
DSL/cable modems with ATMF-25 connectors etc."
Sorry, if your provider only supports that kind of hardware
then you cannot connect your Amiga directly to your
DSL/cable service. Instead you would need to connect a PC
and then somehow configure the PC to route traffic to your
Amiga, using a separate local network such as Ethernet.
2. What kind of protocol does the DSL/cable service use to carry
IP traffic to you ?
a) "The DSL/cable modem routes or bridges IP traffic directly to
the computer, without any additional protocol". This is still
the most common variation. You do not need any additional
software or hardware on your Amiga to support this.
b) "PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) is used to tunnel IP traffic
to you." This is a new protocol that has been adopted by
some providers recently, including Sympatico (Canada),
Deutsche Telekom (T-DSL in Germany) and Earthlink
(Earthlink Sprint DSL in USA). Some providers are switching
from bridging/routing to PPPoE because of easier maintenance.
PPPoE requires a TCP/IP protocol stack on your Amiga which
supports PPPoE. At the moment the only such stack is Miami
Deluxe.
c) "Microsoft VPN protocol" (PPTP) is used. The DSL/cable
modem forwards a PPTP connection to a PPP server at your
ISP. Several DSL modems support this. In order to configure
this kind of link you will also need to know the IP address
your DSL modem uses when it acts as a PPTP server ("VPN
Server Address" in Windows Dial-Up Networking). For Alcatel
DSL modems that address is usually 100.0.0.138, but for
other modems it may be different. Some modems use 1.1.1.1.
PPTP requires a TCP/IP protocol stack on your Amiga which
supports PPTP. At the moment the only such stack is Miami
Deluxe.
3. How are IP addresses assigned ?
If the protocol used to carry IP traffic (previous question)
is PPPoE or PPTP then IP addresses are always assigned through
PPP, automatically, and you do not need any additional hardware or
software. If your provider uses bridging/routing then there are
several variations how IP addresses can be assigned:
a) "Static". In that case just configure your TCP/IP stack for
static IP addresses. Works with all protocol stacks.
b) "Dynamic using DHCP". For this you need one of the protocol
stacks that support DHCP, i.e. Miami or Miami Deluxe.
AmiTCP and Genesis won't work.
c) "Dynamic using some proprietary protocol". You are on your
own. It might work with AmigaOS, but you would need to get
or write the software for that yourself.
d) "Multi-stage: pseudo-IP address (static or DHCP) first,
another IP address for external traffic later". This is
probably not used any more these days. Some providers in
Australia used to use that kind of protocol. You probably
will not be able to use this with AmigaOS.
4. Is authentication (username/password) required, and if so, how
does it work, i.e. what protocol is used ?
If the protocol used to carry IP traffic (question 2) is PPPoE
or PPTP then authentication is done automatically as part of PPP.
If your ISP uses Win-NT servers as PPP servers then you may also
need MiamiSSL and, with some Win-NT servers, Miami Deluxe for
MS-CHAP or MS-CHAPv2 to work.
If your provider uses bridging/routing, not PPPoE, then there
are several variations how authentication can work:
a) "No authentication": This is still the most common variation.
Works with all AmigaOS protocol stacks :-).
b) "DANA". This is a proprietary protocol by Hewlett Packard,
and is used by some providers in France and Scandinavia.
There is no official support for this in AmigaOS, but some
users successfully used a reverse-engineered DANA client
designed for Linux with AmigaOS.
c) "rrlogin". Used by RoadRunner in some areas. There are
actually two variations of this. One of them sends user
names and passwords without encryption. Linux sources are
available for this which could be ported to AmigaOS. The other
variation uses GSS-API for password encryption and cannot
be used with AmigaOS.
d) "Any other proprietary protocol": You are on your own. If
the protocol is documented and/or sources are available then
you may be able to write or port the required software
yourself.
Q3: I have several computers and want to connect more than just my
Amiga to my DSL/cable account. How can I do that ?
A3: It is possible to do that, but exactly what you need to do
varies with your specific DSL/cable account and your requirements.
First of all you need to decide whether you want full "real"
Internet access with each machine (i.e. a separate, fixed IP
address for each machine, with full Internet access, including
the ability to run Internet-accessible servers on each machine),
or whether some kind of "hack" (IP-NAT/IP-masquerading or SOCKS)
is sufficient for you. IP-NAT and SOCKS will allow you to use
most software and protocols (www, email, news etc.) on all machines,
but some video/audio streaming protocols, chat protocols, protocols
used by some games etc. are incompatible, so you may be limited in
the way you can use the Internet on most of the machines in your LAN.
a) If you decide you want real IP addresses then you should talk
to your ISP, who has to configure those IP addresses for your
DSL/cable account. Once they are configured you can simply connect
multiple computers to your cable modem (possibly using a hub if
you have 10-Base-T cabling), and configure each machine individually.
Not all providers allow you to use multiple real IP addresses. Some
may charge you extra, and some may have limits on the number of
IP addresses you can request. Also be aware that with that kind of
setup it is not always possible to protect your LAN with a firewall,
in particular if your provider uses bridging/routing and you want
to use Ethernet for your LAN.
b) Using "fake" IP addresses with IP-NAT or SOCKS is the cheaper
solution and does not require the cooperation of your ISP. One
of your Amigas has to act as a gateway (router) and run a TCP/IP
stack that supports the protocol you want to use: if you want to
use only SOCKS then you can use either Genesis or Miami Deluxe
on that machine. If you want to use both IP-NAT and SOCKS
(better compatibility, more software works) then you have to use
Miami Deluxe. Genesis won't work in that case.
c) Finally, there is a third solution that allows you to get "real"
IP addresses without the cooperation of your DSL/cable provider.
It involves routing a range of IP addresses (IP subnet) to your
LAN using a "PPP tunnel". In order to do this you need to know
someone with permanent Internet access who owns a large range
of IP addresses and is willing to "loan" and route some of them
to you through a tunnel. You will also need a TCP/IP stack that
supports PPP tunnelling (using L2TP or PPTP). At the moment the
only such stack is Miami Deluxe.
Q4: My DSL/cable modem is connected through Ethernet, and I also
want to use Ethernet to network my local machines. Can I use the
same physical network, with only one single Ethernet board in
each machine, or do I need two physically separate Ethernet
networks, with a dedicated "gateway/router machine" that has two
Ethernet boards in it ?
A4: This depends on precisely which protocols are used for your
DSL/cable modem setup.
a) If your DSL/cable modem setup uses PPPoE then a single Ethernet
network is sufficient, i.e. DSL/cable modem and LAN can be on the
same physical network.
b) Otherwise, if your DSL/cable modem provider has assigned
multiple IP addresses to you (variation (a) for Q3/A3 above)
then you MUST use a single Ethernet network, so the cable modem
can reach all machines on the network. That means you cannot use
a firewall to protect your LAN.
c) In all remaining cases (tunnelled IP subnet or use of IP-NAT or
SOCKS with bridging/routing or PPTP) it is VERY STRONGLY
RECOMMENDED that you use two separate Ethernet networks. If you
try to use a single network then the setup may appear to work
correctly (to some degree), but you can expect all sorts of
problems later, e.g. slower data transmissions, errors, possibly
complaints by your provider. You would also completely bypass any
security mechanisms you are using (firewalls etc.), leaving your
network wide open to attacks from the outside. If you are using
Windows filesharing or Samba then other users at your provider
may even be able to "see" your machines and access them through
"Network Neighborhood" or Samba, without your knowledge. Because
of that the use of separate Ethernets is urgently recommended with
this kind of setup. This is not a limitation of AmigaOS or any
software (Genesis/Miami Deluxe). It also applies if you use any
other computer as a gateway.
d) There is one special exception to the case c) above: if ALL
computers on your LAN are Amigas running AmigaOS (no PCs,
Windows, Linux-x86, Linux-68k or anything else) then it is
possible to use a single Ethernet network after all with Miami
Deluxe. You just need to configure it twice, with separate
"Hardware" entries in Miami Deluxe, and both "Hardware" entries
need different IP/Arp types. You need to use 2048/2054 in the
"Hardware" definition to access the cable/DSL modem, and
something else (e.g. 3048/3054) for ALL other definitions (i.e.
for the LAN definition on the router and the Ethernet definitions
on all other machines in the LAN).
Q5: My provider uses bridging/routing and DHCP. I have used my cable
modem with a PC in the past and it works fine. If I try to use it with
my Amiga then Miami or Miami Deluxe cannot configure IP addresses
(timeout or error from DHCP). Why does that happen ?
A5: Many cable modems remember the Ethernet hardware address of
the computer that last connected to them through DHCP, and afterwards
refuse to accept DHCP requests from other computers for an extended
period of time.
The solution is: power down the computer that you previously used
for DSL/cable access and DHCP. Then reset or power-cycle the DSL/cable
modem. After that your Amiga should be able to succeed with the
DHCP configuration. You may have to do this (powering down the
computer most recently used for DSL/cable access and then
power-cycling the modem) every time you switch between computers.
It is also possible that not just the DSL/cable modem, but the
router at your provider remembers the hardware address of your PC.
In that case you need to switch off your PC and DSL/cable modem
for a while (several hours at least, possibly a full day), and
then try to connect again, with your Amiga, while leaving your
PC powered down.
Q6: When I try to go online with my PPPoE- or L2TP/PPTP-based DSL
connection MiamiDx gets stuck at "Configuring PPP level NCP". Why
does this happen ?
A6: This indicates that your login name or password are incorrect.
Please check spelling and case, and ask your provider if the login
name and password used for DSL are in any way different from the login
name and password for normal PPP connections. Examples:
- Earthlink users may need to add "ELN/" in front of their login
name.
- Sympatico users may need to add "@sympatico.ca" at the end of
their login name.
- T-DSL (T-Online, Deutsche Telekom, DTAG) is supported by MiamiDx
0.9n and higher, in combination with miamipppoe.device 1.7 and
higher. T-DSL users need to use a login name in the following
format (without the quotation marks and angle brackets):
"Anschlusskennung is a 12-digit number. "T-Online-Nr" is a number
consisting of up to 12 digits. "Mitben.-Kennung" is usually "0001".
For example for an "Anschlusskennung" of "000123456789", a
"T-Online-Nr" of "321111111111" and the primary user
(Mitben.-Kennung "0001") the login name would be:
000123456789321111111111#0001@t-online.de
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