Recently, I had the opportunity to try out a few DSL routers. These were "real" routers, not DSL/Cable Modem routers that only do half the job. The wire from the DSL RJ-11 plugged directly into one side of these boxes and Ethernet plugged into the other. Some of the routers had four Ethernet ports, some had one. All of them provided a means of storing the DSL account information in the router and the router did the authentication with the ISP. Features and capabilities varied but all had two advantages over what ISP�s are providing for residential (meaning the CIO working from home!) customers: the eliminated the Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) software that is required on most residential connections and they provided much greater DSL availability.
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PPPoE software works — sort of. It takes RAM and adds yet another network protocol — meaning CPU overhead — to the workstation. The varieties of PPPoE software that I've worked with weren't very "persistent" about re-establishing the connection to the ISP if it went down. These routers were down-right stubborn: they would keep trying for hours if necessary, And while this was going on, the computer wasn't bothered with the overhead of attempting to establish a connection.
As anyone who has used PPPoE software knows, it's somewhat persnickety. It will sometimes stop working. If the DSL goes down for an extended period, the PPPoE software might not wake up. What is the result? Usually, the customer (maybe your CIO!) makes a trouble call to the ISP — or to your corporate help desk. The ISP spends about a half hour asking the CIO to check everything that might possibly have gone wrong. This also means the CIO is stuck wasting his time as well.
With a good router, the trouble-shooting is much simpler and it's usually easier to convince the ISP that there�s a problem on the line. There's a good likelihood that the customer won't even notice a line outage: the router just puts everything back in place as soon as the line comes back.
Of course, routers are more expensive than DSL bridges and software. They also require an Ethernet card in any computer that needs to get to the Internet. The higher cost of the router will be offset quickly by reduced problems and trouble calls. And Ethernet cards are a dime a dozen these days, are very reliable and usually quite easy to configure.
ISPs, are you listening? Wake up and smell the humus. Stop trying to separate the "residential" customer from the "business" customer by the quality of hardware they can obtain. Set a price for each (adjusting the price based on expected support costs) and let the customer choose.
About the author: Steve Antonoff performs performance testing for an independent testing company. He began his professional computing career in digital communications; moved into software development, programming in several languages; then provided LAN, networking, and workstation support. He has a six-node hybrid Windows/Linux network in his house, covering three floors. Steve can reached via email.
