Airport Extreme Base Station - PPPoE router?

AlanD

Hi all...

I've just been doing a bit of research on my AEBS, trying to do some port mapping, etc. and I think i may have hit on something about the AEBS.

I am a Smart Telecom broadband customer. I have an Aolynk DR814 router and the AEBS is connected to it and is setup to create a wireless network and act as a bridge.

But on going through settings on my Aolynk, it looks like I get broadband using PPPoE. It also looks like the AEBS is a PPPoE router too.

So can I dump my Aolynk and plug the phone line in to the AEBS and get the thing set up as a router? Might I get a performance advantage?

I'd like to do this because doing things like port mapping makes a little bit more sense in Airport Utility than it does in the Aolynk software.

Your thoughts?

A

J-blk

I don't think that would work - whatever your ISP provides you with is typically a suitable modem for their network (be it DSL, cable or some other solution) and in many cases these days, also a router. The AEBS is only a router so I can't see it connecting to a WAN directly... So the Aolynk router also incorporates a DSL modem I assume and without that, you can't connect to Smart's network - unless you used another DSL modem/router (like the Linksys WAG54G). And the WAN port on the AEBS is RJ-45, for a LAN cable, not RJ-15 for a phone cable, so even though it looks very similar, it's not the correct connection for it (RJ-45 is slightly bigger).

AlanD

I think you are right in most cases, but I think AEBS can take DSL input. That is how Smart do their broadband. So for DSL and PPPoE internet, the AEBS is a router and a modem?

Or am I totally misunderstanding what the AEBS can do?

jmck87

J-blk is right...

The Base Station is not a modem...just a wireless router, you still need your ISP provided modem (or equivalant).

J-blk

Doesn't Smart's router/modem need an RJ-15 phone cable input though? So if nothing else, the connection would be a stumbling block: yes, the RJ-15 would actually fit into the RJ-45 port on the AEBS just fine, but that doesn't mean that would work, the pin connections are different. And there is the whole "no modem/no connection" issue which you can't really solve with the AEBS...

I'm actually happy that UPC only gave me a pretty bog standard cable modem with no capabilities whatsoever (it's not a router) so everything other than getting connected is handled by my AEBS. Does the one Smart gave you allow it to use it as a modem only? If you could disable any other modes/features, it would make things a bit more straightforward, though you'd still have to put up with having it in the loop...

Thumper Long

as above the aebs is only a router it apparently can do pppoe dialup but i have never found this to be reliable, where your dsl modem is used in bridge mode.

AlanD

I've read a few reports of folks doing PPPoE with their AEBS and they found it to be not so reliable.

Anyway, thanks for that!

Type 17

I'm also a Smart customer and used to use a DR-814 in bridged mode with an AEBS doing the PPPoE and it worked ok.

I actually bridged it and used the AEBS for PPPoE because the DR-814 was running out of memory and crashing when a lot of ports were open. I'm using a different Smart-supplied modem now.

As mentioned, you do need a (bridged) modem to use the AEBS for PPPoE - it isn't practical for Apple to put a modem into any of the Airport units as there are so many possible modem types required in different markets around the world (ADSL, ADSL2+, other DSL, cable, dial-up 56k, dial-up ISDN, etc, etc...)