PPP Over Ethernet (PPPoE)

Many xDSL users must set up nonpersistent PPP-based connections over an Ethernet interface; this is the case, for instance, when an ADSL modem connected to the FreeBSD machine via Ethernet does the dialing. PPPoE can be used in FreeBSD with only a few minor additions to the user PPP configuration file.

Create a new /etc/ppp/ppp.conf file as shown in Listing 24.1, replacing fxp0 with the name of your Ethernet device connected to the xDSL modem (if necessary), myisp with a keyword identifying your ISP, remoteaddr with the remote dial-up server's contact IP address and yourname and yourpassword with your username and password used for logging in via PPP.

Listing 24.1. A Sample PPPoE Configuration File

default:  set device PPPoE:fxp0:myisp  set speed sync  set mru 1492  set mtu 1492  set ctsrts off  enable lqr  add default remoteaddr  set timeout 0  set redial 0 0  # Network Address Translation (NAT)  nat enable yes  nat log yes  nat same_ports yes  nat unregistered_only yes  enable dns myisp:  set authname yourname  set authkey yourpassword

When you want to connect to the Internet, you can run ppp without arguments from the command line, and then enter dial myisp at the interactive prompt. You should then see output indicating a successful connection, after which you should be able to access the network.