Re: Bug#239952: kernel-source-2.6.4: qla2xxx contains non-freefirmware

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

Tollef Fog Heen wrote:

> * Nathanael Nerode
> 
> | (Incidentally, the more I hear about DSL, the more it sounds like it
> | sucks big time.  Cable modems just act like a nice black box which
> | you plug an Ethernet cable into, and don't require *any* drivers for
> | the OS, let alone firmware downloads from a host machine -- any
> | firmware downloads come from the cable company.  Why do DSL modems
> | work differently?...)
> 
> And I guess that cable modem also does NAT or something equivalent?
Um, if I want to do NAT, I put a box between the cable modem and the other
machines.

> The whole reason why I want said DSL card is so I can do stuff like
> bringing up IPv6 tunnels properly,
Yeah, I can do that.

> update DNS
Yeah, I can do that.

>and also have a real,
> non-broken packet filter.
Yeah, I can do that.

>  The provider-provided router doesn't
> provide any of this, and doing it through that would be painful, if at
> all possible.
The cable modem does not include much of a router, as far as I can tell; I
have a separate router at this end of the cable modem and I believe there
is another one at the cable company's end.  The only thing it routes is
traffic actually going over the coaxial cable lines, which I am almost
certainly not allowed to mess with anyway.

No, it's *really* just a cable modem, and it's really, genuinely, a black
box I don't have to worry about.  The Ethernet cable from it at the moment
goes into a router, which has cables going all over the house to various
machines.

I don't currently do NAT, but I know people who do, with the same setup;
they put the NAT box at the end of the cable from the cable modem, and the
router at the other end of the NAT box.  The NAT box is a purchased box or
(more often) a Linux machine with two appropriate-speed Ethernet cards.

There is no equivalent of the special "DSL card", because none is needed.  
Of course, I don't have to log on or give a password or anything (which is
probably the reason why some DSL providers can't offer the same service);
the cable modem service is literally always on, and any machine plugged
into the Ethernet cable is automatically connected.  Again, it sounds like
many DSL providers stink compared to my cable modem provider.  Sorry.  :-(

-- 
Make sure your vote will count.
http://www.verifiedvoting.org/