RASPPPOE

PPP over Ethernet Protocol

for Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/2002

by

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NEWS

RASPPPOE Version 0.96 has been released and offers the following improvements over RASPPPOE Version 0.95:

• Intel Itanium 64-bit CPU support. This version of RASPPPOE is also available as a separate 64-bit release for Intel Itanium machines. NOTE: This release has never been tested due to lack of a test machine, so I don't know if this even works... =8^)
• 3Com proprietary PPPoE support. Users with 3Com modems can download this patch to make RASPPPOE compatible with 3Com's proprietary PPP over Ethernet flavor.
• Improved compatibility with service providers who are not fully RFC 2516 compliant. RASPPPOE now no longer insists on the first offered Service Name matching the requested name if no specific name has been requested. Users who had to put their service provider's name into the phone number field of their dial-up connection to be able to connect will no longer have to do so.
• Improved connection stability to prevent unwanted disconnects. The watchdog timer that guards over established connections will now send up to three LCP Echo-Requests before determining that the connection has been lost. Connection loss will now be detected within 40 to 50 seconds.
• A small fix in the packet receive handler to ensure all packets are properly returned to the network card driver.

License and Disclaimer

This driver, installation files and documentation is all Copyright (C) by Robert Schlabbach. All rights reserved. It is distributed without any warranty. Use at your own risk. You may use and copy it complete and unmodified free of charge for non-commercial purposes only. Commercial exploitation, redistribution for commercial purposes, especially redistribution by Internet service providers as "their" service to their customers, is strictly prohibited. Internet service providers must purchase a license for distribution to their customers. The licensed version additionally features an installer, which typically requires no reboot and leads the user to the first login for an "instant success" customer experience. For licensing details please contact .

Compatibility

This PPP over Ethernet implementation has been reported to work successfully with the following Service Providers and Services:

Note 1: Bell Canada's routers reportedly have a problem with RASPPPOE's default MTU of 1492, which typically manifests itself in the inability to send larger e-mails. To work around this problem, use the protocol's Override Maximum Transfer Unit option (see the README for details) to override the MTU to 1454.

Note 2: To connect to the T-Online service, concatenate your Anschlusskennung, T-Online-Nummer and Mitbenutzernummer (typically 0001) and append @t-online.de (case-sensitive!) as the user name. To integrate RASPPPOE into the T-Online 3.0 Software, install RASPPPOE and then, in the T-Online software, configure the Zugangsart and select Zugang über ein Modem oder ISDN... and ...innerhalb Deutschlands. You will then be presented with a list of modems, in which your network adapter(s) will appear. Select the network adapter your DSL modem is connected to and RASPPPOE will be fully integrated into the T-Online software.

Note 3: Mindspring's servers reportedly have a problem detecting when a connection is ended without proper termination. This is an issue when configuring an "always on" connection in Windows 2000/XP/2002 and shutting the machine down or rebooting - after three reboots, you may find yourself unable to log on to their service for up to an hour. To work around this problem, always disconnect your "always on" connection manually before rebooting or shutting down Windows 2000/XP/2002.

If you are successfully using this protocol with a Service Provider and/or Service not listed above, please drop me an so I can add it to the list.

FAQ 1. What is this? Do I need it?

This is a PPP over Ethernet (short: PPPoE) implementation for Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/2002. PPPoE as a method for establishing PPP connections through Ethernet adapters is described in RFC 2516 and is used by many broadband service providers to allow authentication and maintain the familiar "dial-up experience" when connecting to the Internet through a broadband modem. Note, however, that not all broadband service providers use PPPoE. If you know you need PPPoE to connect to your service provider and you happen to be using one of the supported operating systems, this implementation could be of interest to you.

FAQ 2. What is so special about this implementation of PPP over Ethernet?

Although there are several other PPPoE implementations for Windows, this one still has its unmatched strong points:

• Designed exclusively for Windows 2000 from ground up and then ported to Windows 98/98SE/ME, not the other way around.
• Seamless integration into the operating system. This protocol makes Ethernet Adapters appear as "modems", allowing PPPoE to be easily used within the standard Dial-Up Networking framework.
• Compatibility: This protocol supports Internet Connection Sharing (including on-demand dialing), power management (Standby and Hibernate) as well as multiprocessor systems.
• Completeness: This protocol can not only act as a PPPoE Host (client), but also as an Access Concentrator (server), fully implementing RFC 2516.
• Compactness: The complete protocol is less than 200 KB. Yet no concessions were made in the implementation.

If this convinced you to try RASPPPOE, see Download and Install.

FAQ 3. Will it work on a dual CPU machine?

I do not have access to any dual CPU machine myself, but a number of users with dual CPU machines have reported that RASPPPOE is working flawlessly on their machines.

FAQ 4. What about Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 support?

Neither of these operating systems is currently supported. A future version of this protocol may extend support to one of these operating systems or both, with Windows NT 4.0 standing slightly better chances than Windows 95 due to higher demand. Still, the "safest bet" is to upgrade to one of the operating systems supported by the current version of this protocol.

FAQ 5. Does this protocol support internal or USB DSL modems?

Basically yes, but you require a driver for your modem that exposes the Ethernet medium type (NdisMedium802_3) in addition to this protocol. This medium type is sometimes referred to as RFC 1483 encapsulation or RFC 2684 encapsulation. You may also have to find out the VCI and VPI parameters your service provider uses. To check if you can communicate with your service provider, run RASPPPOE.EXE after installing the protocol and click the Query Available Services button. If you get at least one service offer listed, your setup is working.

Download and Install

32-bit release for x86 machines

1. Download the PPP over Ethernet Protocol, Version 0.96: RASPPPOE_096.ZIP (94,310 bytes)
2. Unzip the downloaded archive to a temporary directory and read the documentation (README98.HTM if you are using Windows 98/98SE/ME or README2K.HTM if you are using Windows 2000/XP/2002) thoroughly for installation instructions.
3. You can also preview the documentation online for Windows 98/98SE/ME users here and for Windows 2000/XP/2002 users here.

64-bit release for Intel Itanium machines

1. Download the PPP over Ethernet Protocol, Version 0.96, IA64 release: RASPPPOE_096_IA64.ZIP (117,937 bytes)
2. Unzip the downloaded archive to a temporary directory and read the documentation README2K.HTM thoroughly for installation instructions.
3. You can also preview the documentation online here.
4. If anyone actually has an Intel Itanium machine and tries this out, please .
5. Note that unless you have a brand-new machine with an Intel Itanium 64-bit CPU, this version is quite unlikely to do you any good.

Patch for 3Com modem users (only for the 32-bit release)

The modem manufacturer 3Com has "invented" their own flavor of PPP over Ethernet, simply by replacing the ETHER_TYPE values described in RFC 2516 (0x8863/0x8864) with their own ones (0x3C12/0x3C13). While I do not endorse such "innovation" and call upon 3Com to offer an RFC 2516 compliant firmware upgrade for their products to their customers, I still want to help customers suffering from this. After downloading above file, download the 3Com Patch: RASPPPOE_096_3COM.ZIP (17,452 bytes) and replace the file RMSPPPOE.SYS from the original download with the one in this archive prior to installing. Note that with this version you will only be able to connect to 3Com modems, not to any RFC 2516 compliant servers anymore. Revert to the original RMSPPPOE.SYS to be able to connect to RFC 2516 compliant servers again.

I hope this piece of software is useful to you.

- Robert Schlabbach

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