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DSL

ME Hate DSL?

Members of the ISP-DSL list discuss new configuration problems caused by Windows ME. Those with conspiracy theories vie with others who are dismissive of the whole issue.

On the ISP-DSL list in October, RK announced,

"Check this out: Yahoo! notes that DSL users who switched from Windows 98 to Windows ME have ended up with incompatible drivers that make their DSL modems useless. Is this a PPPoE issue, or something more complicated? I thought most DSL modems were black boxes with an Ethernet port coming off of them; I didn't think there were all that many USB DSL modems in use out there."

A number of respondents felt that a simple issue with compatibility certainly wouldn't be a surprise:

[DB offered] "I'm sure there are a variety of adapters, routers and little black boxes in circulation. But I think you can see where problems could arise. All it takes is an upgrade to Windows ME with an adapter installed for which there is no Windows ME-compatible driver."

[TM observed] "I have DSL with Sprint and they made me install iVasion's WinPoET on my '98 box during the install. Essentially, it's a software PPPoE adapter that lets my computer authenticate over my Ethernet (not USB) network card and my Ethernet (not USB) DSL modem. It creates an adapter for use with Dial-Up Networking, and looking at their documentation, it says that only Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0 are supported." DU suggested that this is just a side effect of using low-end residential DSL service:

"The PPPoE clients that many providers supply on their disks for residential ADSL does not work with Windows ME networking. It isn't the ADSL; it's the PPPoE encapsulation. PPPoE is not necessary to support ADSL, but it is popular for ISPs since it's essentially a 'dialup' connection over DSL, and allows them to support more customers on the aggregation routers since the routers are not constantly servicing idle or powered-off hosts. The solution? Use an ADSL provider that doesn't use PPPoE, but a real bridged connection."

But SM thought the whole thing was just a bit much:

"Oh, come on. This is the media grabbing at any story that might capture the eyes of their readers. Most DSL units are external and hook directly to a network card (NIC). The ones they are talking about are those that are USB, and those that are an actual DSL modem PCI card inside the user's computer. All these folks have to do is to download the appropriate driver from the DSL manufacturer's web site; it's just like any other hardware."

—End