There's a reason AT&T dynamic DSL is so cheap

So as I was shopping for DSL for my new apartment, I discovered that AT&T's 6Mbps dynamic IP package was only $35 a month. Kickass, sign me up! I should have known: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Not that their speed claims are bogus; I verified them myself. But the modem they sent me is the biggest pain in the ass I've ever seen.

As an IT person, I like to do complicated things with my home network. I have servers. I have a KVM and a UPS. Normal home users do not have these things. Therefore, normal home users do not care when their DSL modem's DHCP seems to be overriding their router's. But I do.

It's the weirdest thing. For the life of me, I cannot get my dd-wrt Linksys to receive a WAN address from that godforsaken modem. I've tried PPPoE on the modem. I've tried PPPoE on the router. I've tried internal IPs. I've tried external IPs. None of it works. Any computer will hook to the modem directly, but even when the router is in between the computer and the modem, the computers are getting DHCP addresses from the modem! Like, what?

So I've come up with a plan B, which you can see in the above link. I have an old Dell Precision of my dad's, which is underresourced to the point that using it as a full Kubuntu workstation, like I wanted to, doesn't look possible (256 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive...yeah). So I've decided to reinstall it with Xubuntu and use it as a router. After all, the modem will let it have an IP address and get to the Internets. All I need to do is install a second NIC in it, then configure routing, iptables, and DHCP/DNS appropriately (which could get ugly, but I've done it in Linux before, so there's hope). Then, I'll hook my router, which will now be serving the role of wireless access point and 10/100 switch, to the LAN port of the computer, and all will be well. I hope. I'll post progress reports as I go; this post mainly serves as a cautionary tale of AT&T jerk-offitude.