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My Mac has enjoyed a wicked-fast Internet connection for nearly six months now. Recently, while comparing experiences with several new users who finally have DSL available in their neighborhoods, I have noticed a disturbing trend: functionally different DSL implementations among different ISPs. DSL is so new that some users are probably not familiar with the differences among various DSL Internet service providers. One of the more noxious practices, employed by an increasing number of ISPs, including the Apple-preferred
Earthlink, is the use of "PPP over Ethernet," using software such as MacPoET.
MacPoET's primary function seems to be to make life easy on the ISP, rather than benefit the user. It can ensure that a user connects a limited number (often only one) computer to a DSL line, by emulating a PPP connection via Ethernet over
DSL. Since DSL is already digital (PPP's native function is to convert analog to digital), and because DSL does not need authentication to "dial-up," MacPoET is an hindrance for the user. So why is it necessary?
MacPoET is used by some ISPs to manage what is attached to the end of a DSL connection. I do not think that ISPs should have any more say in what end users connect to their DSL line than the phone company does over the number of phones attached to a voice line.
Consider how DSL works for a moment, and who you are paying for each component of DSL service. There are two elements to a DSL line, the line itself (think of it as a pipe), which you buy from the phone company, and the data served to your computer (like water in the pipe). In other words, the phone company is selling you bandwidth (the diameter of the pipe) and the ISP is selling you a net address and a server connection (the water pressure). The water itself comes from the Internet as a whole.
Now, since only so much water can flow through that pipe, limited by the bandwidth, the ISP knows just how much water it needs to supply, and it doesn't matter if you have one faucet or ten, you can only get as much water down the pipe as will fit in the first place.
It is not a perfect analogy I have described. There are serious support issues as the number of machines connected to the network increase, and I can see
Earthlink, or any other ISP, crying foul if someone were to call for support and say something like, "I have four Macs, two Windows machines, and a coffee-maker hooked to my Brand-X Ethernet hub and my net connection does not work. Now what do I do?"
Help reverse this trend before it becomes too entrenched to stop. Select an ISP that serves plain DSL connections using standard protocols. Avoid unnecessary hacks that can spawn additional software conflicts. And refuse to bolt-on "dial-up" functionality atop what should be transparent, always-on DSL connections. As consumers we should not accept anything
less.
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"Not
All Mac DSL Connections Are Created Equal"
