PPPoE Resources
PPPoE -- Point (to) Point Protocol over Ethernet

 
Carrick Solutions: PPPoE FAQ's
http://www.carricksolutions.com/pppoe.php    [New Window]

They provide answers for Bell Sympatico, and general High Speed Internet information. They also provide some excellent Broadband & PPPoE Support Forums.

    If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) included a CD, to setup your system for using their service-- the way that they want your computer configured-- then I strongly recommend that you do not install this provided software. Several years ago, I received a "rude reminder" of this, when I used the included CD to install the Bell Sympatico Access Manager. And that just went ahead with installing old system files into Windows 98, so I immediately had to re-install Outlook 98, to get my e-mail program to run again.

    What I should have done, was install only the needed driver(s) and/or application(s) to get the Internet service running on a standard Windows setup. (Or the standard setup for the Operating system of your choice.) So while that is what I was attempting to do, the correct way to accomplish this would be to obtain and use the most recent version of the appropriate driver software from the Internet. (In most situations, the current version of just Sympatico Access Manager does work well.)

    Further, for versions of Windows prior to XP, RASPPPoE (listed below) is the best way to use PPPoE with a Windows computer. As that package configures PPPoE to work as a dial-up networking connection; which is a far more versatile and compatible way of doing things, than proprietary applications like Access Manager.

 
RASPPPoE -- PPPoE as dial-up networking
http://www.raspppoe.com/    [New Window]

Windows XP already has a driver like this. (Note: The XP/.Net PPPoE driver uses a default MTU of 1480.)

 
Changing the Windows XP PPPoE MTU Size
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=283165    [New Window]

Warning: This requires editing the registry! The alternative is to install and use the RASPPPoE driver.

 
KeepRAS  27K
http://www.allensmith.net/~file/keepras.zip

This can be used to help maintain a working RASPPPoE connection. See the readme.html file included the .zip archive for instructions on how to configure and use this program.