The aDSL from SNET went in today. After a frustrating day, it's up, but will take a bit of playing to finalize.
SNET uses a software PPP adapter implementation that does not get along at all with ICS, but does work with WinGate 3.05. They lied through their teeth about the connection, though - it will actually install on Win2K, but you have to be tricky about it to get it to work; do the install of the soft PPP under Win98, give yourself a fixed IP address, then upgrade to Win2K and install WinGate Standard or Pro, and have the rest of your network look to the fixed IP address your upgraded Win2K box uses for DHCP. I'll be redoing the hard drive, so in all probability, the esolserv web site will go up over the weekend.
The cost is very reasonable - $79/month for single static IP, 128K up/1.5Mbps down, an account on snet.net, the install, NIC and ADSL modem are free if ordered before 30 April of this year in the (203) area code. There are three areas based on your distance from your CO for coverage; if you lie in one of their "green" areas (soemwhat less than a mile of copper between you and the CO) you can get faster connects (384K/6Mbps is about $40/month more), the "yellow" areas (out to about 3 miles - 17,500', and I'm right at the edge of the range) is limited to 128K/1.5M. If you don't need a static IP address, they have basic ADSL in (203) for $39/month. And you still have the phone line for voice or fax as well.
The IP tricks and soft adapter are an annoyance; you need a NAT; WinGate is a no-brainer. The minute you stray away from Win9x or MacOS, the tech support at SNET doesn't want to talk to you, but
Tim Higgins Internet Share site had good basic directions, and if you follow the base guidelines there for setting up your home or small business LAN for a cable modem sharing system, and use WinGate for your proxy, it's easy and smooth. Figure on adding memory to the machine you want to use as a proxy; for a basic Win2K server proxied with WinGate and running IIS 5, I'm running on a base of 320MB RAM rather than the original 256MB I'd planned to use since I had 64MB I could throw in the system IAC. Do not overallocate swap space; I learned this very quickly. Use two NICs rather than throwing the connector from the ADSL modem on an empty port on a hub. Do not use two 3COM 3C905B NICs - I ended up with a 3C905B for the LAN and a NetGear FA310TX for the cable modem connection. Win98 or Win2K is strongly advisable; if you have two NICs, video, and sound, you're forced to share IRQs IAC; in my case, there's dual channel SCSI on the motherboard to add to the complications. I switched out an ATI All In Wonder card with a TV tuner section on it for an older Matrox G200 video card with fewer features and rock-stable drivers.
It's nice being able to download at reasonable speeds now, and the pricing for the ADSL with static IP is very good for this area; I was being quoted upwards of $800/month for commercial account cable or BRI with static IP by the other local thieves. And I still have my dial-out on Earthlink as a backup.
