TomatoUSB

Hi,

So, i'm completely out of my depth and need some help. I have a TP-Link 8816 modem, an ISP (Xilo) that uses PPPoA, and an Asus RT-N16 (no pppoa support).

If I flash the asus with Tomato, will I be able to get it to handle the PPpoA stuff, with the modem in bridge mode? With the default firmware there is no PPPoa and I have absolutely no idea how to get it to receive the WAN connection. If i plug my computer directly into the modem, everything is cool.

Have I just bought a pointless bit of kit if I need PPPoA?

I honestly have no idea how to get any of this to work, which is surprising for me, I thought it would be straight forward.

Please help! My girlfriend is getting extremely annoyed with having no internet :)

Won't work, there's no pppoa

You can't do PPPoA in an Ethernet router because the PPP endpoint has to be inside the device with the physical ATM connection. Are you sure the ISP doesn't also support PPPoE which can be 'full bridged' to an Ethernet router?

If you are stuck with PPPoA some modems offer a 'half-bridge mode', a few offer a PPPoA to PPPOE/TP conversion Draytek/Thomson Speedtouch for example.

You should get shared internet access by setting RT-N16 WAN port to dhcp, (most ADSL modems are really routers!), but port forwards/upnp won't work in this 'double nat mode' unless you can also set the modem to place the router in its DMZ.