I'm trying to set up a MacBook as a PPPoE client.
The provider requests me to send vlan tagged pppoe packets,
so I have set up a vlan interface (vlan0) for the ethernet
device (eth0) and added a pppoe interface to the vlan device.
I have connected the dsl modem to the macs eth0.
When clicking "connect" the ppp daemon starts, but after a while it gives up
without a connection. The log says, it cant find a pppoe server.
9/12/08 2:23:02 PM macbook pppd[1860] pppd 2.4.2 (Apple version 314) started by root, uid 501
9/12/08 2:23:02 PM macbook pppd[1860] PPPoE connecting to service '' [access concentrator '']...
9/12/08 2:24:07 PM macbook pppd[1860] PPPoE connection failed, No route to host
If I attach the modem to a vlan capable router, the connection comes up instantly.
Does anyone know if Mac OS X is really able to tagg pppoe packets? Linux and Vista do.
Any comment is very appreciated, thank you.
various (MacPro, MacBook, Mac Mini, Cube...),
Mac OS X (10.5.4)
packets of ethertype PPPoE should go to vlan0. But tcpdumps didnt show any PPPoE packets
on that interface. Instead, all PPPoE communication is beeing sent to the standard ethernet interface en0.
Here is an excerpt of packet headers from the vlan0 dump:
tcpdump -nevv -XX -i vlan0 >tcpdump-vlan0.txt:
No ethertype of PPPoE in vlan, only DNS broadcasts...
I never come across your problem ever. The reason is I never use a computer a mac or pc as the PPPoE client, Why?
Because is not the most efficient way to maintain a broadband connection. The best way to do it is put router between the dsl modem and your computers.
better still get an ADSL router or DSL gateway. This is a box that is router with an integrated dsl modem.
The router has an embedded pppoe client and engages and maintains the connection independently from your mac. It also has other benefits such as a firewall, the ability to share your connection with multiple devices and is OS independant.
There is a router at my dsl port, that all in all does its job.
But there is one backdraw: The dsl line delivers up to 50 MBit/s ⚠
The router cant cope with that (the router processor is too slow
for the job), its a bottleneck delivering not more than 35 MBit/s.
Using a Mac as a PPPoE client and the VDSL modem would circumvent the bottleneck.
BTW: Linux and windoze work just as expected, and do connect using tagged pppoe packets.
Leopard does not, tiger does not... 😟
I´m experiencing exactly the same problem here, Leopard seems to be unable to send pppoe packets to pseudo-interfaces like vlans.
The only workaround i can think of is hooking up a vlan-capable switch between the mac and the vdsl modem. This way you should be able to tag the ppp packets correctly while maintaining the full bandwith. But then again, this means throwing additional money at this matter.
I guess otherwise we can only wait for OS updates
