Ben:
Thanks for a very informative reply -- I suspected something like this
was what makes EL work. As for the PAP/CHAP thing: I changed my setting
to CHAP last week, and it worked. I didn't notice any performance
differences, though. Shortly after I disconnected however, my (Linux)
hard drive decided to go bad. While my rational side is damn sure that
there was no connection between CHAP and bad HD, my irrational side does
not share the same view. Being descended from people who painted
themselves blue and danced in the woods, I'm pretty much a PAP kinda guy
for now.
Carroll
Ben wrote:
>
> I realize that this thread seemingly died out a bit ago, but my busy shedule has
>kept me from my reading regimign. Please forgive my tardiness on the thread.
>
>> snip
>
> Earthlink uses rented "POP numbers" from companies such as uu.net and alter.net so
>that they can provide service to the number of places that they do. While doing this
>allows them to be "The number one provider of the real internet" it also means that
>there is no mainline when it comes to connecting to them. If you have ever wondered
>why the ELN/ is required before your user name or had to connect with another
>ISP(Such as MSN) and entered your full e-mail address, rented POP numbers are the
>culprit. (If you're familiar with any of this then please skip the following ramble)
>Multiple providers rent the same number. That number directs the user to an
>authorization server which reads their provider and then sends them to the
>appropriate authorization server for that provider(As is my best understanding,
>anyway. If am wrong please correct me.) This is why you will get different results
>using various methods of connecting in different areas.
>> and clip...
