Re: [gentoo-user] Frontier ADSL modem and IP address

[Mick]

On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 12:42:26 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 11:04:57 GMT Mick wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 31 December 2019 10:24:48 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > I'm puzzled. Why should a DSL modem be tied to a particular ISP? The
> > > only
> > > thing I can think of is that one uses PPPoA and the other PPPoE. But the
> > > modem should sort that out for itself when it connects upstream.
> >
> > ISPs looked into reducing their operating costs providing support to an
> > ever increasing population of technically clueless users and in
> > conjunction with router OEMs came up with a remote router provisioning
> > scheme.  This allows firmware updates and remote control of the CPE
> > without the customer even knowing what is happening.
>
> I hadn't come across that before. I did wonder whether it was another
> example of control-freakery, but perhaps not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-069

In the UK I'm thinking of the 2Wire routers issued by BT to their business 
account users.  You could configure them for different ISPs, set them up in 
fully bridged mode, etc., but then you had to also poison the DNS addresses 
used for their provisioning servers to stop BT updating the firmware and 
crippling some of its functionality.

I can't recall the ritual you had to entertain when changing their settings 
from BT to another ISP, but it was not as simple as pressing the reset button.  
You had to navigate to some (hidden?) menu option and change settings from 
there.

-- 
Regards,
Mick