Most Internet service providers offer high-speed connections using various connection protocols. Some of them achieve this using the PPPoE, a fast and easy way to connect a lot of users to a single ISP, allowing them to scale it accordingly.
What is PPPoE and how can we explain it.
PPPoE is an acronym for Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet. PPPoE is a network protocol that was derived from another old protocol called PPP, i.e., Point-to-Point Protocol. PPPoE was created to manage how data is transmitted over Ethernet networks (wired networks). This allows us to share a single server connection between multiple clients using an Ethernet network. The result is that several customers can connect to the same ISP server (the Internet vendor) in parallel. Simplified, PPPoE is the modern version of old dial-up connections, which were very popular in the ’90s. PPPoE is also capable of providing essential networking options such as authentication, encryption and data compression.
Who created PPPoE
According to Wikipedia, PPPoE was developed by UUNET, Redback Networks (now Ericsson) and RouterWare (now Wind River Systems) in the 2000s and became popular a little later.
The Point-to-Point protocol was a network protocol that allows communication between two computers using a serial interface. This protocol was prevalent before the year 2000 when dial-up internet connections were widely used. Then, the most common way an ordinary user used PPP was to make a connection between his computer and a server from a telephone company via a modem and a telephone line. These were called dial-up connections and were a way to provide Internet access for ordinary users.
Over time, the internet has grown exponentially, and technology has kept pace. A few years later, dial-up connections were not enough and today, connecting to the Internet at a speed of 28 or 56 kbps is totally unacceptable. It is also worth mentioning that the old dial-up connections using the PPP protocol were able to connect a single personal computer to the ISP server. As more and more companies and families started to want to connect multiple computers simultaneously to the Internet, but also due to the rapid growth of the Internet and the demand for higher speeds, it was necessary to develop a new network protocol. This was the time when PPPoE was created.
Main characteristics:
1. PPPoE is mainly used by Internet distributors to provide connections to their subscribers.
2. PPPoE allows multiple clients to connect to a single server using the same network.
3. Going forward, PPPoE is a network protocol that offers other basic networking options such as authentication, encryption and data compression. Because of this, PPPoE is one of the preferred protocols ISPs use when dealing with Internet connections.
Well, because PPPoE supports authentication and encryption, it means that ISPs can set up and sell different Internet subscriptions. All you need to do to impose a speed or traffic limit is to give you a unique username and password to identify, to be able to count, and sometimes to filter internet traffic.
If your ISP is using PPPoE then you will have to connect using the following:
1. Connect using a unique username, password and by setting the protocol in the router page.
2. A modem-router that allows you to connect to your ISP network.