PPPoE stands for Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet. It is an OSI Layer Two protocol which uses the PPP (Point to Point) protocol to connect a client system to a server system in a one to one network link. All traffic for a PPPoE connected client must go thru the PPPoE server to reach the client. A PPPoE server can therefore be used to route, NAT, firewall, and perform QOS traffic shaping. Since the newer versions of the PPP daemon support RADIUS attributes client authentication and configuration can be done remotely at the RADIUS server. Linux is an excellent, high performance operating system which can easily support a large number of PPPoE clients upon modest hardware platforms.

This document will probably be of interest to Internet Service Providers, Information Technologists, and other Network Managers.

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