I recently requested a change for my home Internet access to static IP.
The provider (who only officially supports BillOS and Mac) made some
comment about "getting rid of PPPoE".  As near as I could get from the
(non-techie) person that I spoke to, it's just the BillOS PPPoE driver
that they have to change.  It's not clear why.  (They said something about
DHCP, but that's just configuration and using it or not should be
independant of PPPoE, yes?)

In "4 to 5 business days" (from yesterday) they should have my account
changed over.

Anyway, I'm wondering if I should expect any problems.  PPPoE already
negotiates name server, IP numbers, etc.  What happens if I run
dhcp-client after I have PPPoE up?  Or do the two not mix?  (They'll email
me my static IP numbers and I can retrieve them even if my home link
becomes inaccessible after they turn on static IP.  But it'd be nice to
know what to expect.)

FWIW, the ISP is Bell.  They contract DSL support out to Prodigy (yech, I
know).


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu