WAN characteristics.
What is PPP and PPPoE.
Ah, the 1980s.
It was a time of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Nintendo,
and ALF.
And it was also a time of the planet's most popular protocol,
PPP.
Actually, it stood for the point-to-point protocol,
and it filled in a gap.
See, this was a time when we were figuring out which
protocol would rule the world.
There was things like IPX/SPX, and that was the Novell world.
AppleTalk, and it goes without saying who created that one.
DECnet.
Oh, and there was that other small guy, TCP/IP.
And this list went on and on and on of all
the different competitors that we're
trying to dominate the communication and network
environments.
But there was a problem.
We needed all of these different protocols
to work over different types of connections.
And back then, that meant that we
would have to adapt to those protocols
to be able to communicate through those different styles.
So for example, we would have serial connections,
ethernet connections, modem connections,
and so on and so forth.
So we would have had to have an IPX/SPX for serial, and IPX/SPX
for ethernet, or TCP/IP that works just with modems,
and a TCP/IP--
it would be crazy.
So they came up with this middle ground protocol known as PPP.
Its main purpose was multi-protocol encapsulation.
It was the one designed to work with modems and with serial,
and even with ethernet.
And it it would be the one that all of these would adapt to.
Think of it like a big Lego piece,
like those big Duplo blocks that your kids used to play with.
You've got the standard connectors,
and they would design TCP/IP to click right in there.
There's its connector, and that big Duplo Lego piece was PPP.
So people would design these protocols to work with PPP
and snap right on there.
And it was a novel thing back in those days
to have them all work over one seamless network.
The other beautiful thing is that PPP,
which stands for the point-to-point protocol,
I think I said that already, was an industry standard.
There was no vendor that created it.
So I could have a Cisco router over here,
and IBM router over here, and we're talking the '80s,
and they'd still be able to communicate using PPP.
PPP also came loaded with a whole bunch of other features.
The main one that you would want to know is authentication.
I still remember the old movie Hackers
with Robert Redford, where they would
be outside unwiring T1 connections
and tapping into them.
And so authentication ensured that those kind of things
couldn't happen.
Other features were like multilink.
If you had multiple connections, it
could bundle them into a single link.
Callback, remember, this is the age
of modems to where you could dial in from your house
and the system would automatically call you back.
It's an added layer of security, because it would call you back
at a predefined number based on your user credentials.
Or you might just want to consolidate long distance,
because that was a big deal back then,
by having the corporate router make that call.
The thing is, we don't live in a world
of point-to-point connections anymore.
Oh, yeah, they're still out there.
Lots of them.
But we're moving into a cloud style
where everything's connected to everything.
Now you're seeing this picture come up, going, what on earth?
So my kids like to color, and they're like,
Daddy come color with us.
And it all started where I was just like, well,
I'm just going to draw a computer.
This is Daddy and my little tower down here.
And then they're just going on, and I'm like, OK.
Well, that computer-- I'm running out of stuff,
so I drew a picture of me.
And so, yeah, I tried to draw, like,
the little sweatshirts where you stick
your hands in the sweatshirt.
It didn't turn out that way.
So just ignore Daddy right there.
He's out.
So router, switch.
And all of a sudden, you go, OK, well, there's
the internet connection that comes in.
So I'm drawing this line that goes out.
And I'm like, OK, well, that goes to the central office.
My kids, they're not even paying attention,
although I'm thinking, man, this will
be great to explain to them.
And the central office has this local loop
that goes around the whole neighborhood,
and all the houses tap into that one shared connection that's
coming in so.
So the question is, without getting too deep into service
provider networks and all that kind of stuff--
although I'd love to, you guys would love it.
You might say, well, if this is all going through--
and let's just say this is phone lines, which
is what DSL connections use, how do you make sure
that these people right here, who are using their computer,
don't just come in and click on a DSL modem connection,
and be able to get on and use the internet,
even though they're not paying for internet?
Only that house down there is paying for it.
But that same cable's feeding everything.
So the DSL providers we're looking at this
and going, well, how do we make sure
that only the right people get on?
And so they pulled out the old dinosaur, PPP, and said,
let's make it work over ethernet.
And PPPoE was born.
They weren't really concerned with all
the multi-protocol stuff, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk.
Those have all died and gone the way of the dinosaur.
But they were interested in the authentication capability
of PPP.
So that's what they did.
They said, we're going to encapsulate everything
that runs over that DSL network, just like all
the protocols of old did.
But we're just going to use that so these guys have
to authenticate.
That way, somebody can't just grab a modem and plug it in.
They have to plug in that modem, and then
fill in what is your PPPoE username and password.
Only then, when they authenticate correctly,
will the connection will come up.
And that is the idea of PPP and PPPoE.
I hope this has been informative for you,
and I'd like to thank you for viewing.