[Techtalk] ISP (and using ADSL with static IP)

[Jacqueline McNally]

My telecommunications provider is discontinuing their services on 30th May 
and I hope to use this as an opportunity to move from a 56Kb dial-up to 
ADSL. I am based in Perth, Western Australia and I am researching mostly by 
bouncing from:
http://whirlpool.net.au/ and http://www.broadbandchoice.com.au/

I am currently looking at 
http://www.westnet.com.au/products/access/broadband/adsl/
for:
3gb peak/5gb offpeak (512k/128k)
contract and no contract available installation pricing
free waix traffic
free upload
static IP
service provider recognises Linux (minimum) - found mention in the FAQ
service provider supports Linux (preferred)

I have done a lot of research because heaps of this is new to me. I have 
downloaded the manuals for the D-Link and the Alcatel ethernet modems. The 
D-Link manuals did not make me feel very comfortable about installing this 
myself, whereas the Alcatel manuals at least provide some feeling of 
confidence of approaching the installation even in general terms. 
Unfortunately, most of the providers offering ADSL, seem to quote the 
D-Link modems. Alcatel modems appear in the Linux How-To documentation that 
I have sourced. This may be because of the distribution channels of the two 
modems though, and just that the D-Link modems are more readily available 
in Australia, and have not found there way into the Linux documentation. 
Anyway, I have found my way to http://www.dlink.com.au/ which has made me 
feel a little better, but now that I am delving a little deeper, there is 
more terminology that I feel that I need to get my head around.

Bridging vs routing. Please could someone explain the impact of this if I 
want to host a domain on the offered static IP address and still have 
access to a number of other machines.

Also, I am not sure if I should wire it this way:

ADSL modem -- Linux firewall box -- Linux web server also routing traffic 
to -- switch -- other computers

or this way:

ADSL modem -- Linux web server -- Linux firewall box -- switch -- other 
computers

Can someone explain which is best, or an alternative ? Please feel free to 
point me to appropriate URLs.

All the best
Jacqueline
http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/users/zenryaku/

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