Differences between "bridge" and "router" mode for ADSL

Submitted by libervisco on Sat, 2007-10-27 12:55.

Posts: 3856
Joined: 2006-05-04

The first time I had ADSL it was set up in what is apparently called a bridge mode where the router servers as merely a bridge between a computer and the internet where the connection information and connection itself is established from the client computer itself meaning that on every boot the system (or myself) has to initiate the connection.

This also meant that I couldn't connect to the net using some livecd distros which don't come with ppp on it, such as Debian netinstall I tried recently. Then someone asked (on cluenet IRC) whether my router has pppoe on it and then I went and tried to set up the router to connect by itself using ppp presumably already installed on it, so it would be connected regardless of what the client computer is booting from. Smiling So now I can have an internet connection anywhere without having to establish it from the computer, since it's already established on the router..

Anyway.. since doing this there have been some weird glitches though. When I connect on IRC there is always a bit of a delay on "found hostname" and I also can't access Cluenet IRC anymore, even though I could connect to it once right after setting this up (which adds to the mystery).

I'm not sure whether, based on this, I can expect some other strange things? So I'm curious about the real differences between this way of connecting and the old "bridge" mode.

About not being able to connect to cluenet IRC I thought it might be a DNS issue, but then again even though for a while I couldn't, I can get to cluenet.org web site, but still not irc.cluenet.org.. It's really weird.

Any thoughs?

Thank you.

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Sat, 2007-10-27 13:49 This Wikipedia article

reptiler

Posts: 762
Joined: 2006-03-28

This Wikipedia article might bring some light into this.
In short it's basically like that:
A bridge connects networks only physically, without caring what's going on.
A router connects networks not only physically, but also logically, by knowing what IPs are used.

A route works one layer (in the OSI-model) above a bridge.

Sat, 2007-10-27 14:32 Thanks, that makes the

libervisco

Posts: 3856
Joined: 2006-05-04

Thanks, that makes the differences clearer. So basically there is a way a router mode could mess some things up, I guess depending on the configuration..

Thing is, pretty much everything works anyway. Cluenet IRC is the only exception and I'm not sure it even has anything to do with the router..

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