Technical Q&A QA1252

PPPoE Server for Testing

Q:  I'm writing some Internet setup assistant software. I would like to test my PPPoE setup code, but I don't have access to a PPPoE concentrator. Can I use Mac OS X as a PPPoE server for testing?

A: Yes you can. Enter the following two command lines into a Terminal window on the machine you want to act as a PPPoE server.

sudo sysctl -w net.inet.ip.forwarding=1 sudo pppd plugin PPPoE.ppp noauth debug nodetach persist holdoff 1 \ mru 1492 mtu 1492 proxyarp pppoemode listen 10.0.0.32:10.0.0.64 \ ms-dns 17.128.100.9

The first command line enables IP forwarding on your machine. Without this, the PPPoE client will only be able to talk to the PPPoE server itself.

Each element of the second command line is explained below:

After you have run this command line on the server, you should be able to create a basic PPPoE configuration on the client, run Internet Connect, and connect to your server.

For more details about these pppd options, enter man pppd into Terminal.



Document Revision History


DateNotes
2011-07-27

Reformatted content and made minor editorial changes.

2003-04-11

New document that describes how to configure Mac OS X as a PPPoE server for testing purposes.