PPPoE

Document revision:1.6 (Mon Jul 17 14:11:18 GMT 2006)
Applies to: V2.9

General Information

Summary

The PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet) protocol provides extensive user management, network management and accounting benefits to ISPs and network administrators. Currently PPPoE is used mainly by ISPs to control client connections for xDSL and cable modems as well as plain Ethernet networks. PPPoE is an extension of the standard Point to Point Protocol (PPP). The difference between them is expressed in transport method: PPPoE employs Ethernet instead of modem connection.

Generally speaking, PPPoE is used to hand out IP addresses to clients based on the user (and workstation, if desired) authentication as opposed to workstation only authentication, when static IP addresses or DHCP are used. It is adviced not to use static IP addresses or DHCP on the same interfaces as PPPoE for obvious security reasons.

MikroTik RouterOS can act as a RADIUS client - you can use a RADIUS server to authenticate PPPoE clients and use accounting for them.

A PPPoE connection is composed of a client and an access concentrator (server). The client may be any computer that has the PPPoE client protocol support installed. The MikroTik RouterOS supports both - client and access concentrator implementations of PPPoE. The PPPoE client and server work over any Ethernet level interface on the router - wireless 802.11 (Aironet, Cisco, WaveLan, Prism, Atheros), 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Ethernet, RadioLan and EoIP (Ethernet over IP tunnel). No encryption, MPPE 40bit RSA and MPPE 128bit RSA encryption is supported.

Note that when RADIUS server is authenticating a user with CHAP, MS-CHAPv1 or MS-CHAPv2, the RADIUS protocol does not use shared secret, it is used only in authentication reply. So if you have a wrong shared secret, RADIUS server will accept the request. You can use /radius monitor command to see bad-replies parameter. This value should increase whenever a client tries to connect.

Supported connections

Quick Setup Guide

Specifications

Packages required: ppp
License required: Level1 (limited to 1 interface) , Level3 (limited to 200 interfaces) , Level4 (limited to 200 interfaces) , Level5 (limited to 500 interfaces) , Level6 (unlimited)
Submenu level: /interface pppoe-server, /interface pppoe-client
Standards and Technologies: PPPoE (RFC 2516)
Hardware usage: PPPoE server may require additional RAM (uses approx. 9KiB (plus extra 10KiB for packet queue, if data rate limitation is used) for each connection) and CPU power. Maximum of 65535 connections is supported.

Related Documents

Additional Resources

Links for PPPoE documentation:

PPPoE Clients:

PPPoE Client Setup

Submenu level: /interface pppoe-client

Description

The PPPoE client supports high-speed connections. It is fully compatible with the MikroTik PPPoE server (access concentrator).

Note for Windows. Some connection instructions may use the form where the "phone number", such as "MikroTik_AC\mt1", to indicate that "MikroTik_AC" is the access concentrator name and "mt1" is the service name.

Property Description

ac-name (text; default: "") - this may be left blank and the client will connect to any access concentrator that offers the "service" name selected

add-default-route (yes | no; default: no) - whether to add a default route automatically

allow (multiple choice: mschap2, mschap1, chap, pap; default: mschap2, mschap1, chap, pap) - the protocol to allow the client to use for authentication

dial-on-demand (yes | no; default: no) - connects to AC only when outbound traffic is generated and disconnects when there is no traffic for the period set in the idle-timeout value

interface (name) - interface the PPPoE server can be connected through

mru (integer; default: 1480) - Maximum Receive Unit. The optimal value is the MTU of the interface the tunnel is working over decreased by 20 (so, for 1500-byte ethernet link, set the MTU to 1480 to avoid fragmentation of packets)

mtu (integer; default: 1480) - Maximum Transmission Unit. The optimal value is the MTU of the interface the tunnel is working over decreased by 20 (so, for 1500-byte ethernet link, set the MTU to 1480 to avoid fragmentation of packets)

name (name; default: pppoe-out1) - name of the PPPoE interface

password (text; default: "") - a user password used to connect the PPPoE server

profile (name) - default profile for the connection

service-name (text; default: "") - specifies the service name set on the access concentrator. Leave it blank unless you have many services and need to specify the one you need to connect to

use-peer-dns (yes | no; default: no) - whether to set the router's default DNS to the PPP peer DNS (i.e. whether to get DNS settings from the peer)

user (text; default: "") - a user name that is present on the PPPoE server

Example

To add and enable PPPoE client on the gig interface connecting to the AC that provides testSN service using user name john with the password password:

[admin@RemoteOffice] interface pppoe-client> add interface=gig \
\... service-name=testSN user=john password=password disabled=no
[admin@RemoteOffice] interface pppoe-client> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  0  R name="pppoe-out1" mtu=1480 mru=1480 interface=gig user="john"
       password="password" profile=default service-name="testSN" ac-name=""
       add-default-route=no dial-on-demand=no use-peer-dns=no

Monitoring PPPoE Client

Command name: /interface pppoe-client monitor

Property Description

ac-mac (MAC address) - MAC address of the access concentrator (AC) the client is connected to

ac-name (text) - name of the AC the client is connected to

encoding (text) - encryption and encoding (if asymmetric, separated with '/') being used in this connection

service-name (text) - name of the service the client is connected to

status (text) - status of the client
Dialing - attempting to make a connection
Verifying password... - connection has been established to the server, password verification in progress
Connected - self-explanatory
Terminated - interface is not enabled or the other side will not establish a connection uptime (time) - connection time displayed in days, hours, minutes and seconds

uptime (time) - connection time displayed in days, hours, minutes and seconds

Example

To monitor the pppoe-out1 connection:

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-client> monitor pppoe-out1
          status: "connected"
          uptime: 10s
        encoding: "none"
    service-name: "testSN"
         ac-name: "10.0.0.1"
          ac-mac: 00:C0:DF:07:5E:E6

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-client>

PPPoE Server Setup (Access Concentrator)

Submenu level: /interface pppoe-server server

Description

The PPPoE server (access concentrator) supports multiple servers for each interface - with differing service names. Currently the throughput of the PPPoE server has been tested to 160 Mb/s on a Celeron 600 CPU. Using higher speed CPUs, throughput should increase proportionately.

The access concentrator name and PPPoE service name are used by clients to identity the access concentrator to register with. The access concentrator name is the same as the identity of the router displayed before the command prompt. The identity may be set within the /system identity submenu.

PPPoE users are created in /ppp secret menu, see the AAA manual for further information.

Note that if no service name is specified in WindowsXP, it will use only service with no name. So if you want to serve WindowsXP clients, leave your service name empty.

Property Description

authentication (multiple choice: mschap2 | mschap1 | chap | pap; default: mschap2, mschap1, chap, pap) - authentication algorithm

default-profile (name; default: default) - default profile to use

interface (name) - interface to which the clients will connect to

keepalive-timeout (time; default: 10) - defines the time period (in seconds) after which the router is starting to send keepalive packets every second. If no traffic and no keepalive responses has came for that period of time (i.e. 2 * keepalive-timeout), not responding client is proclaimed disconnected.

max-mru (integer; default: 1480) - Maximum Receive Unit. The optimal value is the MTU of the interface the tunnel is working over decreased by 20 (so, for 1500-byte Ethernet link, set the MTU to 1480 to avoid fragmentation of packets)

max-mtu (integer; default: 1480) - Maximum Transmission Unit. The optimal value is the MTU of the interface the tunnel is working over decreased by 20 (so, for 1500-byte Ethernet link, set the MTU to 1480 to avoid fragmentation of packets)

max-sessions (integer; default: 0) - maximum number of clients that the AC can serve
0 - unlimited

one-session-per-host (yes | no; default: no) - allow only one session per host (determined by MAC address). If a host will try to establish a new session, the old one will be closed

service-name (text) - the PPPoE service name

Notes

The default keepalive-timeout value of 10 is OK in most cases. If you set it to 0, the router will not disconnect clients until they log out or router is restarted. To resolve this problem, the one-session-per-host property can be used.

Security issue: do not assign an IP address to the interface you will be receiving the PPPoE requests on.

Example

To add PPPoE server on ether1 interface providing ex service and allowing only one connection per host:

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server server> add interface=ether1 \
\... service-name=ex one-session-per-host=yes
[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server server> print
Flags: X - disabled
  0 X service-name="ex" interface=ether1 mtu=1480 mru=1480
      authentication=mschap2,mschap,chap,pap keepalive-timeout=10
      one-session-per-host=yes default-profile=default

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server server>

PPPoE Users

Description

The PPPoE users are authenticated through a RADIUS server (if configured), and if RADIUS fails, then the local PPP user databese is used. See the respective manual sections for more information:

PPPoE Server User Interfaces

Submenu level: /interface pppoe-server

Description

This menu allows you to see all the connected users, as well as to set static interface names to be used in different configurations, where unchangable interface needs to be specified (and, thus, dynamic names cannot be used)

Property Description

encoding (read-only: text) - encryption and encoding (if asymmetric, separated with '/') being used in this connection

name (name) - interface name

remote-address (read-only: MAC address) - MAC address of the connected client

service-name (name) - name of the service the user is connected to

uptime (time) - shows how long the client is connected

user (name) - the name of the connected user (must be present in the user darabase anyway)

Example

To view the currently connected users:

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server> print
Flags: R - running
  #   NAME       SERVICE REMOTE-ADDRESS    USER    ENCO... UPTIME
  0 R <pppoe-ex> ex      00:C0:CA:16:16:A5 ex              12s

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server>

To disconnect the user ex:

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server> remove [find user=ex]
[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server> print

[admin@MikroTik] interface pppoe-server>

Application Examples

PPPoE in a multipoint wireless 802.11g network

In a wireless network, the PPPoE server may be attached to an Access Point (as well as to a regular station of wireless infrastructure). Either our RouterOS client or Windows PPPoE clients may connect to the Access Point for PPPoE authentication. Further, for RouterOS clients, the radio interface may be set to MTU 1600 so that the PPPoE interface may be set to MTU 1500. This optimizes the transmission of 1500 byte packets and avoids any problems associated with MTUs lower than 1500. It has not been determined how to change the MTU of the Windows wireless interface at this moment.

Let us consider the following setup where the MikroTik Wireless AP offers wireless clients transparent access to the local network with authentication:

First of all, the wireless interface should be configured:

[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface wireless> set 0 mode=ap-bridge \
   frequency=2442 band=2.4ghz-b/g ssid=mt disabled=no
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface wireless> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
 0    name="wlan1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:01:24:70:53:04 arp=enabled
      disable-running-check=no interface-type=Atheros AR5211
      radio-name="000124705304" mode=station ssid="mt" area=""
      frequency-mode=superchannel country=no_country_set antenna-gain=0
      frequency=2412 band=2.4ghz-b scan-list=default rate-set=default
      supported-rates-b=1Mbps,2Mbps,5.5Mbps,11Mbps
      supported-rates-a/g=6Mbps,9Mbps,12Mbps,18Mbps,24Mbps,36Mbps,48Mbps,
                          54Mbps
      basic-rates-b=1Mbps basic-rates-a/g=6Mbps max-station-count=2007
      ack-timeout=dynamic tx-power=default tx-power-mode=default
      noise-floor-threshold=default periodic-calibration=default
      burst-time=disabled fast-frames=no dfs-mode=none antenna-mode=ant-a
      wds-mode=disabled wds-default-bridge=none wds-ignore-ssid=no
      update-stats-interval=disabled default-authentication=yes
      default-forwarding=yes default-ap-tx-limit=0 default-client-tx-limit=0
      hide-ssid=no security-profile=default disconnect-timeout=3s
      on-fail-retry-time=100ms preamble-mode=both
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface wireless>

Now, configure the Ethernet interface, add the IP address and set the default route:

[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip address> add address=10.1.0.3/24 interface=Local
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip address> print
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic
 #   ADDRESS            NETWORK         BROADCAST       INTERFACE
 0   10.1.0.3/24        10.1.0.0        10.1.0.255      Local
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip address> /ip route
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip route> add gateway=10.1.0.1
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip route> print
Flags: X - disabled, A - active, D - dynamic,
C - connect, S - static, r - rip, b - bgp, o - ospf
 #     DST-ADDRESS        G GATEWAY         DISTANCE INTERFACE
 0 ADC 10.1.0.0/24                                   Local
 1 A S 0.0.0.0/0          r 10.1.0.1        1        Local
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip route> /interface ethernet
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface ethernet> set Local arp=proxy-arp
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface ethernet> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
 #    NAME                                   MTU   MAC-ADDRESS       ARP
 0  R Local                                  1500  00:0C:42:03:25:53 proxy-arp
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface ethernet>

We should add PPPoE server to the wireless interface:

[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface pppoe-server server> add interface=wlan1 \
   service-name=mt one-session-per-host=yes disabled=no
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface pppoe-server server> print
Flags: X - disabled
 0   service-name="mt" interface=wlan1 max-mtu=1480 max-mru=1480
     authentication=pap,chap,mschap1,mschap2 keepalive-timeout=10
     one-session-per-host=yes max-sessions=0 default-profile=default
[admin@PPPoE-Server] interface pppoe-server server>

Finally, we can set up PPPoE clients:

[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip pool> add name=pppoe ranges=10.1.0.100-10.1.0.200
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip pool> print
 # NAME                                         RANGES
 0 pppoe                                        10.1.0.100-10.1.0.200
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ip pool> /ppp profile
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp profile> set default use-encryption=yes \
   local-address=10.1.0.3 remote-address=pppoe
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp profile> print
Flags: * - default
 0 * name="default" local-address=10.1.0.3 remote-address=pppoe
     use-compression=no use-vj-compression=no use-encryption=yes only-one=no
     change-tcp-mss=yes

 1 * name="default-encryption" use-compression=default
     use-vj-compression=default use-encryption=yes only-one=default
     change-tcp-mss=default
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp profile> .. secret
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp secret> add name=w password=wkst service=pppoe
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp secret> add name=l password=ltp service=pppoe
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp secret> print
Flags: X - disabled
 #   NAME        SERVICE CALLER-ID PASSWORD  PROFILE            REMOTE-ADDRESS
 0   w           pppoe             wkst      default            0.0.0.0
 1   l           pppoe             ltp       default            0.0.0.0
[admin@PPPoE-Server] ppp secret>

Thus we have completed the configuration and added two users: w and l who are able to connect to Internet, using PPPoE client software.

Note that Windows XP built-in client supports encryption, but RASPPPOE does not. So, if it is planned not to support Windows clients older than Windows XP, it is recommended to switch require-encryption to yes value in the default profile configuration. In other case, the server will accept clients that do not encrypt data.

Troubleshooting

Description