static arp required for dsl SpeedStream bridge-ppp-atm?????

["Todd T. Fries" <todd_(_at_)_fries_(_dot_)_net>]

Ok.  I want this to go out there in the records so someone who goes
searching might find it someday and figure out what method of insanity
I am fighting.

I have DSL with SouthwesternBell in Oklahoma City, OK, soon to move to
Edmond, OK. Prefixes 405-528 and 405-715, respectively.

I have a SpeedStream DSL modem from Efficient Networks.  It is setup
to do bridging over ppp over atm to my ISP.

The ISP is using the gateway ip of 206.30.141.9, and periodically, I
usually can expect it to happen during a thunderstorm when power goes
out momentarily, but not always (as did happen a few minutes ago, skies
are very clear and no clouds, etc) .. the mac address changes.  They
assure me they are making no changes, and I believe them.  However,
why should I have had to deal with changing mac addresses on a static
ip subnet where they are the gateway over a bridge?

It's been suggested that I configure the DSL modem to do a point-to-point
connection with the ISP, perhaps even using an internal ip since neither
of the ip's assigned to the interfaces they share over dsl need be
reached publically, the other interface's ip's should suffice .. and then
just have the DSL modem be the router.  I have suggested this to my ISP,
but we have not yet spent time exploring that possibility, and I have
not pressed the issue.

Anyway, for what it's worth, here are the mac addresses I have been given
to date:

#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 0:0:c:32:db:b0 perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 0:0:c:60:d8:58 perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 0:0:c:d6:d9:ac perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 00:00:0c:b7:de:a8 perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9  0:0:c:a7:d9:f4 perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 0:0:c:e2:d9:84 perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 0:0:c:5d:e0:54 perm
#!arp -s 206.30.141.9 0:0:c:74:e2:e8 perm
!arp -s 206.30.141.9 00:00:0c:88:da:9c perm

... aka those are the lines out of my /etc/hostname.rl0 file.  I am
not sure that is a complete list, but I know that I have had at least
those many mac address changes since January when my DSL was turned on,
and I had to set the mac address in order to make DSL work in the first
place.

I have observed that machines can and do discover the mac address through
arp, once or twice every 24 hours.  And as anyone who understands arp
knows, auto-discovered mac addresses time out.  So the only solution I
am seeing at this time is to set a static arp entry every time I discover
this mac address has changed.

Could someone clue me in to any useful 'things to try'?  Am I owner of
a defective DSL modem, telco, or ISP?  I hope not, since everything else
works just great.  I hope others out there have had to deal with this,
but perhaps not, since the majority of people out there (I could be wrong)
seem to be doing pppoe nowadays with a dynamically assigned ip over DSL,
which is not how static ip subnets work on DSL, especially if you go with
another ISP than the telco itself.

Thanks,
-- 
Todd Fries .. todd_(_at_)_fries_(_dot_)_net