29 August 2026
Ever thought about why Internet Service Providers move away from PPPoE in favour of DHCP? Me too. PPPoE, or Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet, is used to encapsulate Point-to-Point frames inside of Ethernet frames. The Point-to-Point Protocol can be used over a variety of mediums, such as serial cables, phone lines, etc. For Ethernet use it needs encapsulating. Meaning every single packet requires extra work. That might not be an issue for slower links, but once the down/up is near 1000/1000, low end client hardware, which is most common, will start struggling and reducing throughput.
Good thing about PPPoE however is its nature of quick recovery. In a scenario where the ISP has two routers, one main and one backup, and the main one requires an update with the backup serving all clients for the time being, a client running via DHCP will not know of the change some standard 30 minutes later, whereas PPPoE running client will know of the change within minutes thanks to PADI. One could argue with DHCP FORCERENEW, but that is hardly supported on client hardware.
Some ISPs offer high speed connections (think 8000/8000), that is difficult to promise and deliver over PPPoE.