Crap crap crappity crap.

Today, I spent several hours troubleshooting my network here. Currently, I get cable modem service from Adelphia (28 kilofeet from the CO is no place for DSL CPE), with a Netgear RT311 firewall/router. The Netgear, unfortunately, doesn't tunnel PPTP connections because it doesn't understand PPTP well enough, so I'm replacing it with a Cisco SOHO71 (same as the 806 with a four-port 10Mb switch). Ought to be a breeze, right?

Wrong. When I plug the cable modem directly into a Windows box and retrieve an IP address via DHCP, I get a real routable address with DNS options attached. When I plug the cable modem into the Netgear and retrieve an IP address via DHCP, I get a real routable address with DNS options attached; the same address, in fact.

When I plug the cable modem into the Cisco and retrieve an IP address via DHCP, I get a non-routable address with invalid DNS options attached. Turning up debug a bit shows that the DHCP server's IP address is on the same subnet as the IP address I would have otherwise retrieved myself.

That means that some brain-dead n00b on my cable segment is stupidly trying to serve DHCP over the WAN. Of course, there's no way to configure the Cisco to ignore some DHCPOFFER packets, so my only recourse is to wait for Adelphia tech support to get around to investigating the problem and doing, um, something. I suspect they're pretty much limited to disabling the culprit's cable modem and waiting for him to call so they can tell him he's violating the TOS.

In the meanwhile, I still can't PPTP and the Cisco, on which I spent quite a bit more of my hard-earned cash than I wanted to, just sits idle. I swear to <diety/>, I'm this close to breaking out the ol' NMAP to see if he's willing to let me shut him down myself. F*cking dork. If you're going to set up a server, then for f*ck's sake set it up correctly.