PPPoE / DHCP / L2TP / PPTP

Here's some basic info on different types of network connections.

An internet service provider may use PPPoE or DHCP network protocols to provide access for multiple users to the internet. While litigation support professionals don't need to have a sophisticated understanding of networking to do their jobs, these days when nearly everyone has a modem and router set-up in their home, if not a switch as well, it's good to have a general idea of how they work.

A PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) network protocol involves the ISP allowing multiple users to share a broadband server, and requires that they each have a user name and password. The ISP monitors user traffic for billing purposes.

A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) does not use authentication. IP addresses are dynamically assigned so each device has a unique address. Rather than using static IP addresses, IP addresses are only assigned when devices are connected to the network.

A L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol) allows private network communications to be sent across the internet. It is useful to create a secure connection between a remote computer and home network - it enables virtual private networking. L2TP allows for a data encryption and is an improvement over the virtual private network protocol PPTP used by Windows.