Its not manufacturers who did not caught up (in fact they did and offer very inexpensive personal dsl routers goes all the way to $20 range), its DSL providers who still offer free dsl modem (device at least twice more expensive then router) and free network card and complex and instructions on how to set this all up on each different type of pc. No clue at all that it would be only very marginally more expensive for them to integrate features of such small nat router into dsl modem and instead of offering PPPoverEthernet it could just offer NAT and DHCP and make it so much simpler for many of those lusers with only light computer skills to set this all up.
Agreed, We require a NAT device or true firewall on all DSL customer connections. We sell cheap Linksys boxes to customers or they can upgrade to a SonicWall. We don't use an Integrated modem/router because most of them are junk. You won't find a single Windows/Linux/Mac machine directly connected to our DSL network. I still like PPPoE for customer authentication because I can place individual packet filters or re-assign users to different contexts based on username/password authentication. PPPoE/NAT is a good combination. Couple that with 3 levels of virus scanning on our mail server has reduced the effects of virus and worm spread inside the networks we control. We still get viruses & worms to hit but it is at a more manageable rate. We are not a large provider by any means but I try my hardest to provide a solid network and protect the Internet from my users as much as possible. If only the users would not shop solely on price I would be all set :/ -Matt
-- William Leibzon Elan Networks william@elan.net