This is one area where I find Internet forums frustrating. We are very often agreeing, but not realising that because the conversation is not two way in real time. Yes you are absolutely right. You can disable the Nat and firewall on most of these devices. But my whole beef with the thing, is why they don't make a device that does not include the NAT and firewall as standard. Anyway, not to worry.
I understand that routing and Nat are not the same thing. I did study networking. What I meant was that the device that provides PPPoe ability is usually the one that handles the NAT.
You misunderstood me with regards to why I am making a brand choice for desktops and servers. The reason that I am doing that is because of which companies I have found to offer good after sales service in my country as well as the fact that the drivers for a certain brand are broadly similar which means that I only have to have a small limited number of drivers for my clients instead of having hundreds of drivers for different manufacturers etc. It is not the most important criteria, but sticking with certain manufacturers for example Netgear wireless access points to use a silly example means that I am familiar with their interface, so it saves time. They tend to use the same internal IP address etc. So documenting clients networks is simpler if they mostly have similar switches. I realise that everyone has preferences, I personally hate HP as the support in England is really bad. Won't touch an HP !

I am glad that my slackware box meets with your approval ! Yes, you do understand the point I am making with the slackware box, the software is the important part. Agreed.

I am very pleased that this discussion has generated so much interest. I was not expecting so much feedback, but thats whats so great about KORG. I realise that my ideas don't necessarily meet with the approval of a number of users here. I seem to be very much in the minority especially when it comes to avoidance of using active directory group policy, but I prefer my scripts over group policy any day!
but as Doc or somebody said. All roads lead to Rome as in we all do things differently.