The home hub is designed as a box for the 99% of people who just want access to the internet, and don't know things about IP ports, NAT, QoS, etc.
If you want a box that you can play with or configure then get something else the Home Hub is not for you.
Sad to say, I have a HH at the moment, and it's tempting to put my old Linux box back in place. I bought (sometime ago) a super cheap Connexant (I think) PCI ADSL card, and it worked a treat with Linux. This may be the full control you are looking for.
Either that, or buy yourself a cheap ADSL modem, and use your Linux box as a router to do PPPoE, also works very well, mainly I suppose because you can configure it exactly as you want it.
Don't think that the wife would want a desktop PC on the table in the hallway though.
The choice is yours! Good luck! :)
-Mark
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