pppoe on two different laptops

[Alexandru Cabuz <cabuz@GES.univ-montp2.fr>]

Hello,

Until recently I was using Debian testing on an HP Omnibook XE3. Now I am on a 
Dell D600. One annoying problem is that pppoe does not work anymore.

I am using exactly the same /etc/network/interfaces 
and /etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider files. I'll copy them below.

What is strange is that the connection seems to get established, meaning I 
do /etc/init.d/networking force-reload and then ifconfig says ppp0 is 
configured, and I can see the IP address and the packets are getting 
through... even my firewall is taking hits. But when I start kmail or 
mozilla, they do not seem to be able to connect to the network. Mozilla just 
tries to connect for a couple of minutes and then gives up. Same with kmail.

Here's /etc/network/interfaces

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

#The interface at home
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet ppp
       provider dsl-provider

Here's /etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider

# Configuration file for PPP, using PPP over Ethernet
# to connect to a DSL provider.
#
# See the manual page pppd(8) for information on all the options.

##
# Section 1
#
# Stuff to configure...

# MUST CHANGE: Uncomment the following line, replacing the user@provider.net
# by the DSL user name given to your by your DSL provider.



# Use the pppoe program to send the ppp packets over the Ethernet link
# This line should work fine if this computer is the only one accessing
# the Internet through this DSL connection. This is the right line to use
# for most people.
#pty "/usr/sbin/pppoe -I eth0 -T 80 -m 1452"

# An even more conservative version of the previous line, if things
# don't work using -m 1452...
#pty "/usr/sbin/pppoe -I eth0 -T 80 -m 1412"

# If the computer connected to the Internet using pppoe is not being used
# by other computers as a gateway to the Internet, you can try the following
# line instead, for a small gain in speed:
pty "/usr/sbin/pppoe -I eth0 -T 80"


# The following two options should work fine for most DSL users.
# Assumes that your IP address is allocated dynamically
# by your DSL provider...
noipdefault
# Try to get the name server addresses from the ISP.

# Use this connection as the default route.
# Comment out if you already have the correct default route installed.
defaultroute

##
# Section 2
#
# Uncomment if your DSL provider charges by minute connected
# and you want to use demand-dialing.
#
# Disconnect after 300 seconds (5 minutes) of idle time.

#demand
#idle 300

##
# Section 3
#
# You shouldn't need to change these options...

hide-password
lcp-echo-interval 20
lcp-echo-failure 3
# Override any connect script that may have been set in /etc/ppp/options.
connect /bin/true
noauth
persist
mtu 1492

# RFC 2516, paragraph 7 mandates that the following options MUST NOT be
# requested and MUST be rejected if requested by the peer:
# Address-and-Control-Field-Compression (ACFC)
noaccomp
# Asynchronous-Control-Character-Map (ACCM)
default-asyncmap

usepeerdns
user "myusernamehere"


I replaced the real username for security purposes.

It's weird.

What would prevent mozilla and kmail from seeing the connection even though 
ifconfig, says everything is cool?

Alex.