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Re: Why is PPP so screwed up!?!?!



CoB SysAdmin:

I am no PPP guru by any means. In spite of this, I found my way through
I issue the command pppd as root, and the /etc/ppp/options and the
/etc/ppp/chatscript take care of all else.  Then I can telnet, ftp, run
lynx or netscape from X...  I did find it necessary to compile a kernel
to get modules that would work.

I understand that under 1.2 it is easier, and that PPP is available in
the base package. 

After rereading your message you certainly have read the
/usr/doc/ppp/README* files. No need to rub salt into the wound by 
saying, as Bruce asks, "RTM", you did already.

I hope someone will help you, I'm certain someone can. My experience 
was that if every detail of the login sequence isn't covered, ppp 
didn't connect.

-- a happy ppp user - and maybe a fortunate one, as well

David Teague
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
           LINUX: the FREE 32 bit OS for [345]86 PC's available NOW!
David B Teague | User interface copyrights & software patents make 
teague@wcu.edu | programing a dangerous business. Ask me or lpf@lpf.org

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On Wed, 26 Feb 1997, CoB SysAdmin wrote:

> Well, I've been working with Debian systems for over a year now and I've
> been able to get it to dial into my ISP about three times. Each time, I
> had to use "route" to make the default gateway to be the ip that I could
> get with "ifconfig".

> EVERY person I've talked to who has tried getting dial-up ppp going on
> Debian has approached it like a heavyweight fighter preparing for a title
> fight. They spend a few days just mentally preparing for the ordeal. Then,
> when they finally DO get it working, I usually get some jubilant e-mail 
> from them... something along the lines of "Hey man!!! I actually got PPP
> going!!!!!". One of these people was a coworker I see often. He got it all
> working about two weeks ago. Then, his roommate had to use the modem so he
> unhooked the connection for a while. To this day, the coworker has not been
> able to reproduce the ONLY success he's ever had with ppp.

> So, today, I resolved to put this nonsense to rest. Being the local Debian
> guru, I told this coworker that I would figure out all of the changes that
> needed to be done to the base distribution in order to do get everything
> working smoothly. Now, having heard that you're supposed to be able to just
> edit /etc/ppp.chatscript and make a "ppp_on_boot" file, I figured I'd try
> that first. 

> This is my saga:

> I editted /etc/ppp.chatscript to properly log into the dial-in server.
> Since /etc/ppp.options_out made reference to /dev/modem, I went to /dev and
> make a symlink from "modem" to "ttyS0". (I know I could have edited the 
> options file, but I wanted to leave the stock config files as pristine as
> possible to illustrate how screwed up the whole setup is). I moved the
> "no_ppp_on_boot" to "ppp_on_boot". Lastly, I edited "/etc/modules" to
> include "serial" and "ppp" (although kerneld would probably load them on
> demand anyway... again, I wanted to "roll out the red carpet" for ppp).

> Then, I rebooted...
> 
> The system started up... started pppd and the modem began dialing. I watched
> the whole show by periodically doing "tail /var/log/messages". Chatscript
> logged in fine and started ppp on the other end. Then, the system hung up
> the phone. /var/log/messages reported "Cannot determine ethernet address
> for proxy ARP". This is because "proxyarp" is uncommented /etc/ppp/options.
> Why? Beats me. So, to fix this error, I added "-proxyarp" to 
> /etc/ppp.options_out and gave it a go again....

> This time, /var/log/messages recorded that pppd received the local and 
> remote IP addresses. I will refer to them as <remoteIP> and <localIP>.
> (As well as showing that the AppleTalk and IPX drivers had become aware
> of the connection, apparently).  So, I tried pinging <remoteIP> and not a 
> single packet came back (although I could see them getting sent out on the 
> modem by watching the lights).  Pinging <localIP> went fine, but didn't use 
> the modem. Pinging anywhere on the server's network other than <localIP>. 

> Doing an ifconfig (which paused for about 45 seconds... I've never had that
> happen before) showed the proper local and remote IP's for interface ppp0.
> Then, "route -n" reported:

> (Keep in mind that I'm using "<remoteIP>" and "<localIP>" in place of the 
> real ones for easier reading...)

> Destination	Gateway		Genmask		Flags Met Ref Use  Iface
> <remoteIP>	0.0.0.0		255.255.255.255	  UH   0   0   0   ppp0
> 127.0.0.1	0.0.0.0		255.0.0.0	  U    0   0   1   lo
> 0.0.0.0		<remoteIP>	0.0.0.0		  UG   0   0   0   ppp0

> Which *seems* okay. I was a little concerned about not seeing a "default"
> in there, but "route add default <remoteIP> metric 1", but that didn't 
> cause anything new to show up in "route -n". Lastly, after a couple minutes,
> the connection will drop, with /var/log/messages reporting:

> "Excessive lack of response to LCP echo frames".

> Now, before you say that my dial-in server is messed up, let me point out that
> I'm able to dial into it with Win95 without incident. The server is a Debian
> box running a modem pool.

> Also, I tried dialing into a Cisco terminal server and all I got was "Could
> not determine local IP address". Again, I don't have this problem with Win95.

> So, I have a few questions:
> 1 - Why is PPP this screwed up? Even if the "ppp_on_boot" thing *did* work,
>     why is there no mention of it in the instal program? There are a lot of
>     people out there who install Debian on their home systems and need to
>     use ppp in order to add/update packages via ftp. Shouldn't a little more
>     effort be made to make this a little simpler? I don't know of ANYONE
>     who looks forward to attempting ppp on Linux without a sense of dread.

> 2 - How can I fix it in the short term? Does anyone know what I can do to
>     be able to see the remote network?
> 
> 3 - I think I'm resigned to the fact that this figgin' ppp catastrophe isn't
>     going to get fixed unless I do it myself. I'm tenatively planning on
>     writing a set of scripts and ppp.options files to allow people to
>     easily configure their system as a dial-in server or as a home machine
>     that dials into an ISP. Does anyone want to offer suggestions, help
>     code, or help test?
> 
> - Joe
> 
> 
> --
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> 
> 


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