Re: Why is PPP so screwed up!?!?!
On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, CoB SysAdmin wrote:
> > This is perhaps indicitive of a problem with your ISP. It is strange
> > that it goes out but does not return.
>
> Gee, that's *&^@$& hillarious, since *I'm* the ISP and I configured
> the dial-up server exactly the way specified in the PPP HOWTO.
well, then you must have done something wrong. Either in your dialin
server config, or in the config on the machine dialing out.
I've (so far) set up over a dozen machines as debian-based PPP dialin
servers. Not a single problem with any of them. (most of these, btw,
are installed at schools where the technical knowledge of the average
teacher is not very high - yet they manage to get their win/win95/mac
boxes connected to the dialin server from home)
I've also set up dozens and dozens of linux boxes (mostly debian, some
redhat and slackware) to dial out to an ISP and either maintain a
permanent connection or just dial on demand.
IT IS NOT DIFFICULT AT ALL TO GET PPP WORKING ON DEBIAN.
More generally, it is not difficult at all to get PPP working on any of
the Linux distributions I've worked with. Certainly a lot easier than
slip.
It is easier to get a dialin server up and running than it is to
configure a dialout ppp connection - for a dialin server all you have to
do is build a debian box (making sure that you install the ppp package),
and create user accounts.
The hardest PPP setup i've ever done was one particular site (using
redhat) which needed an eql load-balanced link using two modems from one
office to another office....most of the time taken to do that was in
reading the documentation to figure out how the eql driver worked...and
then trying to splice that into redhat's bletcherous init/config file
system.
> > If you want a better solution, why not use diald? It will
> > automatically bring up the modem when there is a connection attempt,
> > will handle disconnects due to idle, etc.
>
> This is silly. This is like asking me to put my coffee-maker on
> an auto- matic timer when the damn thing doesn't even make coffee
> correctly in the first place. All diald would do is give me a
> non-functioning ppp link... by hey, at least it would be "on-demand",
> eh?
you're right on this point - you don't need diald for what you want to set
up.
One thing for you to check: is /usr/bin/pppd setuid root on both
machines?
Craig
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