Re: Wierd PPP Problems
I wrote:
> It will no doubt startle you to learn that some of us have only one phone
> line (and only one local ISP as well).
Jonathan Guthrie writes:
> It will? THAT assertion certainly startles me! How do you know what I
> expect unless I tell you?
You wrote that if he can't call the dial-in number and talk to support
simultaneously then he must have the wrong ISP. From that I inferred that
you believed that only incompetence on the part of the ISP could prevent
him from doing so.
> As to the single ISP issue, I know of no localities that are served by
> one Internet provider that aren't also served by one or more of the
> national providers.
Elmwood, Wisconsin (though some of the national providers will lie and say
the do serve us).
> Some of those national providers even offer 800-number access for those
> areas without local POPs.
Last time I looked they charged extra for 800 service.
> I'm not telling you or Mr. Hoover to ask the ISP what the problem is,
> only what a disconnect code (or however it's done on their system) is.
I'm quite certain that if I was to ask that question of Bright Net's help
line people it would utterly baffle them (certainly every other question
I've asked them baffed them).
> Anyway, if they won't tell you why your connection was last dropped and
> you can't find another ISP, then you're stuck with increasing the debug
> level on pppd and undergoing the mind-numbing task of digging through
> mounds of low-level output.
A task I've performed many times, usually by email.
> We have a package that includes a pap-secrets file and a script that runs
> pppd and instructions to modify those files so that they'll work for your
> userid, and that's about it.
I'd actually prefer that you did not do that. Just tell the customer his
username, his password, the nameservers, and the type of authentication
used. If you use a scripted login rather than PAP or CHAP, tell him the
prompts. That's all he needs to run pppconfig and most other ppp
configuration tools.
Some ISP's can't manage that, though. They do things like requiring that a
particukar string be appended to the username in order the authenticate,
and fail to tell the customer about it.
--
John Hasler This posting is in the public domain.
john@dhh.gt.org Do with it what you will.
Dancing Horse Hill Make money from it if you can; I don't mind.
Elmwood, Wisconsin Do not send email advertisements to this address.
Reply to: