[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: FW: going from ethernet to ppp only

drew cohan wrote:

Sorry about the HTML email from before.

-----Original Message-----
From: Drew Cohan [mailto:drewcohan@drewcohan.com] Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 5:24 PM 
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: going from ethernet to ppp only

Hi,
I’ve set up a machine with woody using an ethernet card and now that particular machine will be moved to a location with only dialup access. I’ve removed the NIC and I’ve got PPP working fine using an internal modem. I’d like to know how to properly transition the setup from Ethernet to PPP 
only.  My thoughts are these 1) Comment out the “eth0” stanza in
/etc/network/interfaces and 2) Comment out “ee100pro” in /etc/modules or 3)
Optionally recompile kernel to remove extraneous bits (currently stock
kernel):  can I remove support for Ethernet cards but keep support for
TCP/IP?  I’m thinking that perhaps I’d want to keep support for NICs anyway
for future maintenance.
Are there any other steps I need to perform to transition from ethernet to 
dialup only on this machine?
Thanks! Drew 
debian@drewcohan.com
Personally, I wouldn't even worry about it, unless you have limited memory or HD space and want to run an absolutely "minimal" system. I have run a IPMasq setup here for years with BOTH a NIC (for the home LAN) and PPP for the external dial-up connection without problems. I think the increased memory usage to support both is minimal, and the chances of messing something up are increased everytime you try to remove something that is working...a form of "Murphy's Law". <grin>. 

That said, you seem to have the steps I would do figured out already.
Commenting out the lines as you suggest is probably the easiest and "best", IMHO. It preserves a "working" setup for future use/reference if needed. Re-compiling the kernel to remove un-needed modules?? I wouldn't... just because of Murphy's law again. If it is working, don't "fix" it!! The modules are just taking up some disk space. They don't use any memory until inserted. Also you never know what you might need in the future... 

Cheers,
-Don Spoon-
Reply to: