pppd curiosity

[Umarzuki Mochlis <umarzuki@gmail.com>]

--> Sending: ATZ                                                                                 
ATZ                                                                                              
OK                                                                                               
--> Sending: AT+CGDCONT?                                                                         
AT+CGDCONT?                                                                                      
+CGDCONT: 1,"IP","my3g","0.0.0.0",0,0                                                            
OK                                                                                               
--> Modem initialized.                                                                           
--> Sending: ATDT*99#                                                                            
--> Waiting for carrier.                                                                         
ATDT*99#                                                                                         
CONNECT                                                                                          
--> Carrier detected.  Starting PPP immediately.                                                 
--> Starting pppd at Sun Mar 15 19:24:44 2009                                                    
--> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/pap-secrets: Permission denied                            
--> --> PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) may be flaky.                                     
--> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/chap-secrets: Permission denied                           
--> --> CHAP (Challenge Handshake) may be flaky.                                                 
--> Pid of pppd: 4351

Does it somehow reduce the performance of my modem when it cannot modify /etc/ppp/pap-secrets and /etc/ppp/chap-secrets? What does those do anyway?

-- 
Regards,

Umarzuki Mochlis
http://gameornot.net