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PPP

As a Windows user, getting started with Linux can be frustrating and one of the biggest problems for me in my early attempts was getting online. So even though I now have my DSL-Router-NAT network at home I decided try again with my latest Slackware installation and record what it took to get on the Internet before my dialup account expired.

First off, it is WAY easier to configure neworking with a LAN than Dial up. On my first Linux installation sometime back in the 1990s I couldn't get pppd to work but somehow I found a utility on the web that asked for most of the information I site below and it put it all in the right place.

Later I tried Redhat and SuSE and used kppp on one and xisp on another. So I always was able to find some utility to get me online but in none of these did I ever sort through the different approaches to find the most concise. (My Solaris installation was difficult but I can't remember a thing about what I had to do - I didn't have a wiki to record my progress then).

I hope this applies to all versions of Linux but at the very least I would think it would help with all versions of Slackware.

Since this was more of a lark I didn't clean up the process intending it to only help someone deperately trying to get online. So all actions are taken as root and I made no attempt to sort out permissions issues with other users.

My Process

I never found an ISP that used PAP or CHAP, so I don't know why so many Linux dial up how-to info spends so much time on them. And I only deal with a non-PAP, non-CHAP ISP.

Step 1: Find out what your ISP uses

To see what you have and to check your modem start MINICOM. At the terminal window enter

With ########## as your ISP dialup number and see what it says.

Mine have always responed with

Login:

Password:

Which means you don't use either PAP or CHAP

Step 2: Change and Create files

I had to CREATE this files:

I had to CHANGE these files:

Step 3: Troubleshoot

I used THESE commands to test my progress

I figured out I had my chat script wrong because ppp wasn't listed in the ifconfig result. It turned out it was simply the use of quotes (") versus (') from conflicting advice I found ont the Web.

Ifconfig results should look something like this:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:C0:F0:49:C3:50

inet addr:192.168.1.150 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:13634 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:15637 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:2091473 (1.9 Mb) TX bytes:13828937 (13.1 Mb)

Interrupt:11 Base address:0xd000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0

UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1

RX packets:7366 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:7366 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:0

RX bytes:1541636 (1.4 Mb) TX bytes:1541636 (1.4 Mb)

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol

inet addr:207.53.228.91 P-t-P:206.176.148.90

Mask:255.255.255.255

UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:3 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:3

RX bytes:42 (42.0 b) TX bytes:63 (63.0 b)

After making the changes and correcting my chat file I could not ping anything beyond the IP the isp gave me. But from ping response I could tell my ethernet IP was still involved, so I knew it was still trying to resolve via the LAN card. Meaning it was not routing resolution through the pppd dialup connection

My ping result was:

The IP didn't need to be reachable since I was interesting in how far the ping would go. And this told me that I wasn't getting out to the Internet since it was using my Ethernet Card address. But I DID get a response from the IP address in the ifconfig result (inet addr:207.53.228.91).

So I had pppd going and a working connection with my Internet provider.

Using route -n I discover:

:~# route -n
    Kernel IP routing table
    Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use
    Iface
    206.176.148.90  0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 ppp0
    192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
    127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo
    0.0.0.0         192.168.1.1     0.0.0.0         UG    1      0        0 eth0

I think the Destination Iface of 0.0.0.0 indicates the default route for packets (I think)

So I had to use THIS command to allow ppp to have the routing right of way (defaultroute)

Run the above command, restart pppd then route -n shows me:

:~# route -n
    Kernel IP routing table
    Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use
    Iface
    206.176.148.90  0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH    0      0        0 ppp0
    192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     0      0        0 eth0
    127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo
    0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         0.0.0.0         U     0      0        0 ppp0

Notice my ppp0 is now destination 0.0.0.0 which I think means it is the default route

and my ping attempt still failed (un-pingable IP) but the response was not from my Ethernet card. But I was then able to start a web browser and surf the web.

''I just now realized there was a type in my Options file that may have caused the problem.

So now all I have to do is start the connection:

I ended the ppp session with kill -HUP pppd

Then I change it all back since I didn't need it anyway.