Today I tried to get connected using linuxconf for setup. Nice programm, but doesn't have TCP/IP in it. To the best of my ability setup PPP, but didn't get any signs of life. Gave a call
to my ISP. The answer was:
1. For Linux they need to setup something on their server
2. They don't support Linux
3. He will email to his boss, and the boss will email me within 48 hours about what can be done.
The lack of TCP/IP was a kind of surprise. I always thought it came from Unix world.
As stated before, your ISP is full of shit. You do not have to rely on them for special setup, and TCP/IP is fully present in your system. You just may be missing an option from whichever setup program you are using (I'm not familiar with linuxconf).
Take things one step at a time.
First, make sure your modem actually works and can dial out. Use minicom.
Find your chatscript (/etc/ppp/*chat*?) and look at it. This controls the modem dialing and possibly handles the Login:, Password: challenge/response stuff.
Find your ppp options file (/etc/ppp/options?). This controls the options of pppd. pppd is the program that takes control of the connection after the chatscript exits. An important option is the 'debug' option because it can allow you to spy on what is happening to help debug the process. See the man page for details.
Try connecting using the RH supplied script (/etc/ppp/ip-up?). You can look in /var/log/messages or /var/log/ppp or similar for messages from the pppd.
Read about the different types of authentication methods in the HOWTOs given in the previous message, or the man page for pppd. You have 3 different kinds of authentication:
1) Clear text
2) PAP
3) CHAP
Clear text authentication is controlled in the chat script, with a challenge/response that will listen for something like "login:" and then send the appropriate username. Similar for "password:".
PAP and CHAP work basically the same as each other. You must then fill out the /etc/ppp/chap-secrets or /etc/ppp/pap-secrets file as specified in the man page. Also, you must add an entry for username in the /etc/ppp/options file.
There is a variation of CHAP made by Microsoft called MS-CHAP. This is supported, but last I checked you needed to recompile pppd to support it. (This may have since changed). Maybe this is what your ISP was talking about?
Sometimes you can ask your ISP which of these methods of authentication they use... but sometimes the tech guy has no clue. To find out, you can snoop on the connection (remember the 'debug' option) and see if the "login:" challenge is being sent. If so, you probably have a clear text auth and don't need PAP or CHAP setup.
If you don't have clear text... luckily you can set up to work with either chap or pap at the same time. Just fill out both the pap-secrets and chap-secrets files. You will need to remove any clear text lines used in your chatscripts.
Hope this helps a little...
-Mitch |
