"G. Kapetanios" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Hi all, > > I have friend whom I have persuaded to use Debian instead of Win95 :-) > He wants to \have an internet connection from his home. As his situation > is of interest to me since my studying days will soon be over and I will > ghave to move from ethernet to modem as well I have the following > question. Will setting up PPP be straightforward or tricky for a novice > like him (I will be helping but I am a novice in PPP as well ) ?
PPP will be straightforward if you know what docs to read; my advice at this point is to read the PPP HOWTO only after knowing what things debian has around to make PPP easier, if then. The most importnat thing to know about PPP before setting it up is to know how one logs in to one's ISP's ppp server - the easiest way to find this out is to dial up with minicom (or, if one still has Win95, Hyperterminal) and see what happens - if you get garbage right away (lots of '}' characters, among other things) chances are your ISP is using PAP or CHAP authentication; fortunately this is a bit uncommon, as it gets a bit annoying. (and I've never learned how, since I don't have to) If you're not using PAP/CHAP, then there'll be some sort of logon sequence to go through. Remember what the prompts are (e.g. does it ask "username: " or "login: "); you'll need them later. Then, on the Debian system, edit /etc/ppp.chatscript to match your ISP's prompts - mine looks something like this: ABORT BUSY ABORT "NO CARRIER" ABORT VOICE ABORT "NO DIALTONE" "" ATDT4105551234 name myuser word \qmypasswd Where I have 'name' you might have 'ogin' if your ISP asks for your username with the prompt 'login: ' (my ISP uses 'username: '). Also, don't forget to change the phone number to be what it should. Setting this file up is actually quite easy, and once it is ppp can be turned on with a simple 'pon' command by root or by anyone in the 'dip' group. I can't address your question of whether it's possible to obtain one's own IP at little cost; I doubt it, given that the IP address space is getting a bit cramped. I do just fine with fetchmail to get my mail from my imap account and smail configured as per http://www.math.jhu.edu/~martind/mybox.html; I do not have my own permanent IP address but instead receive a different one each time I dial in. Sometimes I set my machine up to dial in at regular intervals and get/send mail, as appropriate; it does this quite happily. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
