On Fri, 16 Jul 1999 18:23:05 -0400 Bill Leach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
>Hi Max;
>
>You really need to spend some time reading the HOWTOs and some of the
>stuff in /usr/doc/* !! In particular see the ISP-HOWTO but remember
>to look in /usr/doc/* and with "man" for any program configuration
>files that you are told to change/check in the HOWTO (this goes for
>ALL HOWTOs). In the UNIX/Linux world there are many ways to
>accomplish any one thing and in a distribution like Debian (Red Hat,
SuSE, etc) it is important to do things in a way that a future upgrade
will not "undo".
>
>Also the location, name, and even scheme for some configuration files
>are different between the various distributions. The "slackware"
>heritage of many of the HOWTO has unfortunately caused a great deal of
confusion for users of any other distribution. The problem is not
>quite as severe as it used to be (many of the HOWTO now have specific
notes about how "things are done" in different distributions but the
problem is still serious.
>
>Issue a /sbin/route -n command to see if you have a default route set
>to
>your ppp0 interface.
>You should see something like:
>Kernel IP routing table
>Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref
>Use Iface
>199.79.129.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0
eth0
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 U 0 0 0
eth0
>
>The "0.0.0.0" entry is the default route. route without an option
>should
>give you something like:
>Kernel IP routing table
>Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref
>Use Iface
>localnet * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0
eth0
>default * 0.0.0.0 U 0 0 0
eth0
>but might fail if your domain name setup is not correct (which is why
>I recommend that you try the command with the "-n" argument first so
>that route will not try to do any ip address resolution).
>
>Try a ping ftp.debian.org (or some other site that you KNOW should be
available) to see if everything network wise is working. (Kill the ping
with a crtl-c).
>If you see something like:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ping ftp.debian.org
>ping: unknown host ftp.debian.org
>
>or ping just sits there and does nothing then there is some network
>configuration work that needs to be done.
>
>ISP's as a rule do not let their subscribers use smtp (Simple Mail
>Transport Protocol) for getting their mail. SMTP is the mail handling
protocol used throughout the Internet but it is designed for
>continuously connected hosts. Most ISP's allow pop (Post Office
>Protocol--POP2 or POP3).
>
>The MTAs (Mail Transport Agent) like exim use only smtp so you need
>another program to actually get your mail such as fetchmail.
>
>Recognize that other ways exist also, such as Pine or netscape which
>can fetch the mail directly from the ISP (both have a POP client built
in which can optionally be used).
Bill-- Thanks for your useful reply. I did try ping previously, and got
"unknown hostname," but now at least I know what that means. Since
receiving your e-mail, I tried /sbin/route -n, and got the following:
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref UseIface
127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
I think this is good.
If anything, I am swamped with manuals. Sometimes they help,
sometimes they don't, but much of the time the writers of all these docs,
HOWTOs, guides, and READMEs are so steeped in the subject that they
overlook the elementary statements that beginners like me need. The exim
specs doc, for instance, tells me that exim is best suited for computers
that are "permanently connected" to the internet. Only after reading
your message was I certain that this basically means "always online." I
don't intend to be connected continuously; my ISP provides SMTP for my
outgoing mail and POP3 for incoming (also NNTP for news)-- so maybe, as
Jason suggested, for my pedestrian purposes something like Netscape would
be better than exim, the complete guide for which is HUMUNGOUS.
I have only limited free time to school myself in Linux, so for now
I'm hoping to get internet operational (on a spare computer) in the
simplest way possible, then explore the full use of Debian as time
allows.
This may take years. Oh, well. -- Max
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