Dialup Setup for Linux

There are several programs available that will help you with setting up a dialup account on a linux computer, making the procedure nearly as easy as setting up PPP in Windows. Most distributions have either GNOME or KDE window managers available. If you will be using KDE, the program to use is "kppp", with GNOME it's "gnomeppp". You may also want to try two popular downloadable programs: xisp and ezppp. Both have good reputations.

If you are running KDE, log in to Linux as root, start your X Window KDE session, open a terminal window and type kppp at the prompt. When the kppp window appears, start by clicking on the Setup tab.

When the kppp program appears, click Account, New to create a new account. You must have at least one account set up. Enter the name of your ISP (Velocity) and the dialup number (222-3337). The type of authentication for logging in to your PPP account is PAP.

Click the IP tab and check that it's set to Dynamic IP Address. Then click on the DNS tab to enter your ISP's DNS server addresses (216.162.128.6 & 216.162.128.5). Click the Gateway tab and check that it is set to Default Gateway.

Click OK to finish the Account setup.

Other things you may need to check;
Click on the Device tab to make sure that /dev/modem is the selected device. Then click on the Modem tab. Click Query Modem to see if it can pick up your modem settings automatically. Leave the other settings at their default values.

Finally, click on the PPP tab. Options you may wish to enable later in this section are Dock into Panel on Connect and Automatic Redial on Disconnect. For now, stay with the defaults.

That's it. If all is okay, you should be able to dial out to the world. If everything appears to be working, type something like ping www.yahoo.com to see if your packets are going across the Net.

If you run into difficulties, be sure to click on Help on the kppp setup program main screen. It provides excellent examples of more complex setups.

PPP the hard way: scripting

If you're not running KDE or GNOME you'll either have to set up PPP through linuxconf or set up PPP the traditional way, through a series of scripts. Red Hat provides a good online tutorial on the linuxconf method of setting up PPP at www.redhat.com/support/docs/new.html. Click on "PPP Setup Tips".

The traditional method of setting up PPP involves creating a series of special script files. The best way to work your way through PPP scripting is to follow a good model in a beginning Linux book or the PPP-HOWTO, located in /doc/HOWTO on Red Hat systems. There's also a good online tutorial for this at www.knowplace.org/ppp.html called "The 5-minute Linux PPP HOWTO".