[lug] pppd w/ external model

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Sat, 27 Oct 2001, Mike Sweeney wrote:

>    I attached an external "28,800 FAX" modem to my Compaq Presario,
> believing the internal modem to be windows-only (?)
> 
>   By changing the pppd parameter to /dev/ttyS0, I made the light on
> the external modem come on, and I didn't get that "config script
> failed" message for a change, but it just hangs at that point. I tried
> changing the speed parameter to 28800. pppd says "28800 not
> supported".
>   Maybe I need an external 57600 modem or 38400, since pppd doesn't
> seem to support any other speeds ?
> 
> $LOCAL_IP=0.0.0.0
> $REMOTE_IP=0.0.0.0
> exec /usr/sbin/pppd debug lock modem crtscts /dev/ttyS0/ 38400
>                                   asyncmap 20A0000 escape FF kdebug 0
> $LOCAL_IP:$REMOTE_IP noipdefault netmask $NETMASK defaultroute connect
> $DIALER_SCRIPT

Not sure what you are showing us here?  Is this part of your script, or is
it soemthing printed as an error?  Have you looked in your log files to
see what pppd is writing there?

I'd suggest:

   - Use minicom to troubleshoot the modem.  That allows you to establish
     a dialup connection with your host.  (I think you've indicated that
     you've already done this.)

   - Once you've been able to create the dialup connection with minicom,
     try manually starting the ppp service.  That means that you need pppd
     running on your local box, use minicom to dial up the remote host via
     the modem and once the connection has been established manually send 
     the commands to the host telling it to switch to ppp.  This excercise
     let's you see what messages are exchanged between the two machines so
     you know what to put in your login scripts.

   - Build your login scripts based on your manual startup session and
     see how these work.  Some of the newer gui based configurators have a
     debug option that allows you to watch the connection negotiation like
     what you'd see using minicom by hand.  You can also watch what is
     being logged by the deamon by starting up a window and typing:

        tail -f /var/log/messages 

     or whatever your log file is called.

- Wayde
  (wallen at lug.boulder.co.us)