trouble setting up PPP
Martin McCormick
server. I haven't been able to get it, though. The version of IRIX is
6.5.8, and it's a Challenge L, working with two USRobotics modems connected
to the same phone number. The whole thing has been working for years as a
terminal dial in and they want me to add the PPP funcitonality. From the
IRIX man pages, it appears PPP starts as a terminal dial-in, but by logging
into an account with /usr/etc/ppp as the shell, it somehow becomes PPP.
This is what I tried and I couldn't dial-in from either a MacOS9.1 or Win2K
system.
I read through SGI's instructions in IRIX Networking and Mail, for PPP
setup. I decided to make it PPP only. It still didn't work with the Mac
after using "add an incoming PPP connection" with the SystemManager tool.
(I didn't remove the old terminal functionality.) I checked the config
files by hand too and didn't see anything. However, without changing it
back, the terminal dial-in still worked! I bought a book on PPP which
didn't help. An electrical storm killed both modems, giving me some time
until new ones are in.
I'd like to know:
1. Whether it's possible to have terminal & PPP services available on a
single dial-in line.
2. Any help on how to get this working.
Thanks,
Martin McCormick
mar...@sas.upenn.edu
Walter Roberson
Martin McCormick <mar...@sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
:I've been trying for months to set up an incoming PPP connection on my
:server. I haven't been able to get it, though. The version of IRIX is
:6.5.8, and it's a Challenge L, working with two USRobotics modems connected
:to the same phone number.
The "same phone number" bit is unusual but shouldn't be the problem.
:I'd like to know:
:1. Whether it's possible to have terminal & PPP services available on a
:single dial-in line.
Yes, definitely.
On our XL, I have several methods set up. All start with
a normal getty in /etc/inittab, specifying a ttyf port, and using
a dx_38400 rate (because I don't want autobauding -- I let the modem do
the speed buffering.)
People dial in to the XL, and are given a normal login prompt.
In all cases, they log in through a username / password combination.
There are some special names/passwords which have /usr/etc/ppp as the
login shell. For us, these are typically used for machine-to-machine
communications, such as connections from my Palm Vx. (Note:
for the Palm in particular, I turn off ccp and endpoint_discriminator,
but most systems should be able to use these.) I have each of these
systems entered in /etc/ppp.conf with a 'remotehost' statement
fixing the IP address of each. I do NOT use CHAP or PAP. Negotiation
of IP addresses etc is handled completely by ppp.
Most users have regular shells (e.g. /sbin/ksh ). If these users
want a plain terminal session, then they do nothing special and
just execute whatever commands they want.
If a regular user wants a PPP session, then they execute an SUID
binary I wrote called 'startppp'. My 'startppp' routine
looks at various status files and figures out which IP address from
our PPP pool is not in use, and exec's /usr/etc/ppp with a '-r'
parameter giving that unused address. PAP and CHAP are not used.
Negotiation of IP addresses etc is handled by ppp, under the constraint
of using the address so passed in.
My 'startppp' routine is only as complicated as it is because we
do not happen to have a handy subnet to allocate addresses from, just
some scattered addresses.
An additional point is that we found it better [due to historical
bugs] to statically proxie-arp each address that might get allocated
to a PPP session. We do this at system startup time -- I use
a special comment in /etc/hosts, and the startup routine does
an 'arp -s' of every hostname so detected. Because of this,
we have -proxy_arp set in /etc/ppp.conf .
Scott Henry
M> I've been trying for months to set up an incoming PPP connection on my
M> server. I haven't been able to get it, though. The version of IRIX is
M> 6.5.8, and it's a Challenge L, working with two USRobotics modems connected
M> to the same phone number. The whole thing has been working for years as a
M> terminal dial in and they want me to add the PPP funcitonality. From the
M> IRIX man pages, it appears PPP starts as a terminal dial-in, but by logging
M> into an account with /usr/etc/ppp as the shell, it somehow becomes PPP.
M> This is what I tried and I couldn't dial-in from either a MacOS9.1 or Win2K
M> system.
M> I read through SGI's instructions in IRIX Networking and Mail, for PPP
M> setup. I decided to make it PPP only. It still didn't work with the Mac
M> after using "add an incoming PPP connection" with the SystemManager tool.
M> (I didn't remove the old terminal functionality.) I checked the config
M> files by hand too and didn't see anything. However, without changing it
M> back, the terminal dial-in still worked! I bought a book on PPP which
M> didn't help. An electrical storm killed both modems, giving me some time
M> until new ones are in.
M> I'd like to know:
M> 1. Whether it's possible to have terminal & PPP services available on a
M> single dial-in line.
Yes.
M> 2. Any help on how to get this working.
Grab it while reality is still alive, instructions:
<URL:http://reality.sgi.com/scotth/dialup-support.html>
--
Scott Henry <sco...@sgi.com> / Help! My disclaimer is missing!
IRIX/Linux MTS, / http://reality.sgi.com/scotth/
Silicon Graphics, Inc / SGI-One step ahead