pppconfig is a dialog based interactive, menu driven utility to help automate setting up a dial out ppp
connection. It provides extensive explanations at each step. pppconfig supports PAP, CHAP, and chat
methods of authentication. It uses the standard ppp configuration files and sets ppp up so that the
standard pon and poff commands can be used to control ppp. Some features supported by pppconfig are:
- Multiple ISP's with separate nameservers.
- Modem detection.
- Dynamic DNS.
- Dial on demand.
- Allow non-root users to run ppp.
- Uses the gdialog GUI dialog replacement if possible.
Before running pppconfig you should know what sort of authentication your isp requires, the username and
password that they want you to use, and the phone number. If they require you to use chat
authentication, you will also need to know the login and password prompts and any other prompts and
responses required for login. If you can't get this information from your isp you could try dialing in
with minicom and working through the procedure until you get the garbage that indicates that ppp has
started on the other end.
pppconfig allows you to configure connections to multiple providers. For example, you might call your
isp 'provider', your employer 'theoffice' and your university 'theschool'. Then you can connect to your
isp with 'pon', your office with 'pon theoffice', and your university with 'pon theschool'.
It can determine which serial port your modem is on, but the serial port must already be configured.
This is normally done when installing Linux.
It can help you set your nameservers, or, if your ISP uses 'dynamic DNS', it can set up ppp to use that.
It can configure ppp for demand dialing, so that your ppp connection will come up automatically. It will
not, however, start pppd for you. You must still start pppd yourself ('pon' will do it). Pppd will then
wait in the background for you to attempt to access the Net and bring up the link.
If you select "Static" in the "Configure Nameservers" screen pppconfig will create a file in the
/etc/ppp/resolv directory named after the provider you are configuring and containing "nameserver" lines
for each of the IP numbers you gave. This file will be substituted for /etc/resolv.conf when the
connection comes up. The provider name is passed in the ipparam variable so that 0dns-up knows which
file to use. The original resolv.conf will be put back when the connection goes down. You can edit this
file if you wish and add such things as "search" or "domain" directives or additional nameservers. Be
sure and read the resolv.conf man page first, though. The "search" and "domain" directives probably do
not do what you think they do.
If you select "dynamic" in the "Configure Nameservers" screen pppconfig will configure pppd for 'dynamic
DNS' and create a file in the /etc/ppp/resolv directory named after the provider you are configuring but
containing nothing. When the connection comes up the nameservers supplied by your ISP will be added and
the file substituted for /etc/resolv.conf. You can edit this file if you wish and add such things as
"search" or "domain" directives or additional nameservers.
If you select "None" in the "Configure Nameservers" screen pppconfig will create no file in
/etc/ppp/resolv and will leave /etc/resolv.conf alone. ipparam is not set to the provider name and so is
free for the administrator to use.
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