Mfl

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Now we're coming to something, that's a horror for every MiNT beginner and gave MiNT-Net the reputation to be hard to install, the working on several configuration files.

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All what we do now, can be easily setup with my little program MiCo-Konfig from this Homepage but you will not learn much by using it.:)
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First you have to open the folder /etc/ppp, there you will find several files, but there are only three interesting files in the moment:
/etc/ppp/options
/etc/ppp/pap-secrets
/etc/ppp/pppchat.ndh

The file /etc/ppp/options and /etc/ppp/pap-secrets are important for the so called ppp daemon (pppd), which makes the connection to our provider over the so called Point to Point Protocol possible. The file /etc/ppp/pppchat.ndh is needed by the program 'chat' and is important for establishing a modem connection to our provider and eventually an 'ASCII-login' if needed. After that pppd takes over and looks for passwords, connect options etc.

Mfl

This distribution is only a very rudimentary MiNT-system, so you have, so called root permissions all the time, this means you can do everything you want!! Is it in normal life very nice to do everything you want, this is on a Unix/Linux/MiNT system the badest thing you can imagine.;) Normally only the so called system administrator (That is the one with the black belt.;)) can do everything on a unix system and only the SysAdmin fixes what a normal user is permitted to do and what he is not permitted to do. This has nothing to do with dictatorship, but this has the advantage that no lamer is fiddling around on things where he should left his fingers off. In our case, we are our own SysAdmin and when we're configurating something wrong, we have to be angry about ourselves and no one else.;-)
Everybody, for example, can read/write the files /etc/ppp/pap-secrets/chap-secrets, these files containing the passwords to your provider, so you shouldn't install this distribution on a computer, where the whole world has access to.

Mfl

ATTENTION! The following description is for pppd 2.2.0, so if you have installed pppd >=2.3 (all Mfl III users have this) read descriptions for pppd 2.3.x first! The files in /etc/ppp/peers/ are the same as the /etc/ppp/options file, so you can follow the instructions below.
A little sidewalk, the pppd "looks" first if there exists a /home/.ppprc file, after that he "looks" for /etc/ppp/options.ttyx and at last for /etc/ppp/options. So you can individually configure the pppd to your needs.
Now I tell you how to configure a standard ISP entry with PPP and PAP-authentication. As an example I use my own provider, you should have got the similiar informations from your internet provider(So don't use mine.:):

             User                   m.kehr
             password               secret
             nameserver1            194.97.97.10
             nameserver2            194.97.97.15
             domain                 ndh.net
             SMTP-Server            mail.ndh.net
             POP-Server             mail.ndh.net
             NNTP-Server            news.ndh.net

            

Now you're loading the /etc/ppp/options file to your text editor (which can handle unix line ends!), this file is already commented. Example is my own provider NDH.

             # Example options for NDH
             # Mfl-project

             # Put tty device here (ttya=modem1 etc.) look also at MINT.CNF
             /dev/ttyb

             # Device speed
             115200

             # Please keep your hands off for now
             crtscts
             lock
             modem
             debug  ----- when everything works, you can delete this
             noipdefault
             defaultroute
             -vj
             asyncmap 0
             netmask 255.255.255.0

             # The values for mtu and mru you will get from your provider
             mru 1500
             mtu 1500

             # Put your user word (Example from above)
             user m.kehr

             # From this point chat is executed with the chat script
             connect "/usr/etc/chat -f /etc/ppp/pppchat.ndh"
                                       ^ You can put -v here, to get more
                                       (error)-messages from chat

          

In this place you only have to enter the device (/dev/ttya for modem1, /dev/ttyb for modem2 and so on) and the device speed, all other entries can be left in peace.
In the variable 'user' you have to enter your user identifier that you have got from your provider, in my case it's m.kehr, see above.

Some words to the IP, most providers today handle your access with dynamic IP's, that means you got your IP automatically from your provider when you establish a connection. In this case you have not to change anything. If your provider offers only static IP's, you have to enter the IP you've got from your provider in the following way to your options file:

                Local IP:Remote IP
          

Naturally not exactly this, but for Local IP you give your own IP and for Remote IP you give the IP you've got from your provider. It doesn't matter in which place in your options the line is. For example:

                192.168.0.10:192.32.0.17
          

MfD

Next you have to edit the /etc/ppp/pap-secrets, the format is as follows:

                user *  password
           

For example, your password is "secret", then the line looks like this:

               m.kehr   *   secret
           

It's possible that later pppd grumbles, that the pap-secrets has "world access". So you can change this by changing file permissions in the following way:

               chmod 600 /etc/ppp/pap-secrets
           

Mfl

******* IMPORTANT! It is not allowed to use comments in this file ********

And finally we will edit the pppchat.ndh, this file by the way, can have any name you wish (the ending .ndh only stands for my example provider NDH), you only have to take care in the /etc/ppp/options under

             connect "/usr/etc/chat -f ...."
            

to change it to the right name of the chatscript!
The pppchat.ndh looks like this:

             TIMEOUT 60             --- If no connection is established after 60 seconds,
                                        the modem will hang up
             ABORT "NO DIALTONE"    --- self explanatory
             ABORT "NO CARRIER"     ---  "       "
             ABORT BUSY             ---  "       "
             ABORT ERROR            ---  "       "
             "" ATZ                 --- Modem Init
             OK atL0                --- Dial string (L0=modem speaker low)
             OK atdt010880192333    --- dial number of (my) provider
             CONNECT                --- wait until CONNECT string from modem

            

One should still consider, when you have to use the \ char in dial string (e.g. when using ISDN), that you have to write that in this way: \\ because MiNT will interprete the \ and the following character as a function (for example: \n - Line Feed)

In principle you can take over the file for a normal provider as it is, you only have to change the dial number of your specific provider behind atdt.

Mfl

Now you're going to /etc to edit the last files.

Interesting are the following three files:

domainname
resolv.conf
hostname

Mfl

In file domainname we have to enter the domain, in our case:

ndh.net

This file can contain more than one domain, this looks like this for example:

            ndh.net
            germany.net
            

Your will get the domain from your provider normally.

Mfl

In the file /etc/resolv.conf we have to enter the domain again and one or more nameserver IP's, in our case it looks like this:

             domain ndh.net>
             nameserver 194.97.97.10
             nameserver 194.97.97.15
            

When you try to start pppd later, and you've got error messages like "unknown host" or "network unreachable", then something is wrong with the /etc/resolv.conf!

Mfl

In this file you have to enter the name you had just given in the MINT.CNF for the environment variable HOSTNAME.
So, folks that's all, now comes the great instant, we will test now if everything goes right!

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