Almost working on Linux

Post by Yet Another Dan
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0xb65706f3> <pcomp>
<accomp>]
rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0xc9 <asyncmap 0xa0000> <auth pap> <magic 0x13152e85>
<pcomp> <accomp>]

Though this is legal per the standards, many peers that request an
asyncmap of 0xa0000 are just plain broken.

To work around this sort of problem, add "asyncmap 0xa0000" to your
configuration.

Post by Yet Another Dan
Does anyone know what to fix or check based on this output?
I have no idea what the protocol reject line implies.

That's normal output. It's how PPP negotiates optional features. (In
this case, data compression.)

--
James Carlson, KISS Network <***@sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677

Yet Another Dan

2006-07-05 22:00:18 UTC

Post by Yet Another Dan
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0xb65706f3> <pcomp>
<accomp>]
rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0xc9 <asyncmap 0xa0000> <auth pap> <magic 0x13152e85>
<pcomp> <accomp>]

Though this is legal per the standards, many peers that request an
asyncmap of 0xa0000 are just plain broken.
To work around this sort of problem, add "asyncmap 0xa0000" to your
configuration.

Wow, that sounds obscure. I'll try it. What's the broken part, my old
Rockwell ISA modem?

Post by Yet Another Dan
Does anyone know what to fix or check based on this output?
I have no idea what the protocol reject line implies.

That's normal output. It's how PPP negotiates optional features. (In
this case, data compression.)

What's the best/a good newsgroup to ask about optimizing a modem on
linux? I've read that RPI compression isn't supported.

I'm on the web now, ppp seems to be working fine.
I got a lot of help from a poster on linuxquestions.org, here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=457879

My ISP supports both terminal and ppp dialins on the same phone line.
It looks like it goes to term mode if you hit <Rtrn>, so for ppp, you
just go straight to PAP authorization without logging in through the
linux chat script.

What documentation is currently being maintained for linux ppp? I'd
like to provide some feedback. Other than that, I guess I'm all set.
Thanks for responding.

R.L. Horn

2006-07-05 23:41:16 UTC

Post by James Carlson
To work around this sort of problem, add "asyncmap 0xa0000" to your
configuration.

Wow, that sounds obscure. I'll try it. What's the broken part, my old
Rockwell ISA modem?

Possibly a problem at the other end. There are lots of crummy windoze PPP
implementations.

Typically, a peer will request asyncmap 0xa0000, but pppd can talk him out
of it. In this case, you ask for asyncmap 0x0, the peer asks for 0xa0000,
you say heck no, and the peer comes back and says that's fine.

0xa0000 escapes XON and XOFF. This is unnecessary if both sides are using
hardware flow control (and kind of a nonissue for trunk-connected digital
modems). Either the peer is lying to you (using asyncmap 0xa0000 even
though it said it wouldn't), the peer actually uses software flow control
for some bizarre reason and has a misconfigured PPP daemon (a peer shouldn't
acknowledge an asyncmap it can't handle), or you're set up for software flow
control at your end (in which case you should probably tell the modem to use
hardware flow control instead).

Post by Yet Another Dan
What documentation is currently being maintained for linux ppp?

Apart from what's included with the source, you might check out what's
available at the LDP site (http://www.tldp.org/). The ppp HOWTO isn't too
fresh, unfortunately, as there's just not much interest in dialup PPP
anymore.

James Carlson

2006-07-06 04:07:59 UTC

Post by James Carlson
To work around this sort of problem, add "asyncmap 0xa0000" to your
configuration.

Wow, that sounds obscure. I'll try it. What's the broken part, my old
Rockwell ISA modem?

No. Some peers that do this seem to have gotten the transmit and
receive directions confused, and end up failing to escape things
properly after having negotiated for it.

Post by James Carlson
That's normal output. It's how PPP negotiates optional features.
(In
this case, data compression.)

What's the best/a good newsgroup to ask about optimizing a modem on
linux? I've read that RPI compression isn't supported.

I don't really know what you mean by "optimizing."

In general, the best configuration is none at all: the defaults for
just about everything are set to sane values that shouldn't be tweaked
unless you know what you're doing and you're solving a particular
problem that can't be solved any other way.

Pretty much the only thing you can do here is hurt yourself, not make
it somehow "go faster." The most common problem I see is errant (and
spurious) configuration attempts that lead to bizarre failure modes.

Post by Yet Another Dan
My ISP supports both terminal and ppp dialins on the same phone
line. It looks like it goes to term mode if you hit <Rtrn>, so for
ppp, you just go straight to PAP authorization without logging in
through the linux chat script.

It sounds like you're done.

Post by Yet Another Dan
What documentation is currently being maintained for linux ppp? I'd
like to provide some feedback. Other than that, I guess I'm all
set. Thanks for responding.

You can reach the folks who maintain ppp-2.4 (which actually
originated well before Linux and supports many other systems besides
that one) at ppp-***@dp.samba.org. The main documentation is the man
page that comes with the software.

Various distributions of that software (including Linux distributions)
may come with their own documentation, but that's not being maintained
as part of the ppp-2.4 work. If you have problems with other
documentation, you'll probably want to contact the author or
maintainer of that. (Most documents at least list some sort of
support contact.)

--
James Carlson, KISS Network <***@sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677

Unruh

2006-07-06 23:33:12 UTC

Post by Yet Another Dan
sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <magic 0xb65706f3> <pcomp>
<accomp>]
rcvd [LCP ConfReq id=0xc9 <asyncmap 0xa0000> <auth pap> <magic 0x13152e85>
<pcomp> <accomp>]

Though this is legal per the standards, many peers that request an
asyncmap of 0xa0000 are just plain broken.
To work around this sort of problem, add "asyncmap 0xa0000" to your
configuration.

Wow, that sounds obscure. I'll try it. What's the broken part, my old
Rockwell ISA modem?

Nope, your ISP at the other end of the connection. Many windows ISP are
broken in this way. Microsoft's understanding of ppp protocol left
something to be desired at times.

Post by Yet Another Dan
Does anyone know what to fix or check based on this output?
I have no idea what the protocol reject line implies.

That's normal output. It's how PPP negotiates optional features. (In
this case, data compression.)

What's the best/a good newsgroup to ask about optimizing a modem on
linux? I've read that RPI compression isn't supported.
I'm on the web now, ppp seems to be working fine.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=457879
My ISP supports both terminal and ppp dialins on the same phone line.
It looks like it goes to term mode if you hit <Rtrn>, so for ppp, you
just go straight to PAP authorization without logging in through the
linux chat script.

Yup. Standard, ancient behaviour. Most now disallow terminal logon.

Post by Yet Another Dan
What documentation is currently being maintained for linux ppp? I'd
like to provide some feedback. Other than that, I guess I'm all set.
Thanks for responding.

The man page.

You could also look at
www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/ppp-linux.html
for help in getting connected
and for ppp details there is abook writen by Carlson that is the standard.

Yet Another Dan

2006-07-07 15:18:11 UTC

Post by Yet Another Dan
My ISP supports both terminal and ppp dialins on the same phone line.
It looks like it goes to term mode if you hit <Rtrn>, so for ppp, you
just go straight to PAP authorization without logging in through the
linux chat script.

Yup. Standard, ancient behaviour. Most now disallow terminal logon.

That term login was a lifesaver after I overwrote Win98 with the new
Linux install. Before learning to use Lynx and Tin, I had to go to the
public library for a max allowed time of one hour per day to access the
web. :(

Post by Yet Another Dan
What documentation is currently being maintained for linux ppp? I'd
like to provide some feedback. Other than that, I guess I'm all set.
Thanks for responding.

The man page.

I found the ppp and related man pages woefully incomplete. And Zenwalk
for reasons they still haven't explained to me includes .info files but
not the TeXInfo package in their distro.

Post by Unruh
You could also look at
www.theory.physics.ubc.ca/ppp-linux.html

Speaking of which, this is one of the docs I used and wanted to comment
on. In the section "Which Authentication Scheme?", I didn't see the
<auth pap> messages until after I was already trying PAP. I had to
delete the login lines from the chat script and hand over control back
to pppd without any output from the ISP's server to provide clues. A
poster named blackhole54 at linuxquestions.org provided that and lots of
other ideas here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=457879

Thanks for having that doc though. That, the ppp howto, and one or two
other docs were my main sources of info, along with the LQ forum.

More generally, none of the ppp docs I read, including the howto and the
faq, said anything about exiting chat without logging in. I guess they
did say check with the ISP about PAP, but there was also at least one
doc that said if you get a login, the ISP isn't using PAP. At least
that was the impression I got. That was true for term mode but not ppp
mode. On my ISP, you get to term mode by hitting <Rtrn>, ppp mode by
exiting chat with no action at all once you're connected. Since my
ISP's server is so slow, this is the last line of my ppp chat script:

CONNECT "\d\d\d\d\c"

I'm not sure whether the delay is necessary for pppd/pap. I just added
the \c to the \d's that were already there for term login.

Thanks for the help.

Unruh

2006-07-07 20:33:29 UTC

Post by Yet Another Dan
Speaking of which, this is one of the docs I used and wanted to comment
on. In the section "Which Authentication Scheme?", I didn't see the
<auth pap> messages until after I was already trying PAP. I had to
delete the login lines from the chat script and hand over control back
to pppd without any output from the ISP's server to provide clues. A
poster named blackhole54 at linuxquestions.org provided that and lots of
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=457879

?? a) The doc constantly says to use '\d\c' at the end of the chat script
immediately after the CONNECT.
This is there for a reason. It was not that I simply wanted to type some
extra weird letters.

Then there is a whole section of Login Authorization.

One of the things I do say in the doc is that you should go through it
exactly and not try to skip around. That is for a reason. The way I go is
what I have found to be the most efficient way of discovering what your ISP
wants.

b) There is a whole section labeled Which Authentication and later "PAP/CHAP"

Post by Yet Another Dan
Thanks for having that doc though. That, the ppp howto, and one or two
other docs were my main sources of info, along with the LQ forum.
More generally, none of the ppp docs I read, including the howto and the
faq, said anything about exiting chat without logging in. I guess they

ppp-linux.html certainly does.

Post by Yet Another Dan
did say check with the ISP about PAP, but there was also at least one
doc that said if you get a login, the ISP isn't using PAP. At least

Maybe. There are lots of bad docs out there.

Post by Yet Another Dan
that was the impression I got. That was true for term mode but not ppp
mode. On my ISP, you get to term mode by hitting <Rtrn>, ppp mode by
exiting chat with no action at all once you're connected. Since my
CONNECT "\d\d\d\d\c"
I'm not sure whether the delay is necessary for pppd/pap. I just added
the \c to the \d's that were already there for term login.
Thanks for the help.

Yet Another Dan

2006-07-08 01:11:19 UTC

I didn't skip around. I also don't have a /var/log/ppp.

Here's the tail of /var/log/messages with

/usr/sbin/pppd /dev/ttyS1 57600 debug connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v ''
AT OK ATD******* CONNECT '\d\c'"

and without /etc/ppp/pap-secrets:

Jul 7 19:50:05 zenwalk chat[2742]: ATD*******^M^M
Jul 7 19:50:05 zenwalk chat[2742]: CONNECT
Jul 7 19:50:05 zenwalk chat[2742]: -- got it
Jul 7 19:50:05 zenwalk chat[2742]: send (\d)
Jul 7 19:50:06 zenwalk pppd[2741]: Serial connection established.
Jul 7 19:50:06 zenwalk pppd[2741]: Using interface ppp0
Jul 7 19:50:06 zenwalk pppd[2741]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS1
Jul 7 19:50:11 zenwalk pppd[2741]: Serial line is looped back.
Jul 7 19:50:11 zenwalk pppd[2741]: Connection terminated.
Jul 7 19:50:13 zenwalk pppd[2741]: Exit.

Unruh

2006-07-08 20:45:22 UTC