PPP under RedHat Linux

For Technical Support or Billing Questions:
Iowa City:	(319) 339-8268
Williamsburg:	(319) 339-8268
Cedar Rapids:	(319) 247-1012
Des Moines:	(515) 254-2559
Waterloo:	(319) 833-9244
Sioux City:	(712) 255-1950

Hours:	M-F 9:00am - 7:00pm
	Sat 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Webpage:	http://www.avalon.net/

Login/Username: _________________

Password: _______________________

Once connected, you can always access your e-mail by visiting http://webmail.avalon.net/

It is recommended that you set-up a mail client to access your mail instead of webmail. You can find instructions to set-up a mail client at http://newweb.avalon.net/email_setup.html

First: Configuring your Linux kernel

First of all, you'll need to know how to compile your Linux kernel to include PPP support. Please note that this is probably not going to be a problem with your system. Most distributions already have PPP supprt compiled into the kernel.

We will not focus on this here, but there are many great resorces that will help. Obtain the source code for your kernel from http://www.kernel.org, and then check out the linux Kernel-HOWTO at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Kernel-HOWTO.html. This should give you a good start, and then you can begin to configure linux to use PPP with Avalon.

Getting information from your ISP (Avalon)

Before you can establish a PPP connection with a server--in this case, Avalon--you need to know some information about the server. Here's what you need to know:

• The telephone number to dial:

  Avalon Local Dial-Up Numbers
  319-358-9910 for Iowa City (V.90 56k)	515-334-3143 for Des Moines (V.90 56k)
  319-399-1221 for Cedar Rapids (V.90 56k)	319-226-6827 for Waterloo (V.90 56k)
  319-668-9533 for Williamsburg (V.90 56k)	712-224-5600 for Sioux City (V.90 56k)
  	402-494-0776 for Homer, NE (V.90 56k)

• The IP numbers of Avalon's Domain Name Servers (DNS):

  Avalon Domain Name Servers
  Iowa City & Williamsburg	Pri. DNS: Sec. DNS:	216.137.73.70 216.137.64.70
  Waterloo & Cedar Rapids	Pri. DNS: Sec. DNS:	216.137.64.70 216.137.73.70
  Des Moines & Sioux City	Pri. DNS: Sec. DNS:	216.137.85.70 216.137.64.70

Configuring your modem

Next, you need to make sure your modem is set up correctly and you know which serial port it is on. If you used a Windows/DOS machine before, remember that

• DOS com1 = Linux /dev/ttyS0     <--thats a zero at the end
• DOS com2 = Linux /dev/ttyS1
• ...etc...

*Note: It is important to use ttySx devices for both dial-in and -out rather than cuaX devices, as the latter is rumored to disappear in future kernel versions.

Putting it all to use

Keeping all the above in consideration, at the command line, do linuxconf
This will start the Linux configuration tool, which provides a very nice interface for configuring PPP.

Choose Config > Networking > Client Tasks > Routing and Gateways > PPP/SLIP/PLIP.

• Under PPP/Slip/Plip Configurations:
  • choose your PPP configuration, or
  • Add a new PPP configuration
  
  
• Under Hardware:
  • select Use hardware flow control and modem lines
  • select Abort connection on well-known errors
  • select Allow any user to (de)activate the interface
    
  • for 56K modems, set your line speed to 115200
  • for slower modems, set the speed to 57600.
    
  • set the modem port to use the port that you found in the last section (/dev/ttySx, where x is the number of the port)
    
    
• Under the Communication section:
  • change the Modem init string to ATZ
  • change the Modem dial command to ATDT
  • put the phone number you will dial (found in the list above) in the Phone number field.
  
  
• Uner the PAP section:
  • put your username in the username field
  • put your password in the secret field
  
  
• Accept the changes and quit linuxconf
  

Setting up Name to Address Resolution (DNS)

Next, you'll need to tell your computer how to translate (resolve)Domain Names (human given names) into IP addresses (computer recognized names). We give computers names such as arthur.avalon.net because they're easier to remember, but the computer won't understand that. We need to tell it that arthur.avalon.net is really 216.137.72.20. All you need to do here is edit the /etc/resolv.conf file to include Avalon's nameservers. When you're done, it should look like this example:

domain avalon.net
nameserver 216.137.73.70
nameserver 216.137.64.70

This makes it easy for your computer to connect to and move around the internet, because it resolves IP numbers automatically. *If you don't have this file, you need to create it.

Testing your connection
You should be ready to connect to Avalon now. Try to connect by typing ifup ppp0

You should hear the modem initialize and dial, and you should be returned to the command line shortly. Now try, ping avalon.net

You should see something like this:
arthur: /home/support $ ping avalon.net
PING avalon.net: 64 byte packets
64 bytes from 204.71.106.20: icmp_seq=0. time=1. ms
64 bytes from 204.71.106.20: icmp_seq=1. time=0. ms
64 bytes from 204.71.106.20: icmp_seq=2. time=0. ms
64 bytes from 204.71.106.20: icmp_seq=3. time=0. ms
64 bytes from 204.71.106.20: icmp_seq=4. time=0. ms

If so, all is well and you're ready to go! If you didn't get something that looked like the above, refer to the PPP-HOWTO at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/PPP-HOWTO.html. To close your PPP connection, just do ifdown ppp0