*BSD News Article 47298


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From: uweg@lynet.de (Uwe Gruentjes)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: FreeBSD 1.1.5, pppd and more ...
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 08:48:24 GMT
Organization: GfS Luschendorf
Lines: 51
Message-ID: <3uvmmu$b8j@lynet.Lynet.De>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pm204.lynet.de
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82

Hello everybody,

this will get a little bit longwinded, but ...

Our communications server is running FreeBSD 1.1.5 as its operating
system. Due to time constraints an update is not possible in the near
future. For more than one year now it's running 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, with very few reboots necessary.

We are running our company BBS on it as well as doing some UUCP based
mail and file transfers. MTA is smail 3.1, UUCP is Taylor 1.05. It's
also acting as our primary DNS (locally).

Our company network is mainly based on NetWare 3.12 with our NetWare
server also running the SMTP gateway (Mercury 1.21). All mail with
external destinations is correctly forwarded to our FreeBSD machine
and sent via UUCP. Incoming mail is forwarded to our SMTP gateway and
distributed locally. The same holds true for mail from and to other
UNIX (SCO etc.) systems in our LAN. Everything works like it should.

Since last week we are able to hook up our whole LAN to a local
Internet providers host using PPP. Nevertheless must we continue to
support UUCP due to customers demand. We intend to continue our use of
the FreeBSD machine as our primary comm server. Our provider will act
as our secondary DNS.

Here are the parts I don't understand (yet):

Suppose somebody wants to FTP somewhere. He uses Trumpet Winsock with
the FreeBSD machine configured as gateway. FreeBSD looks up the
destination on DNS. If it finds that the destination isn't local, it
should dial up our providers host:
- Does pppd (the one that comes with the system) work?
- How do I initiate a communications link (dial on demand) when
  somebody requests an internet service?
- How do I close the communications link when the service isn't needed
  any longer?

The same questions apply to other networking related issues:
- If I want to use NNTP, I have to initiate a PPP connection. How?
- AFAIK now we have to use bsmtp for Internet mail, which is supported
  by smail. How do I get and deliver mail via a PPP link?

If there is a document which explains all of this, please point me to
its location. If somebody of you has resolved these issues, please
share your knowledge with me. I'm grateful for every hint I can get.

Best regards and TIA

Uwe Gruentjes (uweg@lynet.de)