*BSD News Article 53722


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From: "Hanns B. Wetzel" <hbw@world.net>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: PPP and or SLIP, connection problem, ijppp, xearth, X11
Date: 21 Oct 1995 12:58:59 GMT
Organization: InterBayNet
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Please read the attached file because the answers to my questions worl be very
appreciated.

I have spent may hours fruitlessly going around in apparent circles, and would
like to get soewhere for a change.

Many thaks in advance,

Hanns B. Wetzel
Hervey Bay Qld
Australia
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Recently I purchased the Walnut Creek FreeBSD 2.0.5 cdroms and installed it on
a 520MB HDD on my 486DX2-50 intel box with 20MB ram.

The system appears to be running fairly well. Very stable in text mode, but it 
does suffer from random hangs under X11 R6 3.1.1 when running xearth in the
background. When that happens, it stops dead completely. No response to Ctrl-Alt
-Backspace or nay other key(s) or mouse. Turning off the power is the only way
to get things going again. I think this is a major flaw because after all that
is why we are running Unix instead od DOS based OS's, since Unix is supposed 
have the ability to run processes independently. I hope X11 R6 3.1.2 and/or
FReeBSD 2.1. will overcome this because xearth is a very nice background. There
is possibly also a problem with xearth, because when running top it shows 
processor usage as high as 36+% every time xearth updates the image. Don't know
wether that is as it should be or an indication of something wrong.

Now for my next and more serious questions. Am using FreeBSD on a small box
attempting to set up an ISP test environment in two ways:-

1.	Simulated Internet
	Have pppd running to accept logins from other machines running
	Trumpet Winsock, Windows TCP/IP or whatever. Have my machine running
	httpd "serving" html files and othe stuff that exists on my machine's
	HDD. Now there are several apparent problems:
	Although there are no problems with ordinary logins via modem as a 
	simple user, I cannot get ijppp to work in server mode despite
	exactly following the steps set out in its manpage. I might add here
	that it must be the world's worst example of a man page (and the
	sample conf files are almost totally incomprehensible), the sentence
	after "MORE DETAILS" needs quoting in full; "Please read the Japanese 
	doc for complete explanation. It may not be useful for non-japanese
	readers, but exam-ples in the document may help you to guess."
	Is this a joke??? Toshiharu OHNO is obviously a brilliant programmer,
	but please, could he show a little concern for us lesser mortals
	who are spending countless hours trying to get ijppp to work and do not
	know the japanese language, or even in desperation, would kile to get
	the "japanese doc" translated by a friend, but have no idea in the world
	where to find it.

	Also I frequently use ijppp under X11 R6 3.1.1as a client side process
	in interactive manual dialing mode with either Netscape 1.1.2 or
	Chimera. Nearly every session it simply stops running for no apparent
	reason in the middle of a session. There are no error messages, just
	the normal diagnostic message "write: No such process" followed
	by my FreeBSD command prompt. Running ps shows that it has in fact
	exited.

	To be able to get a system like FreeBSD plus all the utilities that
	come with it for $39.95 plus freight is absolutely tremendous. However
	there is no explanation why pppd has been disabled in the kerel
	configuration and replaced by the "tunnel device". The first we know
	about it after going to a great deal of effort locating the ppp.FAQ
	on the Internet (I live in a rural area in Australia where phone
	charges to my nearest ISP are between $8 and $20 per hour depending
	on time of day), getting C-Kermit via ftp, compiling it, establishing
	its files in the correct directories, learning (to some extent) how
	to use it, writing the appropriate kermit scripts, pppd configuration
	files, then trying it out, only to be told "Sorry - PPP is not
	available on this system" So then we forget all about the hours we have
	pored over the pppd manpages and install the ijppp package, and that
	is where this story began.

	Now please can someone (hopefully someone like Jordan Hubbard) tell me
	why ppp was diabled in the kernel. Can I rebuild the kernel with both
	ppp and tun as pseudo devices and can I have more than one instance
	of each (for example in the slip.FAQ, Satoshi Asami states "first make
	sure you have pseudo-device   sl  2"), or must there be either one or
	the other. Why are there only one instace of these devices in the
	2.0.5 GENERIC kernel. I have been talking about ppp because from what
	I have read and been told, ppp is a far better procol than slip, but
	while I am waiting hopefully for some clear answers, I will try and
	get sliplogin to run in the meantime.

2.	Real Internet
	The foregoing has been attempted without a connection to the Internet
	and using 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0. As stated ppplogin, as described
	in the ijppp manpage has flatly refued to work. I think that perhaps
	my /etc/hosts, /etc/sysconfig, /etc/networks, /etc/host.conf and perhaps
	/etc/resolv.conf may not have the IP addresses configured correctly.

	My question no is:- Do I need a real Internet address to test drive
	either PPP or SLIP login or can (as should be possible) it be done
	under simulated conditions as inicated above.

	Once the login problem is solved, my intention is to then try and
	run sendmail, innd, and ftpd under the same simulated conditions. So
	far I have httpd 3.0 running fine locally and can access it with both
	Chimera and Netscape 1.1.2 by having httpd.conf configured to pass a
	certain directory as a URL. It should therefore be possible to do the
	same from another machine connecting to the FreeBSD host via modem and
	either PPP or SLIP???? So how is it done.

Whover can help me find the answers to these questions will have my undying
gratitude, because I am too old and no longer have the time to go back to
University and try and get a Computer Science Degree on the one hand, and
cannot afford to pay a professional the going rate here, which is about $120
per hour, to come and set everything up for me on the other hand.

Hanns B. Wetzel
Hervey Bay, QLD
Australia

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