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#! rnews 5646 bsd Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!act.news.telstra.net!psgrain!news.sprintlink.net!news.zeitgeist.net!cygnus.com!kithrup.com!news.Stanford.EDU!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!falstaf.demon.co.uk From: Robin Birch <robin@falstaf.demon.co.uk> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Internet Provider Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 08:26:34 GMT Organization: Ruff'n Ready Software Lines: 112 Message-ID: <128711379wnr@falstaf.demon.co.uk> References: <4h2je8$796@starbase1.ping.ch> Reply-To: robin@falstaf.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: falstaf.demon.co.uk X-Broken-Date: Wednesday, Mar 06, 1996 08.26.34 X-Newsreader: Newswin Alpha 0.7 X-Mail2News-Path: disperse.demon.co.uk!post.demon.co.uk!falstaf.demon.co.uk In article: <4h2je8$796@starbase1.ping.ch> mnobile@fivenet.ch writes: > I've just installed FreeBSD from the CD and I'm very happy with it. > Well done, > > Just one question: how can I connect to my internet provider with PPP > and start using e-mail, www, ... ? > Common one this, I wish people would get together and write some notes for this but service providers seem to universally assume that people who use unix either are too small a community to be useful or already know what they are doing, wrong on both counts. > > I followed the FAQ-instruction and ended up with a "cu number -s 19200" > that connected my to the provider server but don't allow my to use > internet services. > Ok, enough of a whinge. Here are a few simple steps that will help you get going. 0) edit sysconfig and blow away all references to routing. Then set up a static set of routes in /etc/rc.local. This is because the sysconfig script starts up routed which you don't need at this stage and it just makes life complicated. eg: in rc.local route add 158.152.152.109 localhost route add default 158.152.152.109 This sets up the appropriate routes to send stuff to your external gateway that you can't do yourself. In this the number is the IP number of your machine, replace with whatever you like. Edit /etc/resolv.conf and stick a line in that points to the appropriate nameserver that your provider uses. They will provide you with this info. 1) Configure the modem port that you are using for an IP link. This assumes that you have an IP number for your machine. The provider I use, demon, supply you with two numbers, one for your box and another for the box that you connect to. You can use either slip or ppp to do this. eg: ifconfig sl0 inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -arp -trailers the xxx.xxx etc are your's and their's IP numbers. If you are using ppp then replace the sl0 with a tun0. 2) I prefer slip but that is just me, many people use ppp or pppd quite happily and I believe that they can get suitable treatment for the side effects. If 2.1 comes with dip (A package that originally came with linux but is now available for BSD) then use slip, if not it definitely comes with pp and pppd. The manual pages best explain this, just set up the appropriate chat scripts. 3) AT this stage you should be able to dial into your provider using ppp, dip or pppd and get an IP link. You will haev to set up various trivia such as your hostname etc. Again, look in the man pages. 4) This is where it gets somewhat arcane. You now have to set up mail and news. The easiest way is to find someone who has done it before. All of the packages are on 2.1. What I suggest is that you get a book that describes how to edit sendmail.cf and have a play. If you can find some one who can do this or set up the m4 configuration scripts for you then this only takes a few minutes otherwise it is horrible. 5) News is a little simpler. There is a lot more to set up but it is fairly straight forward. Firstly set up slurp to suck files down from your provider's news machine. This involves two files - slurp.sys and a file named for your news provider with some times in it. Again, look at the man pages but it is fairly striaght forward. Then set up inn, this is a little long winded but fairly simple. Look closely at the newsfeeds(5) man page as this file is a little nasty but should be ok. This gets news into your box. Then look at trn, the reader that comes with 2.1. I've never set this up but I assume that it is simple. 6) As soon as you can get a better news reader, something like tin. I'm sorry that this seems a little long winded but nobody seems to want to offer a bundled package with some simple setup scripts. I'm sure that it should be possible for, say, linux and freeBSD, but the providers only want to supply stuff for DOS. This gives a false impression of what is involved. DOS requires as much setting up as unix if you don't have every- thing bundled. It's just that people have expended the effort to create bundled setups. Anyway - good luck. It took me 1 week to do sendmail and then 2 weeks to do news the first time cos I couldn't find anybody to help me until very late in the piece. Having gone through that I now realise that it is actually quite simple and getting a few simple books on the subject helps. The problem is that to do this you have to set up a number of different packages that are independant and there isn't, as far as I know, a common document set. Robin -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Robin Birch EMail robin@falstaf.demon.co.uk | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------