ppp, pmcia and isdn question

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Ulrike" == Ulrike Schmidt <ulrike@example.com> writes:

    Ulrike> I first tried to get the pcmcia-modem working. Cardinfo
    Ulrike> says "Serial or Modem", dev "ttyS2", but when I used
    Ulrike> pppconfig and had it

Unfortunately Debian-configured pppconfig is gomi.  If you know what
you're doing it's barely usable.  If you don't know what you're doing
it will bite you.

    Ulrike> also used PAP, although I don't know whether this is correct.

As Grendel said, PAP is correct for GOL, although AFAIK chat (not
CHAP) also works (but not for ISDN IIRC, but I don't have ISDN so
don't trust that).

    Ulrike> Anyway, somehow I cannot get a connection.

No, you _did_ get a connection.  Then _you_ terminated it.  (Well,
your pppd did.)

    Ulrike> I read something about pppd and debug, but "pppd debug"
    Ulrike> says "The remote system is required to authenticate itself
    Ulrike> but I couldn't find any suitable secret (password) for it
    Ulrike> to use to do so. (None of the available passwords would
    Ulrike> let it use an IP adress.)"

Why people write crap like pppconfig instead of simply writing
documentation I will never understand.

PPP is a point-to-point protocol; there is neither a server nor a
client.  Somehow one side has to initiate the conversation, but
everything else is symmetric, including authentication.

Evidently your PPP configuration is set up to authenticate the remote
side.  Since GOL expects to do the authentication, and not vice versa,
it doesn't have a password for you.

Look in the configuration file for stuff that has to do with who
authenticates who.  I forget whether the relevant thing is in PPP's
config, or in pap-secrets.

    Ulrike> If cardinfo detects the pcmcia-card as a modem, why
    Ulrike> doesn't pppconfig?

Because cardinfo talks to the card directly via the PCMCIA bus.  The
card responds to "hello, WTF are you?" with "hi, I'm a modem."
pppconfig scans the serial "devices" (actually high level software
abstractions) /dev/ttyS*.  For whatever reason, it doesn't recognize
the response from /dev/ttyS2 as a modem.

    Ulrike> How can I find out where the problem lies with failing
    Ulrike> connections? plog printed out a lot of strange strings
    Ulrike> will the lights were blinking but not much informative
    Ulrike> information about why the connection failed in the end.

pppd debug told you: your system is configured not to talk to
strangers.  I gotta go teach (paid, I mean, not this volunteer stuff,
more later (probably much later, I'm behind in my prep :( ).


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