More fun & games with ppp setup

[Paul Robinson]

On Jan  1, CB <ecliptica.ww at virgin.net> wrote:

> Yes Paul, somehow I had got the modem connected to an incorrect (and
> possibly non-functioning) back panel socket - removing the 9/25 way D-type

Thought so. It's a relatively easy mistake to make, and I'm sure everybody
on this list has had similar problems to this themselves. :-)

> e.g. "ping 194.168.4.100" works fine, but "ping www.yahoo.com" doesn't.

Three choices - put a working name server into /etc/resolv.conf, set the ppp 
config up to automatically pick up the DNS from the ISP you are dialling 
into, or run a named and have all names resolved locally. I normally go for 
this latter option as it allows me a bit more flexibility with some of the 
things I have to work with.
 
> Virgin CDF-CVX1-A   login:  [uid entered]
> password:  [pw entered]

I'll take a guess that this is a Nortel CVX1800 (guessing from the CVX
reference). Bastards to admin them, but they should allow you to dial in
with a pretty standard ppp.conf - oh yeah, and it's PAP by default, but they
can be configured to talk CHAP if need be.

> All I'm trying to do is to get the box to a point where it can connect to
> the 'net to do a cvsup so that hopefully I can finally get it to talk to its
> CD ROM drive properly. The PC in question has been sitting with FreeBSD 4.0
> only on it for about a year now gathering dust, and it's only now with a few
> days vacation I've had a chance to make a sustained effort to try and get it
> working properly.

OK, so we're going through this just to get the CD working? What exactly is 
wrong with the CD-drive, and could it not be fixed by a purchase of a newer 
CD, or perhaps connecting it to a network? :-) 

I hate modems. I hate PPP. All hail Ethernet! All hail DSL!
 
> I'm becoming a little more familiar with FreeBSD, but having gone through
> 2.2.3 (full 4 CD set and book purchased), 3.something (installed using an
> online download), and 4.0 (Cheap*Bytes CD purchased) without ever getting to
> the point where I have a system I can actually do useful things with .....

You're either unlucky or stupid. I'll assume you're unlucky, because you 
don't seem that stupid. :-)

About a year ago, the Handbook was a bit out of date. If you go through it 
now though, you shouldn't have too many problems with a relatively modern 
machine getting a nice X workstation up and running. Mind you, most of the 
people who run FBSD tend to be sysadmins who can afford the time fiddling, 
so perhaps it's just a perception that it's "easy". ;-)

-- 
Paul Robinson