From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Mar 11 14:35: 7 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from awfulhak.org (awfulhak.force9.co.uk [195.166.136.63]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA51614F59 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:34:56 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brian@Awfulhak.org) Received: from keep.lan.Awfulhak.org (keep.lan.Awfulhak.org [172.16.0.8]) by awfulhak.org (8.9.2/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA14556; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:33:25 GMT (envelope-from brian@Awfulhak.org) Received: from keep.lan.Awfulhak.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by keep.lan.Awfulhak.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA00958; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:32:50 GMT (envelope-from brian@keep.lan.Awfulhak.org) Message-Id: <199903112232.WAA00958@keep.lan.Awfulhak.org> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: MALCOLM BOFF Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Use of questions In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 11 Mar 1999 11:46:08 EST." <199903111146_MC2-6DA1-5316@compuserve.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:32:50 +0000 From: Brian Somers Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > I have been attached to freebsd-questions-digest for several > years with occassional outages and I have taken a broad brush > analysis of what questions (hence problems) are most frequently > asked. My conclusions are the 2 most major topics are 1) > installation related and 2) ppp related. Bear in mind that of all the possible uses people make of FreeBSD, they must first install it - it's therefore something that has happened at least once per installation. Also, for home users, the majority will have only one machine and will therefore have a desire to connect to the 'net. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other programs that a users ``must'' use.... [.....] > The 'ppp' problems are also of concern since the only real > authority on this (Brian@awfulhak.com ??) cannot be expected > to be a guru on every ISP's implementation. (I have to say that > having tried 3 ISP's in the UK I have not successfully managed > to get connected via ppp so I have stayed with compuserve - > it sickens me to say that MS$ can apparently do what I have > failed to do in FreeBSD). Shouldn't there perhaps be a task > force outside of freebsd-questions to build up some knowledge > of what is going on with ISP's ? (freebsd-ppp ???). I believe most ISPs are pretty standard. I've been trying to figure out why there's so much ppp traffic, and the only thing I can say for sure is that the questions that are being asked have changed. All of the original gotchas are no longer problems either due to changed defaults or better documentation. The work I've done in the last couple of years has caused its own fair share of problems - problems that are entirely my fault. This adds to the confusion and the overall ``there must be something fundamentally wrong with either the ppp program or documentation'' belief. Having said all that, ppp is now more stable than it's ever been, so I think some good is being done.... it's slow though (if only someone would only pay me to do this stuff ;-) Your case AFAICT is/was not normal. First you were connecting with Compuserve, and our hours of discussions were pretty much in vain - until Compuserve decided to grace you with some information. Even then, I didn't have the knowledge to help.... After that, when you were trying to connect to Demon you were getting garbage instead of a login prompt..... What I'd say now (with a little bit more knowledge behind me): 1. There's a compuserve example in ppp.conf.sample these days. This works for other people that connect with ppp. 2. Take advantage of Windows - delve into their setup and find out what AT commands they're sending your modem. I suspect 1. will be useles 'till you sort out 2. though... > Malcolm G. Boff -- Brian Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour ! To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message