Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:32:50 +0000 From: Brian Somers <brian@Awfulhak.org> To: MALCOLM BOFF <Malcolm_Boff@compuserve.com> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Use of questions Message-ID: <199903112232.WAA00958@keep.lan.Awfulhak.org> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 11 Mar 1999 11:46:08 EST." <199903111146_MC2-6DA1-5316@compuserve.com>
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> 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 <brian@Awfulhak.org> <brian@FreeBSD.org> <brian@OpenBSD.org>
<http://www.Awfulhak.org>;
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour !
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