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Date:      Sat, 05 Sep 1998 19:10:00 +0900
From:      Masahiro Sekiguchi <seki@sysrap.cs.fujitsu.co.jp>
To:        freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Compuserve and PPP
Message-ID:  <19980905191000E.seki@sysrap.cs.fujitsu.co.jp>
In-Reply-To: <199803190612_MC2-3754-B4FF@compuserve.com>
References:  <199803190612_MC2-3754-B4FF@compuserve.com>

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Malcolm G. Boff wrote:

> I am firmly of the opinion that the PPP run by Compuserve is sufficiently 
> non-standard that further efforts to connect are not worth the effort.

> I am adding this to "Freebsd-questions" to serve as a warning to others
> who may be using Compuserve.

I think this six-months-late message doesn't help Malcolm, but sending
this to the -questions list for a record may be a help for guys who
try to connect to CompuServe in the future.

This message explains how you can connect FreeBSD userland PPP (aka
IIJPPP) to the CompuServe PPP access points.

Malcolm was partly correct; connecting to CompuServe PPP requires a
*unique* login script which is something different from the sample
come with FreeBSD distribution.  However, once you can login to the
network, the standard PPP tools work fine.

There are three important *secrets* to know when connecting to
CompuServe PPP.

(1) Use "seven bits, even parity" line setting when running the login
script.

(2) You must send a CR (ASCII 0x0D) just after the modem connects,
without waiting for any prompt.  It may not be trivial how you can let
the CHAT driver to do so, but there is a way.  (See below.)

(3) Your CompuServe ID must be followed by a magic command word
"/go:pppconnect" when you want to connect with PPP.

The login conversation will be something like this:

	YOU	(CR only)
	CIS	Host Name: 
	YOU	CIS
	CIS	User ID: 
	YOU	99999,9999/go:pppconnect
	CIS	Password: 
	YOU	XXXXXXXX

where YOU means the message you (your PC) must send and CIS means the
prompt sent from the CompuServe access point.  All messages you send
must be terminated with a CR (ASCII 0x0D.)  The entire conversation
is performed with seven bits, even parity setting.

The following is an excerpt from my /etc/ppp/ppp.conf which I'm using
for more than two years.  (Not so frequently, however, since I'm
living in Japan and I use CompuServe PPP only when I visit U.S. :-)

---

cis:
 set phone 1-408-980-1044
 set parity even
 set login "TIMEOUT 10 \"\" \"\" Name: CIS ID: 99999,9999/go:pppconnect word: XXXXXXXX"
 set timeout 300
 set ifaddr 10.0.0.1/0 10.0.0.2/0 255.255.255.0 0.0.0.0
 delete ALL
 add 0 0 HISADDR

---

Note that:

(1) '99999,9999' must be replaced with your CompuServe ID, and 'XXXXXXX'
the password.  'set login" through XXXXXXX"' must be written on one
line.

(2) "set parity even" on the third line instructs PPP to use "seven
bit, even parity" mode during login session.  The PPP daemon
automatically change the mode to "eight bit, no parity" when it
successfully logs in and about to start PPP negotiation.

(3) Specify \"\" \"\" as the first login conversation.  This lets the
PPP CHAT driver to send a CR just after the modem connetion is
established.  (It actually means "wait for nothing, then send an
empty.")

(4) The number "1-408-980-1044" must be replaced with the number of
your local access point.  (Unless you actually want to call Santa
Clara access point. :-)


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