From owner-freebsd-hackers  Mon Feb 19 21:20:45 1996
Return-Path: owner-hackers
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id VAA21389
          for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 19 Feb 1996 21:20:45 -0800 (PST)
Received: from rocky.sri.MT.net (rocky.sri.MT.net [204.182.243.10])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id VAA21372
          for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Mon, 19 Feb 1996 21:20:42 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from nate@localhost) by rocky.sri.MT.net (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA10051; Mon, 19 Feb 1996 22:22:02 -0700
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 22:22:02 -0700
From: Nate Williams <nate@sri.MT.net>
Message-Id: <199602200522.WAA10051@rocky.sri.MT.net>
To: malcolm newton <mnewton@io.org>
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: PPP -auto and -direct
In-Reply-To: <3123E144.7435@io.org>
References: <3123E0FA.9A9@io.org>
	<3123E144.7435@io.org>
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

> I have  a web server attached via ISDN line to an ISP which I need to
>  keep up permanently.(or as close as possible) I am using /etc/ppp

Umm, there is no program /etc/ppp.  Do you mean /usr/sbin/ppp?

>  i works fine until the line drops. I am thinking of doing
>  something like
>  -auto
>  timeout set to 300 (timeout for what)

'timeout' is the amount of time it will wait for traffic before it brings
the line down.  So, it will wait up to 300 seconds when no traffic is
sent, then it will bring the line down.  If you set the timeout to 0, it
won't timeout ever.  (But, it also won't re-dial the line if it does
down for other reasons, such as phone line problems, etc...)

>  then background ping to  isp to ensure connection

This will work to make sure the line is always up, but it wastes
bandwidth that could be used for real work.

>  If the line is up does ppp try to dial on outgoing packets??

Nope, because the line is up.

>  if the line is down will ppp dial ??

Yep.

>  Does timeout mean redial after n secs of no packets ?

Yep.

>  whats a good blend to ensure line is up most of the time??

Use my 'ddial' patches to ppp (I posted them last week, check the
archives), use pppd in a busy loop, or use the ping method above.




Nate