Omer Zak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Suggestion for a project for a youngster who is looking for a niche which
> would give him satisfaction, fame and riches:
>
> How about developing PPP configuration scripts for the other
> distributions?
>
> Then the Technical Support would need only to tell the newbie to download
> the script from their Web site and run it and answer its questions (of
> course, presented in a nice GUI - which Tk and Python can easily provide).
This is nice, but why lock it to a GUI or to Python which may or may
not have been installed by the user? And what will Dorit do, being
restricted to the command line? And we don't want to forget the poor
chap with a 386 that can't run X, or the luser who misconfigured his
or bought unsupported hardware.
How about a simpler solution? What is needed is a set of ppp options
files and chat scripts, and we can assume that the user can edit a
file somehow. Then it is a matter of writing and testing a set of
/etc/ppp/peers/netvision
/etc/ppp/peers/actcom
..
/etc/ppp/chat/netvision
/etc/ppp/chat/actcom
..
and spelling out the permissions (well, assuming ppp is installed and
compiled into the kernel, /dev/modem has to be there, etc, this has
also be mentioned).
Given that /etc/ppp/peers/netvision can look as
/dev/modem
115200
debug
lock
modem
crtscts
defaultroute
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -f /etc/ppp/chat/netvision"
and /etc/ppp/chat/netvision -- as
ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' "" ATZ OK ATZ OK ATDT<NUMBER> CONNECT "" sername:
<YOURUSER> assword: <YOURPASSWD> PPP ""
anyone who is not a total idiot can fill in the <NUMBERG> <YOURUSER>,
and <YOURPASSWD> in the chat script, and start pppd as
/usr/sbin/pppd call netvision
and kill it with
kill `ps auxw | grep [p]ppd | awk '{print $2}'`
(which can also be provided as a script). This does actually work -
that's what I do (well, my dial and hangup scripts are somewhat more
involved) - never had a problem. Well, I haven't dialed into Netvision
for some time - it has to be tested.
This is distribution-independent, GUI-independent, and simple enough
to create and put up on the web site, together with the instructions
that will also be pretty simple. Later on, whoever has free time can
add GUI, bells, whistles, whatever.
Admittedly, *maybe* some modems need a different set of options
(are there such that can't deal with crtscts?), but I expect that
there will be very few basic option sets, enumerable.
Again, if the user doesn't know how to install PPP or how to compile
the kernel, we can assume that someone has done it for him. And I
believe we can expect the ability to edit a text file and to chmod
according to instructions.
--
Oleg Goldshmidt | BLOOMBERG L.P. (BFM) | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"A sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out
unequally at birth." [F. Scott FitzGerald]
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