Well, well, well.
And it wasn't the fault of Linux at all after all. For those who are interested I'll post some more information on the symptoms, so that you can easier diagnose this sort of problems, should they arise on your machines:
I dug in the logs after searching with "locate
.log". No luck. Then I happened upon the directory /var/log which holds /var/log/localmessages (SuSE 9.0pro, dunno whether the others have it too). It holds the modem log. When all is healthy it looks like:
Code:
SuSE Meta pppd (smpppd-ifcfg), Version 1.06 on linux.
Status is: disconnected
trying to connect to smpppd
connect to smpppd
Status is: disconnected
Status is: connecting
pppd[0]: Plugin passwordfd.so loaded.
pppd[0]: --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.42
pppd[0]: --> Initializing modem.
pppd[0]: --> Sending: ATZ
pppd[0]: ATZ
pppd[0]: OK
pppd[0]: --> Sending: AT Q0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
pppd[0]: OK
pppd[0]: --> Sending: ATM1
pppd[0]: ATM1
pppd[0]: OK
pppd[0]: --> Modem initialized.
pppd[0]: --> Sending: ATDT019231770
pppd[0]: --> Waiting for carrier.
pppd[0]: ATDT019231770
pppd[0]: CONNECT 45333/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS
pppd[0]: --> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
pppd[0]: ~[7f]}#@!}!!} }8}"}&} }*} } }#}$@#}%}&$X} N}'}"}(}"3Q~
pppd[0]: --> PPP negotiation detected.
pppd[0]: Serial connection established.
pppd[0]: Using interface ppp0
pppd[0]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
pppd[0]: local IP address xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa
pppd[0]: remote IP address bbb.ccc.ddd.eee
pppd[0]: primary DNS address fff.ggg.hhh.iii
pppd[0]: secondary DNS address jjj.kkk.lll.mmm
pppd[0]: Script /etc/ppp/ip-up finished (pid 2652), status = 0x0
Status is: connected
Status is: disconnecting
pppd[0]: Terminating on signal 15.
Status is: disconnecting
pppd[0]: Script /etc/ppp/ip-down finished (pid 2750), status = 0x0
Status is: disconnected
pppd[0]: Connection terminated.
pppd[0]: Connect time 2.1 minutes.
pppd[0]: Sent 116910 bytes, received 380321 bytes.
pppd[0]: Hangup (SIGHUP)
pppd[0] died: pppd received a signal (exit code 5)
Now it ran:
Code:
...
pppd 2.4.1 started by root, UID 0
Serial connection established
Using Interface ppp0
Connect ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyS0
Serial line is looped back
Connection terminated
Exit
...
It may also have a line like
From an earlier attempt to dial in.
The line
Serial line is looped back shows the culprit. It is very well explained
here. In brief, the server you want to connect to "reflects" your packets of bits and bytes back to your modem and ppp0 feels it "gets hoaxed" and thus shuts down.
Thus the error was
caused by the provider. In my case they ever so quietly changed phone number, user name and password (I use Internet by call) though to cause the "reflections" something must still live at the old target or else I would have got timeouts. I won't go so far as to think that this had something to do with my using Linux and the provider being ... MSN
.
Here on Win/Iexplorer: Linux denies Access to the Net?
, so I have to give that some credit for a little relief. 
). That just means changing the parameter in the modem configuration file like
