@ggeorgiev,
thanks very much for your reply; I admit that I did not state much of a problem. I got so confused trying to reestablish my internet connection that I am still sorting things out. I had used MandrakeUpdate to download security fixes and accidentally loaded and installed "httpd" (Apache) which I did not want. It seemed to do some major reconfiguration of my net configuration. I uninstalled it before I realized this and so ...
I posted my /etc/ppp/options file for review just to make sure that I didn't have any silly settings. Sometimes my understanding is foggy or even wrong about what I am entering into these files even though I read a great deal before acting or posting here.
Even though I am now logged on with this connection, something seems not right. Before I use the KPPP GUI things look like this:
# ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:300 (300.0 b) TX bytes:300 (300.0 b)
#ifup ppp0
Failed to activate ppp0 with error 17
# man pppd
(Exit Status) 17 The PPP negotiation failed because serial loopback was detected.
I am not sure which files/scripts that KPPP is using to sucessfully overcome this; moments later I am on the web and now:
# ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:300 (300.0 b) TX bytes:300 (300.0 b)
ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:65.XXX.XXX.XX P-t-P:63.YYY.Y.YYY Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST MTU:1412 Metric:1
RX packets:293 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:338 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:231788 (226.3 Kb) TX bytes:55159 (53.8 Kb)
Still
robertn#