HowTo create a modem pool
 

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to this forum and a relative newbie to Linux, but I think I've got a bit problem here...

I'm trying to set-up a modem pool with pppd. This pool is used to dial-out (automatically, on demand) to a large number of locations (networks) using approx. 10 USB modems. Because pppd usually binds a network to a single modem, connecting to a network using a modem which is allready in use, the connection will fail even if there are still modems unused.

In other words: I'm searching for a method to automatically select the next free modem in the pool to dial out with.

I've searched the internet for a couple of hours now and I can't find a description on howto setup a modem pool in this way....

Anyone have any ideas??

Thanks in advance.

Look at:

http://www.linuxhq.com/ldp/howto/Modem-HOWTO.html#toc3

and

http://faculty.acu.edu/~westk/ACUDeb...lUp-HOWTO.html

Hope that helps ...

Thanks for the reply, but...

This article briefly describes the existence of these pools and also that there are manufacturers who offer multimodem solutions. This is not what I'm looking for: I want to build a modem pool using standard (USB) modems, not to buy a propriatry solution.

This document describes howto dial up into an existing modem pool, which is also not what I'm looking for.

I've looked into pppd a bit more, and it seems that it supports plugins. To enable the plugins the ppp deamon offers some hooks to its internal functions. A plugin can hook on to these to overwrite the internal function with its own. Hooks exist for PAP/CHAP authentication and some other functions, but not for the function which initiates the dial-out action. Would it be an option to patch pppd to add some more hooks to its code?? Perhaps someone has allready done that without me being able to find it...