Hi kev
I tried to telnet to your server, I still get error as ' temporary error in name resolution' - the same as I was getting with the ftp/telnet with the servers outside OU domanin.
SS

yes that's right/really weird.
I hope the settings which I have at work ( a part of oxford domain) are not restricting me at home. Still I have got Oxford Univ dial up, when I connect thru it from home , it works perfectly.
My shorewall is off no firewall either.

ok heres what im thinking, if you dial in to oxford then you can resolve all domain names, if you dial in from somewhere else then you can only resolve oxford domain names which makes me think with the new connection you are still using oxfords dns servers and they are only resolving oxfrord domains for external queries, which means you should be able to go to any website if you access it via ip rather than domain name.

to fix this you need to tell ppp to use the dns servers given by your isp rather than the ones in /etc/resolv.conf(oxford's) unfortunatly i know nothing about ppp or modems(spoilt by university ethernet and broadband) so i cant tell you what to change or where to change it, but someone in Linux - Networking will.

Hi Kev
Ok, The ISP has provided me with only phone number to connect to, so what additional info should I ask him?
SS

nothing, you need to tell ppp to use the dns servers given by isp and not the ones in resolv.conf.

ive never used kppp but ive been reading some help and from what i can make out you need to tick the checkbox at the bottom of this dialog

Hi Kev, evetually sorted out. Actually resolv.conf in the etc was causing problem which has confs for my OU LAN and OU dial up which I accessed from home. I just backed up that and touched a new resolv.conf. Now it is working perfectly. Though I don't know if I take it to work, will it wok on LAN or not.
Have you got the idea what does one do with shorewall, In my previous OU dialup, I couldn't connect unless I put the shorewall off. So does one has to put shorewall off for any dial up to work.
Thanks for all your help and replies.
U made the efforts worth.
SS

oops..a little mistake posting this post sorry..

i dont know anything about shorewall, ive always written my iptables scripts personally. without the old /etc/resolv.conf you wont be able to work on the network but should be ok through dial up, what i was trying to make it do was ignore the contents of /etc/resolv.conf when using dial up but deleting it when necessary is good enough if it works for you.