How best to make the dialup process friendly?
 

I have slack 9.1 installed at home, and I have a 56K modem that will be used to connect to the interweb. My significant other will also be using the computer, and while it has a windows installation as well, I would like to introduce her to the world of linux, both to educate her, and to see what issues the average computer user comes across in the linux world.

So first task for me is to make it easy for her to connect to the internet.

Currently, I have run ppp-setup fine, and I can use ppp-go and ppp-stop to connect and disconnect. To allow other users to use these scripts, I currently am using the sudoers file mitigate access.

I want to have an icon on the gnome desktop that will dial my ISP. I have done this with a launcher that launches ppp-go, and one that runs ppp-stop.

But there is no feedback from these scripts. They run in the background and you cant' tell if/when you have connected successfully. What I want is to have an icon for dialling that, when run, provides feedback to the user as it is dialling.

Eg opens a window and shows:

Dialling paradise.net.nz...
Sending username and password....
Connect successful!

And then disappears.

How best can I automate this process? Should I call minicom with a dial script? Kermit? Just download kppp or something? I would rather make use of the low level linux ppp stuff if possible.....

Thanks in advance for advise.

Lindsay

Hi Ismith,

Lots of possibilities :) Using Kppp would be the easiest, but is rather clunky and best avoided if you want a lean, mean machine. It does have options similar to those found in windows however, such as show log, minimise on connect, show icon in tray (if you're running Kde), etc.

Otherwise, you could install GKrellm and use the ppp section to start and stop the connection - this is what I use. You can set a command, such as <pon> to dial your default ISP when it is first clicked (red initially, then turns green on connect), which then runs <poff> to disconnect when clicked a second time (button turns red once again). You can then also have a transparent Eterm running in a corner somewhere, showing a tail of /var/log/messages - this will show pretty much what is happening as you connect and disconnect.

The <pon> command simply initiates a ppp connection to an ISP, if given without arguments this is that in /etc/ppp/peers/provider. (Otherwise, you can simply give <pon paradise>, if you've set the options under that name).

Best of luck anyway, and let us know how you get on.

as ur using gnome there is gnome-ppp which is very easy to use

heema:

>> as ur using gnome there is gnome-ppp which is very easy to use

does it comes with FC2!??