I need some help,

I have connected an external modem and can connect to AOL (will be changing ISP next week) using 'kppp' but the connection immediately dies and I get the following message:

Status 19

remote message:^@
CHAP authentication failed
connection terminated

Anyone have an idea why AOL can't authenticate ?

I have checked my login name and passwd in the kppp gui startup box and they are both correct. I attempted to look at the /etc/ppp/chap-secrets/ file in root but could not open it ???

Thanks for you help,
Iduru

I think that this sounds like you will have to edit the chap-secrets. To be honest, I can't remember the correct format, but it's something like "username" "password" and there may be some *'s or #'s in there somewhere (sorry that's not really much help), but if you know where the file is, then you should be able to modify it by surfing to the file (in konqueror for example), then right click on it, select open with, and then it would depend which editors you have installed, but I use kwrite or kate because I don't know all the other shit to be able to use one of the "biggies" like VI or emacs. The dropdown that I get with the "open with" option I would then use applications>editors> then the editor of choice (well that's what I get with kde any way).

Hope this points you in the right direction

regards

John

p.s. I seem to recall that when/if you open the chap-secret's you should just have to put the info between the ""

Thanks for your response John.

A little further research talking to AOL live help and googling have turned up this.

Situation:

You want to configure your Internet access with AOL.

Solution:

Currently it is not possible to configure an Internet access with AOL under Linux.

AOL still uses a specific, not freely available protocol.

As opposed to Compuserve (in the mean time an AOL subsidiary) and T-Online, a PPP connection is not possible at present. When asked about it, AOL informs that only Microsoft and Apple platforms are supported.

God I can't wait to drop AOL like a bad habit.

iduru

Yup, as I understand it, that's pretty much correct.

Though from your first post, I got the impression that you were aware of that and were just trying to config things so you could just use the account to surf.

As I understand things, this should still be theoretically possible - because the protocol's are all the same i.e. TCP/IP is TCP/IP is TCP/IP. AOL don't write the standards - I appreciate that you wouldn't be able to use all their proprietary stuff, because that's what won't run under linux, it's all windows based.

But even though you might be able to config things to connect to them, I suppose you then have to run the connection through all kind's of shit that are proprietary - and that's where the problem lies ??.

Never mind, as you say, when you've "got shot" of them you'll be up and running (and if things are as I understand, it should be as efficient, if not more so, and cheaper because you don't/won't want to access "their" content - which from memory isn't all it's cracked up to be).

Erm, the other minor "snag" I can think of, is that when you change provider, it could still be a little challenging to get rid of all the "AOL Stuff" that installs under windows when you install their service i.e. it wraps itself very tightly round windows, and you could still find yourself hunting out files for some time after you've uninstalled their software (unless you installed it via something that manages software installation - one of the norton utilities comes to mind - but I couldn't say for certain). Something that isn't a problem under linux, so it could be "a blessing in disguise" that aol doesnt' run under linux

good luck sorting out your new provider, see you around the forums maybe.

regards

John

p.s. I've just checked another thread that was "on about AOL" and apparently, if you use an app called "Penggy" you could connect via AOL, I haven't a clue how you'd do it, and you still may want to dump them - It mightn't work, but have a surf/google for it and read the doc's if you've the time, after all, it's all good training/experience - possibly a reasonable challenge.

Thanks John,

I do appreciate the help very much.
This board is very helpful. I'm sure it will answer plenty of my questions in the future

Cheers!
iduru