Bear with me here, and I do need help, please remember, as you read this story. I'd hate for you to get to the end and have a brilliant idea but forget that I want to hear that idea...
OK so I gave up on the <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=338916">HSF Modem</a> and went out and purchased a Best Data 56SX external serial modem (CompUSA $50), which was/is <a href="http://www.mepis.org/node/5849">rumored to work</a> with most any distribution. Not to say that its STILL not a headache.
I replaced my aunt and uncle's Win98 PLUS (never heard of it!) with Mepis 3.3.1 and they're thrilled. But they're not interested in "always on" xDSL or Cable internet access. OK, I thought I was geek enough. I even had <a href="http://www.troubleshooters.com/tpromag/200006/kppp.htm">this amazing guide</a> to help me.
After doing some updates via my home fast net connect, where i have no POTS line, I went to their place and spent another 3 hours working on this. With the help of the random help-desk-phone-answering IPS guy (who actually uses debian at home! amazed us both) we were able to get SUPER CLOSE to a connection using kPPP. I can get a dial tone; I can dial the ISP; I have changed the script to expect "Login" and to send the name and password correctly, and then... nothing.
Of the three windows showing, the messages are (from my memory):
"Logging on to Network..."
"starting the pppd interface..."
and eventually "could not start pppd" without any suggested help, then it exits.
(my log output, all i could save since mepis didn't have ksnapshot, was:
Jul 1 22:40:02 homeparlor pppd[5059]: pppd 2.4.3 started by thomas, uid 1000
Jul 1 22:41:01 homeparlor pppd[5059]: Exit.
...not too useful)
It appears to me that pppd has some sort of graphical interface that cannot be called up? graphical, for a daemon!? ooh just now thought: could that be related to the "dock when connected" option in the kppp setup? or something totally different?
I tried, I think, every handshaking option (CHAP, PAP, CHAP/PAP, Script, Terminal) and flow control (Hardware, Software), but still nada.
Yes I also tried wvdial. It connected *way* easier but passed "ATA5551234" (the phone number) as the username, leaving the connection unfinished, and I couldn't figure a way around that...
H E L P ?
what am I doing wrong!?
special thanks to the guy at HickoryTech ISP in Mankato MN for the progress we made tonight. LQ'ers, any ideas?
