1. LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Important Changes Introduction Information wanted CD-ROM policy DISCLAIMER 1.0 Important Changes 1995-JULY Started to implement explicit CD-ROM policy. Updated once again part about NeXT PPP. Updated some commercial products from my email backlog. OLDER CHANGES none. VERY OLD CHANGES Updated part about SVR4 ppp (5.3.1). (5.6.3) added blurb about ISPA, a msdos computer "packet driver" which - among other de facto used protocols - also supports PPP over ISDN, hopefully as of the RFC. few days or weeks ago added some vendors of PPP soft- and hardware in part7/part8. I want to express, that that list, as any other information in this postings/document, can't contain all products available, as I can't possibly read all publications/advertisements all over the world and put them in; I only include what people tell me or I stumble about. See the disclaimer. switched to another PPP relevant RFC search machine. It is still situated in Europe (this time in Germany), so ppl. shouldn't use it at regular intervals if from abroad. 1.1 Introduction I took the Information in Ed Vielmetti's FAQ files, my personal experience, and lots of stuff from comp.protocols.ppp, and built a new document. Later, lots of people contributed at one or the other place. This document will be reposted fortnightly, as soon as it is fairly stable, and weekly till then. Changed sections should be marked in the Table of Contents with a ! or + for something got added or - for something got deleted. 1.2 Information Wanted If you have experience with anything mentioned here, or know of newer versions, or of versions of software for other hardware/OS, or ... send me mail. I'll include it and possibly mention your name, if you don't express otherwise. The last paragraph applies explicitly to the authors themselves! Keep me informed, please. If you send me complete entries, consider to get the HTML version from http://theory.cs.uni-bonn.de/ppp/part?.html and send me an edited version. CD-ROM policy This sample of documents was collected by me from the various sources, including the Usenet news and direct contributions from others. I started with it before the outbreak of the CD ROM plague, so the special issue of ppl. collecting machine readable data, storing them to master disks and selling copies thereof never occured. Personally, I think that pressing higly dynamic data collections (like FAQ lists) to write-once media is a very stupid thing to do. However, there might be reasons to include the PPP-FAQ with other data; e.g., when preparing a NetBSD distribution on CD-ROM, an off-line readable copy of the PPP FAQ might be helpful for those wanting to set up a PPP connection from their newly aquired NetBSD for the first time... how could they access the online copy without having a working PPP connection? In the last few years I got lots of requests to allow the PPP FAQ to be added to such CD-ROMs. As I never had asked for such permissions from the contributors, I was not able to say "yes", even if I would have given the permission for my own work. If you contribute s.th., please state clearly if you would allow inclusion of the information to CD-ROM collections. At the moment, I can't give the permission to copy this stuff to CD-ROMs which are sold afterwards, even if I would like to, for the stated reasons. DISCLAIMER I want to express that any information in this posting or its follow-ups is provided on an "AS-IS" basis as a service to my colleagues at other Universities, without any implied or explicit warranties. To be more precise: I don't promise that all freely available programs are contained, or that programs described here are (still) available, or ar suited for anything useful better or worse than others. If you wan't me to include s.th., tell me about it; but I don't promise that I'll include it the same day or week or at all. I don't promise that commercial products contained here exist, that all commercial products in existance are contained here, or that products contained here are suited for anything useful better or worse than others. If any vendors feel their product should be included, and tells me about it, I probably would do it; but I don't promise that I'll include it the same day or week or at all. After all, doing this FAQ isn't my primary duty at work. Ignatios Souvatzis 2. WHAT IS PPP? Introduction PPP features which may or may not be present PPP glossary PPP-relevant RFC's 2.1 Introduction PPP is the Internet Standard for transmission of IP packets over serial lines. PPP supports async and sync lines. For a general discussion of PPP, and of the PPP vs. SLIP question, look at the paper ftp.uu.net:vendor/MorningStar/papers/sug91-cheapIP.ps.Z (paper) and sug91-cheapIP.shar.Z (overhead projector slides) 2.2 PPP features which may or may not be present Above and beyond compatibility with basic PPP framing, note whether the software implements the following features. Not all features are needed or even desired in every product. Please note also that not every free or commercial product description in this document has a complete list of all features includes. demand-dial Bring up a PPP interface and dial the phone when packets are queued for delivery; bring the interface down after some period of inactivity. redial (For lack of a better term) Bring up a PPP interface whenever it goes down, to keep a line up. (sometimes called camping) camping (on a line) see redial scripting Negotiate through a series of prompts or intermediate connections to bring up a PPP link, much like the sequence of events used to bring up a UUCP link. parallel Configure several PPP lines to the same destination and do load sharing between them. (In process of getting standardized.) filtering Select which packets to send down a link or whether to bring up a "demand-dial" link based on IP or TCP packet type or TOS, e.g. don't dial the phone for ICMP ping packets. header compression TCP header compression according to RFC1144. Marginally useful on high speed lines, essential for low speed lines. server Accept incoming PPP connections, which might well also include doing the right things with routing. tunneling Build a virtual network over a PPP link across a TCP stream through an existing IP network. extra escaping Byte-stuffing characters outside the negotiated asyncmap, configurable in advance but not negotiable. 2.3 PPP glossary Every new technology breeds its own set of acronyms. PPP is no different. Here is a glossary of sorts. ack Acknowledgement. AO Active open [state diagram] (no lonter part of the FSM as of RFC1331) C Close [state diagram] CHAP Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (RFC1334) D Lower layer down [state diagram] DES Data Encryption Standard DNA Digital Network Architecture IETF Internet Engineering Task Force. IP Internet Protocol IPCP IP Control Protocol. IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange (Novell's networking stack) FCS Frame Check Sequence [X.25] FSA Finite State Automaton FSM Finite State Maschine LCP Link Control Protocol. LQR Link Quality Report. MD4 MD4 digital signature algorithm MD5 MD5 digital signature algorithm MRU Maximum Receive Unit MTU Maximum Transmission Unit nak Negative Acknowledgement NCP Network Control Protocol. NRZ Non-Return to Zero bit encoding. (SYNC ppp default because of availability) NRZI Non-Return to Zero Inverted bit encoding. (SYNC ppp preferred alternative to NRZ) OSI Open Systems Interconnect PAP Password Authentication Protocol (RFC1334) PDU Protocol Data Unit (i.e., packet) PO Passive open [no longer part of state diagram] PPP Point to Point Protocol ( RFC1548 / RFC1549, 1332, 1333, 1334, 1551, 1376, 1377, 1378) RCA Receive Configure-Ack [state diagram] RCJ Receive Code-Reject [state diagram] RCN Receive Configure-Nak or -Reject [state diagram] RCR+ Receive good Configure-Request [state diagram] RER Receive Echo-Request [no longer part of state diagram] RFC Request for Comments (internet standard) RTA Receive Terminate-Ack [state diagram] RTR Receive Terminate-Request [state diagram] RUC Receive unknown code [state diagram] sca Send Configure-Ack [state diagram] scj Send Code-Reject [state diagram] scn Send Configure-Nak or -Reject [state diagram] scr Send Configure-Request [state diagram] ser Send Echo-Reply [no longer part of state diagram] sta Send Terminate-Ack [state diagram] str Send Terminate-Request [state diagram] ST-II Stream Protocol TO+ Timeout with counter > 0 [state diagram] TO- Timeout with counter expired [state diagram] VJ Van Jacobson (RFC1144 header compression algorithm) XNS Xerox Network Services 2.4 PPP relevant RFCs Here's a list with descriptions. Note some of these are obsolete. You might also want to search for recent RFCs or internet drafts in an up-to-date RFC archive. 1717 Sklower, K.; Lloyd, B.; McGregor, G.; Carr, DThe PPP Multilink Protocol (MP). 1994 November; 21 p. (Format: TXT=46264 bytes) 1663 Rand, DPPP Reliable Transmission. 1994 July; 8 p. (Format: TXT=17281 bytes) 1662 Simpson, W.,edPPP in HDLC-like Framing. 1994 July; 25 p. (Format: TXT=48058 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1549) 1661 Simpson, W.,edThe Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). 1994 July; 52 p. (Format: TXT=103026 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1548) 1638 Baker, F.; Bowen, R.,edsPPP Bridging Control Protocol (BCP). 1994 June; 28 p. (Format: TXT=58477 bytes) 1619 Simpson, WPPP over SONET/SDH. 1994 May; 4 p. (Format: TXT=8893 bytes) 1618 Simpson, WPPP over ISDN. 1994 May; 6 p. (Format: TXT=14896 bytes) 1598 Simpson, WPPP in X.25. 1994 March; 7 p. (Format: TXT=13835 bytes) 1570 Simpson, W.,ed. PPP LCP Extensions. 1994 January; 18 p. (Format: TXT=35719 bytes) (Updates RFC 1548) 1553 Mathur, S.; Lewis, M. Compressing IPX Headers Over WAN Media (CIPX). 1993 December; 23 p. (Format: TXT=47450 bytes) 1552 Simpson, W. The PPP Internetwork Packet Exchange Control Protocol (IPXCP). 1993 December; 14 p. (Format: TXT=29174 bytes) 1551 Allen, M. Novell IPX Over Various WAN Media (IPXWAN). 1993 December; 22 p. (Format: TXT=54210 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1362) 1549 Simpson, W.,ed. PPP in HDLC Framing. 1993 December; 18 p. (Format: TXT=36353 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC 1662) 1548 Simpson, W. The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). 1993 December; 53 p. (Format: TXT=111638 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1331; Obsoleted by RFC 1661; Updated by RFC 1570) 1547 Perkins, D. Requirements for an Internet Standard Point-to-Point Protocol. 1993 December; 21 p. (Format: TXT=49811 bytes) 1378 PPP AppleTalk Control Protocol (ATCP). Parker, B. 1992 November; 16 p. (Format: TXT=28496 bytes) 1377 PPP OSI Network Layer Control Protocol (OSINLCP). Katz, D. 1992 November; 10 p. (Format: TXT=22109 bytes) 1376 PPP DECnet Phase IV Control Protocol (DNCP). Senum, S.J. 1992 November; 6 p. (Format: TXT=12448 bytes) 1362 Allen, M. Novell IPX Over Various WAN Media (IPXWAN). 1992 September; 18 p. (Format: TXT=30220 bytes) 1334 PPP authentication protocols. Lloyd, B.; Simpson, W.A. 1992 October; 16 p. (Format: TXT=33248 bytes) 1333 PPP link quality monitoring. Simpson, W.A. 1992 May; 15 p. (Format: TXT=29965 bytes) 1332 PPP Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP). McGregor, G. 1992 May; 12 p. (Format: TXT=17613 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1172) 1331 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) for the transmission of multi-protocol datagrams over point-to-point links. Simpson, W.A. 1992 May; 66 p. (Format: TXT=129892 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1171, RFC1172; obsoleted by RFC 1548) 1220 Point-to-Point Protocol extensions for bridging. Baker, F.,ed. 1991 April; 18 p. (Format: TXT=38165 bytes) 1172 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) initial configuration options. Perkins, D.; Hobby, R. 1990 July; 38 p. (Format: TXT=76132 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1331, RFC1332) 1171 Point-to-Point Protocol for the transmission of multi-protocol datagrams over Point-to-Point links. Perkins, D. 1990 July; 48 p. (Format: TXT=92321 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1134; Obsoleted by RFC1331) 1134 Point-to-Point Protocol: A proposal for multi-protocol transmission of datagrams over Point-to-Point links. Perkins, D. 1989 November; 38 p. (Format: TXT=87352 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1171) 1144 Compressing TCP/IP headers for low-speed serial links. Jacobson, V. 1990 February; 43 p. (Format: TXT=120959 PS=534729 bytes) In comp.protocols.ppp (Message-ID: ) bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) wrote : All of 1134, 1171, and 1172 (and 1055, for that matter :-) have been obsoleted. They're interesting only if you want to debug a connection with an ancient PPP implementation, and you're wondering why (e.g.) it asked you for IPCP option 2 with a length of only 4, and Compression-Type 0x0037. (There's a lot of that still running around - be careful out there.) 3. HOW TO (CONFIGURATION RECIPES) complain about missing or incorrect information in the FAQ list connect a single host to a network without needing a new subnet. configure free ppp for sun to interoperate with MacPPP 1.0 get SCO TCP 1.2 to connect to Ethernet LANs by a PPP link use PPP through a X.25 PAD use SunLINK PPP 1.0 to a CISCO through a sync line use MacPPP 2.0.1 on non-US System 6 MACs stop MacPPP to dial without being told to 3.0 complain about missing or incorrect information in the FAQ list E-mail to ignatios@theory.cs.uni-bonn.de (Ignatios Souvatzis) and add information I'll need to think about it. That is: In case of incorrect information, send me the correct information and the source of it. In case of missing information, send me the information which is missing and the source of it. 3.1 connect a single host to a network without needing a new subnet. If you have only one single machine on the other side, the easiest way is to give it a IP address belonging to the local ethernet/IP subnet, and to tell the ppp gateway machine to advertise (proxy arp) its own ethernet address as the other machines'. Works like a charm at our site. Of course, for a large group or complicated network on the other side, you would get more management problems. On the gateway do: arp -s othermachinesipaddress myownethernetaddress permanent public ifconfig pppNUMBER myipaddress othermachinesipaddress [other params] up on remote machine: ifconfig pppNUMBER gatewaysipaddress [other params] up route add default gatewaysipaddress 1 pppNUMBER might be spelled as dpNUMBER for dialup IP. Of course, if you use routeing daemons, you could also propagate the route via routed / gated etc. to other machines, but it's more painful because every machine has to do it (and might choose not to do it), and every machine doing IP on a Ethernet HAS to talk arp. On intermittently connected demand-dialed links, you may need to edit /etc/gateways to define the destination of the PPP or SLIP connection as a "passive" link. Otherwise, routed will remove routes from the kernel's routing table that use that link, because it won't hear RIPs coming from hosts or routers across the wire. Since it doesn't hear anything from hosts or routers on the far side of the wire, routed assumes that the link is dead forever. ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de (Ignatios Souvatzis) 3.2 configure KA9Q PPP and it's Unix counterpart Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ppp From: kim@MorningStar.Com (Kim Toms) Subject: Re: PPP for DOS? (good info for FAQ) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 06:26:28 GMT I have been able to use the ka9q software on my PC to call my Suns at work. This is available from merit.edu:/pub/ppp/ka9q.zip. I had to tell our Sun product [that would be Morning Star PPP, see below. I.S.] "nolqm" in order to prevent it from hanging up because of an lqm failure, but other than that, I have had no trouble. Below, I include the configuration I use on my pc. I unpacked the ka9q distribution into \ka9q. All the configuration files are located there. I have also been able to use the NCSA telnet packet driver, however, I could not use ftp with that, so I gave it up some months ago. Here's what I use on the PC: In a file called "doit2.bat": net -d \ka9q dialup.net In a file called "dialup.net": ip address 137.175.2.42 attach asy 0x3f8 4 ppp pp0 1024 256 9600 dialer pp0 dialup.ppp ppp pp0 trace 2 ppp pp0 quick ppp pp0 lcp open ppp pp0 ipcp open route add default pp0 ip ttl 32 tcp mss 1460 tcp window 2920 domain addserver 137.175.2.11 domain suffix MorningStar.Com domain cache clean on start echo start discard start telnet start ftp start finger start ttylink In a file called "dialup.ppp": control down wait 1000 control up wait 1000 wait 2000 send "at\r" wait 3000 "OK" send "atdt4515016\r" wait 60000 "login: " send "\r" wait 5000 "word:" wait 1000 send "\r" 3.2.2 CONFIGURE KA9Q PPP (WITH NEW DIALER) AND IT'S UNIX COUNTERPART deleted, becausy to my knowledge, there is no KA9Q with new dialer and working PPP. 3.2.3 CONFIGURE JNOS I have jnos1.08 up and running. [that is, 'version 911229 (WG7J v1.08)']. For a sample configuration, get the configuration and executable you can ftp from speckled.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de, user ftp, directory /pub/rhein.de or /pub/incoming. The remarks in 3.3 about 'vjmode draft' or 'vjmode 1331' apply here, too. ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de (Ignatios Souvatzis) 3.3 configure NCSA with the merit ppp packet driver and its unix counterpart I had at least partial success using the parameters, to the public ppp for SUNOS (dp-2.3, but I suspect any of dp-2.1 or dp-2.2* or pppd-1.01beta or ppp-1.1 would have the same behaviour) -ac -pc vjmode draft. The latter would be called in ppp-1.1 (and up) 'vjmode rfc1331'. ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de (Ignatios Souvatzis) 3.4 work BOOTP over protocols such as SLIP or PPP Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ppp From: johnson@tigger.jvnc.net (Steven L. Johnson) Subject: Re: Tech?: BOOTP over SLIP or PPP Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 03:14:37 GMT [Somebody on the net] writes: Does anybody know if there is a description of how to work BOOTP over protocols such as SLIP or PPP. It seems this should work but the problem is that there is a field in the BOOTP header that contains the physical layer type, and these numbers are defined as the hardware types for ARP. Since SLIP and PPP do not use ARP, they do not have numbers.I haven't looked very far, and would appreciate a pointer to any previous work or concensus. I've used a type 0 but only with a cisco terminal server. I don't know if this causes problems on other implementations. The second problem is that the BOOTP header also contains a field for the physical layer address (i.e. Ethernet address). PPP and SLIP do not have an physical layer addresses. What does the BOOTP server have to base it's IP address suggestion on? It's my understanding that PPP can itself negotiate the IP address and that this is the preferred method. If the IP address is included in the bootp request then the remaining configuration is done based on that IP address and not the hardware address. With SLIP there isn't this option, so the IP address must be assigned by knowing the physical port on which the request was received. Again, I used an address of 0 (with a address length of 0, I think) and this didn't seem to cause a problem. On a terminal server that contained only a minimal implementation of bootp, it was necessary to send two requests. The first request was satisfied by the terminal server and configured only the IP address. A subsequent request (that contained the IP address provided by the first request) was forwarded by the terminal server to a bootp server on the ethernet and provided the rest of the configuration from a standard bootptab. -Steve 3.5 configure free ppp for sun to interoperate with MacPPP 1.0 From: guy@world.std.com (Guy K Hillyer) Comments-by: Ignatios Souvatzis, marked with [comments... I.S.] Subject: Success with MacPPP Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 02:02:08 GMT After many travails, I finally got MacPPP to work for me. This is the story of how I got it to work. This account is purely anecdotal. I don't claim to know what is the best configuration, just what worked for me. I submit this for the benefit of other poor suckers who might otherwise spend days getting a Mac/Sun PPP link to work, like I did. I'm a happy camper now, and thanks to Larry Blunk @ merit.edu for making his implementation freely available. Now all I need is a T1 line to my house and I'll be all set. [I'm not sure MacPPP works on T1 lines, I'm pretty sure the Perkins et al. PPP doesn't work over T1 lines. I.S.] After working with the beta release for a while, I picked up the latest and greatest MacPPP at merit.edu. The file is named /pub/ppp/macppp1.0.sit.hqx. I don't think there's any big difference between that and the beta version, but the docs did have two or three new sentences that helped to clarify matters. The ppp I'm using on the UNIX side is the one identified as `Perkins/Clements/Fox/Christy PPP for SunOS' in the comp.protocols.ppp FAQ. During the course of debugging my connection, I installed the package identified in that document as dp-2.2, but it behaved in exactly the same way as the other one did with regard to the problems I was having, so I only tried it briefly. It has some more advanced capabilities so I may switch to it in the future, but for now I'm just glad to have a working configuration. Mac configuration: One mistake I made was ignoring the point made in the MacPPP docs about configuring MacTCP for server addressing. I thought that "server addressing" implied that the mac would get its IP address from some kind of server on my network, using RARP or something like that. I thought that didn't make sense in my situation, so I configured MacTCP for manual addressing. In fact, I now believe that "server addressing" means that TCP gets the address from the IP layer. I'm not an ISO networking model savant, so this [must be wrong... the IP layer gets its address from the PPP layer, which can do an address negotiation.] notion should be taken with a grain of salt. I also set MacTCP to have a "class C" network address. I think this only matters for broadcast packets, because it sets the netmask. Again, I'm treading on thin ice here. I set the IP addresses in the MacPPP control panel's IPCP configuration window. This probably isn't necessary, but I wanted to make sure that I got a particular address. If you set the addresses on the Mac side, you'll want to specify the addresses and disable IP address negotiation on the UNIX side ("-ip" option to ppp). I first got things working with VJ header compression disabled on both sides. You may want to try it this way if you have any trouble. This is set in the IPCP window. If you disable VJ header compression on the Mac side, you'll want to disable it on the UNIX side as well ("-vj" option to ppp). [You probably need only to set it to 'draft'. The configuration negotiation should do the rest. The only reason you need a 'vjmode' option is that the format of the configuration option has changed and the older ones don't understand the format of the aug91draft or rfc1331 ones (which should be the same) I.S.] Once I got things working I turned on VJ header compression. It only worked for me if I selected "draft" mode on the UNIX side ("vjmode draft" option to ppp). Sun configuration: I configure the ppp interface like this: ifconfig ppp0 netmask 0xffffff00 do wn Then I start ppp like this: ppp -p vjmode draft -ip : [which is also about the configuration of dp-2.x, on the login line. You have to specify PPP_OPTIONS=vjmode,draft in the configuration file for the network interface used by the mac. For ppp-1.1/2.tar.Z, use 'vjmode rfc1331' I.S.] The "-p" means passive, so the Sun waits for the Mac to start the handshaking. My experience was that without -p, there was a very brief window during which the Mac could enter the negotiation, and if it missed window, then all was lost. "vjmode draft" means to use the new version of negotiation specified in the August 1991 Draft RFC for IPCP. This is apparently the only version MacPPP knows how to deal with. If you've disabled VJ header compression on the Mac, you should give "-vj" instead. "-ip" disables IP address negotiation. It probably would work fine without this; I just haven't tried it that way. 3.6 get SCO TCP 1.2 to connect to Ethernet LANs by a PPP link From: bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) Subject: Re: PPP on SCO between different networks In some news message, somebody asked: I need to set up a UNIX system which is on an ethernet LAN (with its own IP address), so it can call up a PPP link to another network, and use a different IP address on the remote network. There's a bug in SCO TCP 1.2 (but not in 1.1.3) that prevents this scenario with SCO's PPP, and with any other PPP or SLIP software you might try to use on your SCO system. You can get the fix from ftp.morningstar.com:pub/tools/SCO-route-fix, or through SCO's normal support channels. 3.7 use PPP through a X.25 PAD From: unrza3@cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de (Markus Kuhn) Subject: Re: PPP or SLIP through PAD (X.29/X.25) Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1993 19:30:17 +0200 Organization: Regionales Rechenzentrum Erlangen, Germany Does anybody have experience with "tunneling" PPP and SLIP through the PAD-service (X.29 over X.25)? What I want is to let people dial up their PAD-service and send their PPP/SLIP packets across the X.25 network into the PAD-login of my UNIX-machine. This should be possible, but I guess the PAD-parameter configuration is critical?? Yes, that's of course possible, because that's the way I use PPP. Use the PAD parameters for the following settings: no escape character 1:0 local echo off 2:0 flow/control: RTS/CTS 5:2 (this is perhaps not a standard X.3 parameter) PAD should not react on XON/XOFF signals 12:0 Other important values might be 3:0 4:1 9:0 10:0 13:0 14:0 15:0. You need a PAD that supports CTS/RTS flow control, because I don't know about PPP software that supports XON/XOFF (although this would be possible with the right async map). Markus 3.8 use SunLINK PPP 1.0 to a CISCO through a sync line To connect successfully a Sun running 4.1.x and Sunlink PPP 1.0 to a Cisco, you have to get patch 100941-02. Once it it installed, everything works smoothly, as written in the documentation! My sun is an SS2, running 4.1.2 (sun4c architecture). We have a 'Transfix' digital leased line. That is: synchronous serial line, 64kbps. The problem without the patch is that everything seems to be OK, except that the MTU given by a 'netstat -in' on device ppp0 is set to 0. -- Alain Mellan 3.9 use MacPPP 2.0.1 on non-US System 6 Macintoshes The current MacPPP Version (2.0.1) works on System 6 only if the system folder is called "System Folder". On non-US systems (e.g. German systems, where it is called "Systemordner"), MacPPP doesn't find some file it needs. On System 7 Macs this problem isn't there. The workaround is, to rename the system folder to "System Folder". Other programs will ask the system, how the system folder is named, and continue to work. Thanks to hn277pk@unidui.uni-duisburg.de (Peter Koch) for summarizing this information to me, who never used a Macintosh (with the exception of playing Shufflepack Café once). 3.10 stop MacPPP to automagically dial without being asked to In article , somebody@somewhere wrote: > MacPPP is launching when I boot up my Mac. I've checked the 'Startup > items' folder and it's not in there. Does anyone know why? A couple of things to check for are 1) some of the snmp agents will cause macppp (at least older versions) to try and dial up the selected server - the solution is to disable the snmp manager extension. 2) you might have network time selected to set the clock at boot up - turn off this option and instead set it for once an hour or something like that. dsc@cac.washington.edu (David Comay) Anything that opens the IP driver will cause MacPPP to dial up it's target. Particularly you will see this problem with ZapTCP. It will open the IP driver at boot time, as well as everytime a program quits. Tom Kimpton 4. MISC. PPP QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS Does somebody have a patent on PPP? Is it possible to use PPP as link layer in ISDN? My ppp does infinite configuration negotiation. What's wrong? My ppp gets strange configure rejects. What's wrong? What is Asychronous HDLC? 4.1 Does somebody have a patent on PPP? From: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip,comp.unix.sysv386,comp.protocols.ppp Subject: Re: Public domain PPP for SCO 2.0?? Date: 8 Dec 1992 06:04:52 GMT [Somebody] wrote: Doesn't matter. I just read (in another newsgroup) that DEC has a patent on PPP, and is asking $5000 for a license. That means no public domain PPP, and a rapidly increasing reluctance to support it from OEMs. Stick with SLIP until something better comes along. This is *not* true. DEC has a patent application outstanding for the negotiation of a 48 bit checksum which might be used in one of the option negotiation phases. It is not an essential part of PPP; many implementations currently do not use this little tiny algorithm in the way they work, and they work just fine. There is no indication that the 48 bit FCS will be accepted or standardized on by the IETF - from my reading of the mailing lists traffic that is unlikely at this point. There are free PPPs and there will continue to be free PPPs. You will also more likely buy PPPs as part of hardware you buy. 4.2 Is it possible to use PPP as link layer in ISDN? [Somebody] wrote: Is it possible to use PPP as link layer in ISDN? If yes, what about signalling? Do you need to combine PPP with the I.451 for basic call control? PPP over ISDN is described by RFC 1618. It promotes PPP in bit-sync or in octet-sync HDLC over ISDN B-channels, or PPP in X25 / PPP in Frame Relay over ISDN D-channel. 4.3 My ppp does infinite configuration negotiation. What's wrong? 4.3.1 [CABLE PROBLEM] Each other month somebody posts a question which essentially is the one above. It could, of course, be some very strange set of configurations options which get the ppp to never terminate the negotiation process (typical situations listed in further down). One other possibility was seen many times on the derivatives of public ppp for suns, namely pppd-1.01beta and dp-2.x. Detailed symptoms (from a posting on the net, I saw similar logfiles some months ago): Typical debugging log output: Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: Starting ppp daemon version 1.0beta patchleve l 1 Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: warning... not a process group leader Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: pgrpid = 1694 Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: popped stream module : ttcompat Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: popped stream module : ldterm Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: Using unit ppp0 Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: hostname = Riga Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: connect: ppp0 /dev/ttya Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: fsm_sconfreq(c021): Sent id 1. Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: Timeout 6194:16b38 in 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:01 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:04 pppd[1694]: Alarm Dec 18 16:11:04 pppd[1694]: fsm_sconfreq(c021): Sent id 2. Dec 18 16:11:04 pppd[1694]: Timeout 6194:16b38 in 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:04 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:04 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:07 pppd[1694]: Alarm Dec 18 16:11:07 pppd[1694]: fsm_sconfreq(c021): Sent id 3. Dec 18 16:11:07 pppd[1694]: Timeout 6194:16b38 in 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:07 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. Dec 18 16:11:07 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. ... [lots of repetitious logging deleted] ... Dec 18 17:02:24 pppd[1694]: Alarm Dec 18 17:02:24 pppd[1694]: fsm_sconfreq(c021): Sent id 254. Dec 18 17:02:24 pppd[1694]: Timeout 6194:16b38 in 3 seconds. Dec 18 17:02:24 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. Dec 18 17:02:24 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 3 seconds. Dec 18 17:02:26 pppd[1694]: Hangup Dec 18 17:02:26 pppd[1694]: Untimeout 6194:16b38. Dec 18 17:02:26 pppd[1694]: Setting itimer for 0 seconds. Dec 18 17:02:26 pppd[1694]: str_restore: pushed module ldterm Dec 18 17:02:26 pppd[1694]: str_restore: pushed module ttcompat Dec 18 17:02:26 pppd[1694]: fcntl(F_SETFL, fdflags): Bad file number The above final is caused by sending a SIGHUP to the pppd process (however three successive SIGKILL's seem to be necessary to really get rid of it). The warning "not a process group leader" appears to be the innocent result of a subtle coding bug, with no later effects, but I haven't tried fixing it (variable "pid" uninitialized). During all this, there seems to be no activity on the serial line, as evident from an Interfaker(tm) breakout patch box. I was desperate enough to lower the speed to 50 bps in order to verify this. At the same time, "netstat -i" does show increasing figures for the ppp0 interface in the "Opkts" column, but in no other column. Solution: in all cases I could solve, it was a case of missing modem control lines in the cables, leading to 'cts' floating to 'false'. The LCP FSM happily sent configuration requests (they went to the serial line driver buffer (and not out)), waited for an answer, got none, timed out, and retried. After lots more of retries, especially on a big machine, the send buffer finally does overflow, and ppp stops with an error message. You just have to connect 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 20 to the modem to repair it, or to wire a reasonably complete null-modem cable. No, there is no software hack, except when you patch the sources yourself. And that would be a bad idea in my opinion. Even a small Sparcstation SLC can overload any modem on a serial line, and you would get lots of unnecessary packet drops because of that. i.s. 4.3.2 [ADDRESS CONFIGURATION ERROR] Each other month somebody posts a question which essentially is the one above. It could, of course, be some very strange set of configurations options which get the ppp to never terminate the negotiation process, but this seems unlikely. This does happen under dp-2.3 [and probably others, i.s.] when both sides of the link have differing opinions as to what the 2 IP addresses should be. If the remote-address offered from the remote side doesn't match the locally configured version then dp-2.3 will send back an REJ packet. The remote side will then resend the original address again and the loop will continue. To see if this is the case check the log for address REJ's. Then decode the two hex addresses and print it out in the normal dot notation. This is the IP address pair of what dp-2.x expected and what it got. Now either reconfigure dp-2.x to expect this address or change the address that the other side is sending. Wolfgang Rupprecht 4.4 What is Asychronous HDLC? It's HDLC with a character-by-character encapsulation, rather than a bit-by-bit encapsulation. The details are discussed in the RFC1331, appendix A. Basically, the flag character, the escape character and (possibly) control characters are escaped by prepending the escape character and XORing them with 0x20, while sync hdlc transparently inserts '0' bits after sequences of 5 '1' bits to be sure to never transmit the flag character in the frame. A short description of the part of ISO 3309:1991 that describes async (ISO calls it start/stop mode) HDLC is available with anonymous ftp from ftp.uni-erlangen.de in pub/doc/ISO/english/async-HDLC. 4.5 My ppp gets strange configure rejects. What's wrong? Every few days, s.b. posts a similar question, which melts down to the above, when you look at it. The symptoms are, e.g.: Feb 6 09:04:08 steffi ppp[232]: demuxprotrej: Unrecognized Protocol-Reject for protocol 29801! Feb 6 09:04:09 steffi ppp[232]: demuxprotrej: Unrecognized Protocol-Reject for protocol 67! Feb 6 09:04:09 steffi ppp[232]: demuxprotrej: Unrecognized Protocol-Reject for protocol 15405! Feb 6 09:04:11 steffi ppp[232]: demuxprotrej: Unrecognized Protocol-Reject for protocol 15405! ... Pre-ppp-2.1 implementations (I think); this includes dp-2.x and probably early dp-3.x'es are too stupid to detect the old (RFC1172) vs. new (RFC 1332 and later) format of VJ compression, although it differs in the length and the length is explicit in each option. They tend to be off by 2 bytes after seeing such an option, and doing horrible things to logfiles, like the cited ones. dp-2.x users should use DP_ARGS=vjmode,draft for talking to nearly everything, or switch to ppp-2.1.2 if they don't need autodialup in the next few months. The faulty side is the other one. i.s. 5. FREE PPP SOFTWARE PACKAGES Free PPP FOR SunOS 4.1.x Free PPP for BSD Free PPP for SVR4 Free PPP for MSDOS Free PPP for AmigaOS Free PPP for NeXT Free PPP for Macintosh Free PPP for Ultrix Free PPP for Linux 5.1 free PPP FOR SunOS 4.1.x 5.1.1 PPP-2.2 FOR BSD, SUNOS 4.X, ULTRIX AND LINUX Authors Paul Mackerras , Brad Parker and contributors Ultrix port: sundstrom@stkhlm.enet.dec.com (Per Sundstrom) and robert@robur.slu.se (Robert Olsson) Linux port: Michael Callahan and Al Longyear Architectures Sunos 4.x at least on Sparc, NetBSD at least on 80?86 and Amiga Ultrix on DECstations Linux on 80386/80486/Pentium FTP archives dcssoft.anu.edu.au:/pub/ppp/ ppp-2.1.2.tar.gz Also from merit.edu:/pub/ppp/sunos-new Self-Description ppp-2.1.1 is now available from dcssoft.anu.edu.au, and shortly from merit.edu in /pub/ppp or /pub/ppp/sunos-new, I hope. This release includes Linux support, thanks to Michael Callahan and Al Longyear, as well as SunOS 4.x, {386,Net,Free}BSD and Ultrix (which were supported in previous versions). Other new and changed features in this version include: security improvements improvements and a man page for chat (thanks to Al Longyear) pppd can now use LCP echo-requests to check that the serial connection is intact, and terminate the link if not (from the Linux port) pppd can now reads a port-specific options file (/etc/ppp/options.) new pppd options vj-max-slots and -vjccomp to control how many connection IDs the VJ header compressor will use, and whether it can compress the connection ID several bugs fixed Paul Mackerras paulus@cs.anu.edu.au Dept. of Computer Science Aust ralian National University ... The main change [of 2.0] from ppp-1.3.1 is that the new release contains a substantially improved version of pppd. New features in pppd include: Vastly improved security and authentication features Conforms to RFCs 1331, 1332, 1334 Reads options from files as well as the command line Does proxy-ARP and default route creation if requested Paul Mackerras Comment ppp-2.1 included in NetBSD distributions, reported to work on NetBSD-Amiga; ppp-2.0.4 is reported to work on NetBSD-Intel and SunOS-4.x-Sparc (did anybody try NetBSD-Sparc?) ppp-2.1.2 will work on Linux on Intel (did anybody try Linux/680x0, e.g. Amiga?) Problems PPP 2.1.2 on a VAX Ultrix exhibited very long delays between packet bursts over the serial line. Similar performance problems may also appear on other BSD-derived systems besides Ultrix. Workaround: Thanks to Patrick Klos for the solution: Turn off Van Jacobsen Header Compression (using the -vj command line option to pppd). Patrick reported that he had found problems in the implementation of VJ Header Compression in PPP 2.1.2. Disabling the option clears the performance problem. Additional note: On VAXes with RTS/CTS flow control I can run the serial port at 19.2K and use an MRU of 1500. On VAXes with MMJ serial connectors without RTS/CTS flow control, I have to use MRU 296 but still specify the crtscts option to pppd, even though the hardware doesn't support it. Barry Kort 5.1.2 DP-2.3 Authors Kirk Smith , peter.galvaby@micromuse.ac.uk and others Features demand-dial, filtering, header compression, server and client, scripting; SunOS loadable modules partially supported Comment basically dp-2.2-beta with typos corrected and non-sun4c kernel architecture supported (tested on sun4c, sun4m and sun3 machines, but has problems on sun3x architectures). It has a configuration file, which tells where the other configuration files are. Loadable modules work as long as you don't unload them. Finally survives even talk(1) without crashing the machine. If you see older versions, especially dp-2.0.tar.Z, toss them immediately! Plans Solaris 2.1 (sunos 5.1) is supported in the dp-3.1 version (see chapter SVR4). Mailing list maintainer ks@phoenix.acn.purdue.edu Mailing-list dp-list@phoenix.acn.purdue.edu (don't send 'add' or 'delete' requests here!!! FTP archive ftp@phoenix.acn.purdue.edu:pub/ WWW document http://www.acn.purdue.edu/dp/dp.html 5.1.3 PERKINS/CLEMENTS/FOX/CHRISTY PPP FOR SUNOS Last version patch level 6 of 1991-10-04 Anonymous FTP [not cited to protect the innocent] Comment should be considered out of date. You need at least a special patch to fix most of a memory leak, and might have other problems. Successor packages are dp-2.3/3.0 and ppp-2.1. 5.2 free PPP for BSD: 5.2.1 PPP-2.1 see above. 5.3 free PPP for SVR4 5.3.1 ...FOR GENERIC SVR4 Author Marc Boucher Public FTP archive FTP.CAM.ORG:/systems/un ix/svr4/CAM-pppd-0.85.tar.gz. self-description The current version is 0.85. Basic support for synchronous PPP and BinTec ISDN was recently added. The wrong interface initialization order resulting in in_interfaces not being incremented properly have been fixed. ... Unlimited redistribution is now allowed. The software is being released AS-IS. I currently do not have time to provide support or implement further enhancements, sorry. The future of the package is uncertain. If someone is willing to pick it up, or integrate my SVR4 changes in a newer PPP package, feel free. Marc Boucher 5.3.2 ...SUNOS 5.X/SOLARIS 2.X dp-3.1 (Solaris 2.x version of dp-2.3) dp-3.1 has been out for quite a while. It works with Solaris 2.1 (for anyone foolish enough to still be running it), 2.2, 2.3, probably 2.4. "...It is much more stable and better behaved than the Solaris 2.3 ppp from Sun...." (Larry Williamson ) There is also a specialized WWW documentFAQ at http://www.acn.purdue.edu/dp/dp.html. 5.4 Free PPP for MSDOS 5.4.1 WG7J NOS (JNOS) PPP ADDITIONS: Johan Reinalda (WG7J) did a lot of additions/improvements to the KA9Q for MSDOS. One of them seems to be that PPP is working, finally. Get version 1.08 and up. Authors Phil Karn (KA9Q), Johan Reinalda (WG7J), with additions from lots of others. PPP code written by Katie Stevens of UC Davis, based on the original implementation by Drew Perkins of CMU. Updated by Bill Simpson and Glenn McGregor of the University of Michigan. James Dugal (N5KNX) has taken over development of JNOS. Features server, client, scripting, redial, Public FTP sites: pc.usl.edu:/pub/ham/jnos/ James's local ftp site. This directory is guaranteed to have the most recent release of JNOS. ftp.ucsd.edu:hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming Comment There is a entry in the configuration recipes section. 5.4.2 PPP PACKET DRIVER INTERFACES 5.4.2.1 etherppp Ftp archive ftp.merit.edu:internet.tools/ppp/dos/etherppp.zip gopher://gopher.archive.umich.edu:7055/11/msdos/c ommunications/ncsa/etherppp-new.zip.new Comment 16 Mar 1994 The "NCSAPPP" version of the DOS PPP packet driver is no longer being distributed due to the availability of the newer "ETHERPPP" version of the packet driver. This packet driver emulates an Ethernet class packet driver and is thus compatible with a wider range of applications. The older driver presented only a "PPP" class packet driver and only worked with applications which knew specifically of "PPP" class packet drivers. -Larry Blunk, Merit Network, Inc. / The University of Michigan Then ftp to merit.edu (notice: not ftp.merit.edu) and from the /pub/ppp/dos directory, fetch etherppp.commands. (The etherppp-new executable will seem to be there also, but you'll find you can't download it.) The documentation file in the archive with the executable was written for a much older version of the software, and is obsolete in several respects. The /k parameter apparently is no longer needed in 1.9.49 beta. And although you can use the supplied version of TERMIN to unload the driver from memory, it is no longer necessary. PPP has a /u switch which will do the same thing. On the plus side, the dialer works nicely. When the driver is unloaded from memory, it will automatically hang up the modem. On the minus side, in addition to random exception errors and lockups, the thing is a memory hog. PPP 1.9.49 takes up over 120,000 bytes of memory. That doesn't leave Minuet's graphical web browser enough room to function properly. (Runtime error #204 will commonly appear.) When fetching news with Minuet 17A and PPP 1.9.49 beta using Merit's default or "quick" configuration, I frequently crashed on Exception 13 errors. The following seems to work better, though not 100 percent stable--gopher and ftp in 18A sometimes generate exception errors. ppp ipcp local compress allow ppp ipcp open ppp lcp local accm 0 ppp lcp local acfc on ppp lcp local pfc on ppp lcp local magic allow ppp lcp open NEIL PARKS Very incomplete features client only 5.4.2.2 PPPPKT Author Frank Molzahn ftp directory oak.oakland.edu, in one of the directories, where packet drivers are found. comment The product is not a complete packet driver by itself. It requires some additional files that are actually part of Novell's commercial networking products. Fortunately, Novell makes them available for free download via anonymous ftp, if you know where to look. Molzahn provides complete and detailed instructions for finding and installing them. PPPPKT does not have any kind of dialer. You have to dial the old-fashioned way--use a plain term pgm that will establish the connection and then get out of the way without hanging up the phone line. (Telix, for example, does this very nicely.) Performance is a mixed bag. News (with 17A) and Gopher are very fast. Mail is so slow that "time out" errors occur frequently. Increasing the "I/O timeout" and "retransmit timeout" numbers in Minuet's Setup/Network screen increases the chances the mail might go through eventually--but not always. Telnet is so slow that it appears to lock up. ftp performance is odd: Logon negotiations and directory listings are slow, but once you start to fetch a file it will come roaring in faster than with any other packet driver I've tried. PPPPKT takes up less memory than Merit PPP, so your chances of successfully browsing a graphical web page are better. NEIL PARKS 5.4.3 ISPA - ISDN PACKET DRIVER INTERFACE Ftp archive ftp.biochem.mpg.de:/pc/isdn Self-Description " ISPA is an ethernet-type (class=1) packet-driver for IP-Routing or remote Ethernet bridging over ISDN. ISPA communicates with the ISDN card using the Common ISDN API 1.1 specification (a standard defined by German ISDN card manufacturers and the German Telekom). Because of this, ISPA is completely hardware independent and has successfully been tested with many active or passive ISDN cards. ISPA supports a large set of protocols for communication with other vendors ISDN routers or servers. Among these protocols are: LAPB, Frame-Relay, PPP (including PAP support), SLIP, Cisco-HDLC. ISPA was developed for use with PCROUTE as a cheap Ethernet-ISDN Router. However, it has been succesfully tested with a wide range of TCP/IP programs e.g. WATTCP based IP programs, PC-NFS, NCSA & CU -Telnet/ftp, gopher, popmail, PCTCP 2.2 or Trumpet WINSOCK. ISPA was written for use with ISDN BRI PC cards. I myself have used ISPA only with the Teles.S0 card, one of the cheapest ISDN cards in Germany. But I got responses from users of ISPA that it will work at least with the following other ISDN cards: AVM A1, AVM B1, Diehl SCOM, Diehl SoTec, NICCY 1000 PC, mbp Solis. Many German vendors of ISDN cards have started to support besides the German signaling system (1TR6) and Euro-ISDN (EDSS1) also other signaling systems in their Common ISDN API 1.1 implementation. The current version of ISPA supports two independent active connections at a time. Alternativly a connection can use two B-channels for loadsharing. ISPA can be loaded more than once, if more than two simultanous connections to different sites are desired. Loadsharing can be configured as static or dynamic (bandwith on demand). Dynamic loadsharing can be used concurrently to a second independent connection. Loadsharing over two channels is implemented using simple round robin scheduling, because IP doesn't require the orginal packet sequence. It's completly hardware independent. It's works the same way as Cisco implements loadsharing over to X.21 interfaceses and I have tested ISPA with a Cisco Router and two Philips TA's. Sure it will not double the performance this way, but around 13kBytes/s you can get." Herbert Hanewinkel, July 1994 5.5 Free PPP for AmigaOS 5.5.1 AMIGANOS (KA9Q NOS PORT TO AMIGA) Mailing-list-maintainer amiga-slip-request@ccs.carleton.ca FAQ posting comp.sys.amiga.datacomm, every 21 days Author JOHN_H@fs2.mcc.ac.uk (John Heaton) Public ftp archive ftp.demon.co.uk: /pub/amiga/setup/setupv4.lha 419364 bytes (Setup for newcomers; Note that this contains some information which is quite specific for the demon.co.uk site only) /pub/amiga/anos/anos29k.lha 196742 bytes (if you already have an earlier version of setup and just need AmigaNOS 2.9k. Also on wuarchive.wus tl.edu:/mirrors3/ka9q/amiga/anos29k.lha Help File wuarchive.wustl.edu:/sys tems/amiga/incoming/text/AmigaNOS-help-V2.lha or ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/amiga/setup/AmigaNOS-help-V 2.lha Comments AmigaNOS2.9k.lha contains PPP as well as SLIP. Seems to be a rfc1171 like implementation, enhanced with a few rfc1331/2 features (like most other implementations I know of) 5.5.2 PPP.DEVICE FOR SANA2 COMPATIBLE NETWORK PACKAGES (AS225, AMITCP, ENVOY) 5.5.2.1 Kruse-PPP 1.23 evaluation version. Author Holger Kruse Public FTP archive on Aminet:comm/net; ftp to e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu, cd to /pub/aminet and read the instruction about the nearest mirror to you. Status Demo-Version, with all configuration options fixed to their defaults (with the exception of the IP adresses, of course). For the full version see 7.1.1 Supports IPCP, is reported to work with AmiTCP-3.0, AmiTCP-4.x and AS225R2, claimed to work with AmiTCP-2.3. More Information available at http://www.america.com/~kruse/amiga/PPP.html 5.6 Free PPP for NeXT 5.6.1 OLD NEXT-PPP Public ftp archive merit.edu:pub/ppp/next-ppp0.3.tar.Z Author miron@cs.sfu.ca (Miron S. Cuperman) Comment The author claimed: I heard that it doesn't work with 3.0. I haven't looked at it myself. It's just a straight port of ppp-1.1. It works with NeXTStep 2.1. It is based on the BSD part of ppp-1.1, but with header compression integrated. I'm not currently supporting (or even using) it. But dstrout@sun.REST.TASC.COM (Dave Strout via MacPPP and Eudora) claims that: "I have gotten the next-ppp0.2 to work just fine under NeXTStep 3.0. I have only tried MacPPP running against it, but telnet, eudora, and GopherApp all work fine. FTP does not work at 2400bps, but does at 9600. dave." told me that: You state ppp-0.2 as being the latest version for NeXTSTEP. It isn't. ppp-0.3 is. However, ppp-0.3 and 0.2 don't run on NeXTSTEP 3.1 or 3.2 (I believe), and both have byte-ordering and byte-alignment problems for White (intel) hardware. 5.6.2 PPP-2.1.2 NEXT PORT A Philip Prindeville has released for Beta testing a port of ppp-2.1.2 suitable for use on NextStep 3.2 on Black (Motorola), White (Intel), and Gray (HP) hardware. It has also been tested with the Mux 1.4 driver (up to 38400b/s with no lose!). Initial reports are that it is fairly solid. N.B.: this is *not* the same implementation as Steve Perkins but rather an update of Miron Cuperman's ppp-0.3. It supports all features of 2.1.2 except: receiver AsyncMaps MRU negotiation receiver (asymmetric) A/C compression negotiation Proxy ARP (server mode) The code may be freely used by individuals but the copyright forbids (without prior agreement) commercial use of this software. Simply stated, Joe Blow can use this software at home, but commercial PPP providers can not use this software for their exploitation without written agreement from the authors. It is available from ftp://ftp.enst.fr/incoming/philipp/ as ppp-2.1.2-beta.tar.gz and ftp://ftp.cs.orst.edu/software/NeXT/sources/comm/ppp-2.1.2-beta.tar.gz (see ppp-2.1.2-beta.README. There are reports that it is difficult to get it to compile on 3.2, and after you succeed, it doesn't work, as some system calls are missing. The reports about it being difficult to compile aren't true. These people simply haven't read the readme's. It states quite clearly that under Black (Motorola) 3.2, you need to compile with -DIOLog=printf since the DriverKit wasn't ported to Black hardware. Note: PPP-2.1.2 has been obsoleted by PPP-2.2. Philippe-Andre Prindeville 5.6.2 PPP-2.2 NEXT PORT There is a port of PPP-2.2 for NeXTSTEP. Version 2.2 implements BSD packet compression, VJ header compression, server ability, priority queueing of interactive packets, and much more. It contains _many_ bug fixes and enhancements over 2.1.2. This effort is a merge of the code bases of Philippe-Andre Prindeville/Pete French and Stephen Perkins. PPP-2.2 is in beta release. The NeXT sources for PPP-2.2 are not currently bundled with the PPP-2.2 Beta distribution. However, they may be retrieved from several sites. Both sources and an MAB binary only installer package are available. Since the code base is still evolving, we have set up a WWW site that always has current information on the package. For more information, please check out http://www.thoughtport.com:8080/PPP/. If you don't currently have access to a viewer, you may grab a README through the anonymous FTP service at ftp.thoughtport.com:/pub/next/ppp/README. This file will have information on the latest versions. This package has been tested on Motorola, Intel, Sparc, and HP systems running OS 3.2 and 3.3. It will not work on OS versions earlier than 3.2. The package works with the standard NeXT supplied serial drivers as well as the MuXV1.7 driver and the latest NeXT serial drivers (see NeXTAnswers for details). It also works alongside NXFax. Note: There are some problems running the latest version on Sparc and HP architectures that have the actual 3.3 release. It does work on systems having OS 3.3 Pre-release. Stephen J. Perkins 5.7 free PPP for Macintosh -MacPPP 2.0.1 from Merit Network, Inc. and the University of Michigan Author ljb@merit.edu (Larry Blunk) Public ftp archive ftp.merit.edu:internet.tools/ppp/mac/... Status macppp2.0.1.hqx seems to be the newest binary release. There are also sources. From the 'Installing MacPPP' document: "...MacPPP 1.1 [as well as 2.0.1] is a Line Access Protocol (LAP mdev) driver for MacTCP. This version does not support AppleTalk over PPP. MacPPP requires MacTCP 1.1 or higher, Macintosh System 6.0.5 or higher, and a Hayes-compatible modem for dial-in connections. You can also use MacPPP over hardwired asynchrounous connections, ..." Comment There's an entry in the configuration section above. There are PostScript and text installation documents at the ftp site. Although these date back to the 1.1.x releases, they're still useful for installing MacPPP 2.0.1. For a workaround for a MacPPP 2.0.1 on non-US System 6, look into the configuration section, too 5.8 free PPP for Ultrix ppp-2.1, see above. 5.9 free PPP for Linux PPP for Linux is distributed as part of Paul Mackerras' ppp package as of version 2.1.1. It may be obtained from any of the locations which cary this software, including dcssoft.anu.edu.au:/pub/ppp/. In addition, the package is posted to the Linux archive sites of sunsite.unc.edu (U.S.A.) in the directory /pub/Linux/Network and ftp.funet.fi (European) in the Linux networking directory. The packages on these two sites contain binaries for the software as well as the source. pppd-2.1.1.tar.gz kernel files + pppd source and binary Authors Michael Callahan Al Longyear public ftp site sunsite.unc.edu and ftp.funet.fi self-description Version 1.0.0 is meant for use with kernels 1.0.0 and later. 6. HOW TO GET MORE PPP INFORMATION 6.1 FTP SITES try also the ftp sites mentioned above in the 'packages' section. Merit PPP collection at merit.edu:/pub/ppp/ KA9Q NOS collection at ucsd.edu:... A list of AmiNET mirrors (for Amiga networking software) can be obtained by ftp-ing to, e.g. ftp.etsu.edu, directory /pub/aminet, and reading the README file found there. 6.2 News Groups comp.protocols.ppp 6.3 WWW pages of interest Charm Net Personal IP Page at http://www.charm.net/ppp.html Ethernet home page at http://wwwhost.ots.utexas.edu/ethernet/ethernet-home.html (in case you need to connect more computers) 7. COMMERCIAL PPP SOFTWARE PACKAGES Before even thinking of reading this document, refer to the disclaimer in part 1 of the "frequently asked questions". 7.1 Amiga Inet 7.1.1 Kruse-PPP 1.30 keyfile version. Author Holger Kruse Public FTP archive on Aminet; ftp to e.g. wuarchive.wustl.edu, cd to /pub/aminet and read the instruction about the nearest mirror to you. The necessary keyfile has to be issued by the author; a registration form is enclosed with the evalutation version (see 5.5.2.1). Status Full Version, with configurable Asyncmap. Supports IPCP, is reported to work with AmiTCP-3.0, AmiTCP-4.x and AS225R2, claimed to work with AmiTCP-2.3. More Information available at http://www.america.com/~kruse/amiga/PPP.html 7.2 MSDOS with and without MSWindows 7.2.1 COMMERCIAL PPP PACKAGES FOR MS-DOS AND MS-WINDOWS This information orignally appeared in the December 7th, 1992 issue of "Open Systems Today", a newspaper published by CMP Publications, (516) 562-5882. Each of these packages costs around $400 not including volume or other discounts. Call the vendor for details. Each of the packages is a complete TCP/IP stack with assorted client programs, ftp, telnet, etc.., that run under MS-DOS and/or MS-Windows. The TCP/IP client programs included in each package vary. Some use the DOS command line (even under MS-Windows) while others have full Windows GUI interfaces. A PPP client (but not server) is included with each of these packages. 7.2.1.1. LAN WorkPlace for DOS 4.1 (see also 7.2.2) Novell USA: (801) 429-5588 Summary: This is an MS-DOS TSR (Terminate and Stay Ready) solution so it runs under either MS-DOS or MS-Windows. It includes a program called "DIALUP" that only allows connections at 8 bits, no parity. You can use the public domain "kermit" program instead if you need 7 bits, parity connections. 7.2.1.2. PC/TCP FTP Software USA: (508) 685-4000 Contact: info@ftp.com Summary: PC/TCP is an MS-DOS TSR solution that had PPP long before it was fashionable. Not surprisingly, it was the only non-beta product available for this review. Comment: PC/TCP 2.2 was shipped 24/25 March 1993 (information indirectly through one of their customers.) I copy parts of the feature list: 1. Autoinstall/Autoconfig (graphical interface, easy install) 2. PCTCPNET (mount InterDrives from File Manager) 3. PCNFSD Print Support (multiple print redirection through PCNFSD) 4. Router Discovery - RFC 1256 5. 8K UDP Writes 6. WMSG (Demonstrates IP Multicast) 7. NFS/TCP Support 8. International Character Set Support / Names in InterDrive 9. International Character Set Support / Directory in InterDrive 10. MVSLogin Support for InterDrive 11. TN Mouse and light pen Support 12. VI Compression for both SLIP and PPP 13. WinSockAPI Meets Final Revision 14. Interdrive EMM Caching Support - use EMM for buffers 15. Inet - Serial line additions debug SLIP and PPP connections 16. Kerberos/Ktelnet 17. Kernel/Netbios Interactions imporved support for LANtastic, LAN MAN 7.2.1.3. Distinct TCP/IP 3.2 Distinct Inc. USA: (408) 741- 0781 Summmary: This is a Windows DLL solution. Version 3.2 supports Winsock 1. 1 Nice scripting features and built-in support (stored configuration strings, basically) for various modems. Reported to also work with the Novell Winsock stack. 7.2.1.4. Super-PPP for Windows 1.0 beta Frontier Technologies Corp USA: (414) 241-4555 E-mail: tcp@frontiertech.com Summary: This is a Windows DLL solution that is an optional component of their Super-TCP for Windows product. Super-TCP comes in both TSR and DLL flavors but the Super-PPP product is strictly DLL. Very configurable. Performance notes: If you run PPP under MS-Windows, your performance will suck (it might not work at all!) unless you have 16550A UARTs in your PC. If you have an extra card slot, you can add two 16550A ports with the DSP 550 card from STB Systems, (214) 234-8750. To find out what kind of UARTs are in your PC, use the program "msd.exe" in your MS-Windows 3.1 install directory or retrieve the program /published/open-systems-today/uarttype.zip from ftp.uu.net . Older UARTs are the 8250 or the 16450. These UARTs will work ok under MS-DOS. A fast CPU helps, though. No performance tests were run because three of the four packages above are still in beta. For more information, read the Open Systems Today article and stay tuned to this FAQ. 7.2.1.5 TechSmith Corporation Enterprise Wide Foray PPP Server Self-description Foray PPP Server is a low-cost remote access software solution that runs on MS-DOS and supports the IP and IPX protocols. Workstations can dial in over standard telephone lines to access the corporate Internet connection as well as other TCP/IP and IPX LAN resources. Foray PPP Server supports workstations running Windows 95 and Windows NT (using their native 32-bit drivers), standard WINSOCK apps or PPP drivers for Windows for Workgroups, Mac, OS/2, and Unix. It supports Windows 95 remote access features including callback and DNS negotiation. System administrators can reuse their 386 machines as they migrate to 486, Pentium, and PowerPC technology. An evaluation version of Foray PPP Server is available from our web site at http://www.techsmith.com. Foray PPP Server starts at $189.95 for a four port license. 8, 16, and 32 port configurations are also available. Foray PPP Server may be ordered from TechSmith Corporation, 3001 Coolidge Rd., Ste. 400, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA. Please send email to sales.foray-server@techsmith.com or call 1-800-517-3001 in North America, or +1-517-333-2100. 7.2.1.6 TechSmith's Enterprise Wide Foray PPP Client for Microsoft Windows for Workgroups and Windows 3.1 Self-description Foray PPP Client allows Windows for Workgroups and Windows 3.1 users to dial in to the same servers as Windows 95 and Windows NT, accessing network resources including the corporate Internet connection. Foray PPP Client supports IP for TCP/IP networks and IPX for Novell networks, with deferred connection and autodial support under Windows. It is an ODI MLID driver and supports features such as callback and DNS negotiation. Users can define multiple communications servers to connect to, and use login scripts for automated access. This initial release supports PAP authentication. An evaluation version of Foray PPP Client is available from our web site at http://www.techsmith.com Foray PPP Client is $24.95 a copy and ten users at $199.95. Site licenses are also available. Foray PPP client may be ordered from TechSmith Corporation, 3001 Coolidge Rd., Ste. 400, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA. Please send email to sales.foray-client@techsmith.com or call 1-800-517-3001 in North America or +1-517-333-2100. Persoft Portable PPP Self-Description Portable TCP is a Windows Sockets TCP/IP stack compliant with the Windows Sockets 1.1 API standard providing users TCP/IP connectivity using PPP, SLIP, or network adapters. The dialer is tuned for the needs of a mobile user providing many features: ppp, slip, cslip automatic calling card handling dial on demand script recorder multiple configuration directory intelligent dialing including international capabilities dhcp, bootp, & rarp support ODI, NDIS, PC LAN, Ethernet, Token-Ring support Retail pricing: $149 / $99 each quantity 10 Persoft Inc. 465 Science Drive Madison, WI 53744-4953 608-273-6000 John Freeborg (johnf@persoft.com) 7.2.2 MSDOS/NOVELL: Novell now offers PPP support (asynchronous) in LAN WorkPlace for DOS version 4.1, and PPP support for synchronous and T1 connections on NetWare v3.11 servers in the MultiProtocol Router WAN Links option. NetWare server support for the routing of IP and IPX protocols over asynchronous dialup lines will be available sometime around mid-1993. This is an excerpt from LWP41.TXT, a document describing LAN WorkPlace for DOS v4.1 (the entire text can be found on sjf-lwp.sjf.novell.com in ~/lwp4dos/lwp41.txt):. You can also try the marketing blurb from Novells European Support Center. * SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) and PPP (Point to Point Protocol) support. SLIP and PPP support is provided in the form of a custom ODI driver for LAN WorkPlace: SLIP_PPP.COM. This driver allows the Novell TCP/IP Transport for DOS v4.1 to use asynchronous connections for IP services required by DOS and Windows applications. It supports the following: - SLIP - Compressed SLIP (C-SLIP) using Van Jacobson TCP/IP header compression (as described in RFC-1144). - PPP with support for Van Jacobson TCP/IP header compression option negotiation and PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) as described in RFC-1334. - Support for National Semiconductor's 16550, 16550A, 16450 and 8250 UARTs (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter). Use of a 16550 UART is strongly recommended (and is required for use with Windows at speeds of 9600bps or greater). NOTE: One can use the Microsoft Diagnostics program supplied with Windows v3.1 (MSD.EXE) to determine which type of UART is installed in a PC. - Interface speeds up to 57,600 bps when used with a V.32bis/V.42bis modem and 16550A UART. brian@novell.com (Brian Meek) clarified on my request, that: IP is the only protocol supported directly by the LAN WorkPlace SLIP_PPP driver in this initial release. One can use the IPTUNNEL LAN driver (also included in LAN WorkPlace) to encapsulate IPX in UDP/IP and attach to a NetWare v3.11 server running a similar driver. This "IP Tunneling" mechanism is described in RFC 1234. Direct IPX support for this PPP driver will be added later, but the current tunneling mechanism is presently more widely applicable... since few (if any) PPP implementations are presently available with support for IPX. 7.2.3 KLOS TECHNOLOGIES PPP ODI DRIVER FOR NOVELL SOFTWARE Self-description "PPP is a Novell compatible ODI network driver designed to allow notebook and personal computers to access network dial-in services and direct connection via standard asynchronous serial ports. A packet driver interface is also provided to support ethernet packet driver based IP software. Running under DOS or Windows, PPP supports IP for TCP/IP networks and IPX for Novell networks. Security is provided by either the Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) or Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP). PPP includes full modem support with Auto-Dial and Demand- Dial features. Users may define connection profiles for quick configuration and access to multiple networks. Guardian utilities for both DOS and Windows are included to warn the user of attempts to load large programs from the remote network. A demonstration version of PPP is available via anonymous FTP on the Internet at mv.mv.com:pub/users/klos/pppdemo.zip and on the Klos Technologies BBS at (603) 429-0032. Single user PPP is priced at $29.95 a copy and five user at $129.95. PPP is available immediately and may be ordered from Klos Technologies, Inc., 604 Daniel Webster Highway, Merrimack, NH, 03054 (603) 424-8300." 7.3 386/486 PC's with SCO Unix: 7.3.1 SCO UNIX ODT2.0 AND LATER FOR 386/486 PC'S CONTAINS PPP. 7.3.2 MORNING STAR PPP RUNS UNDER SCO UNIX AND ODT (SEE 7.4) 7.4 for lots of computers running some Unix derivate: Morning Star PPP Price: $795 (40% discount for .edu) Supported systems: Sun 4, Sun 3, NeXT, DECstation, RS/6000, SCO UNIX, ISC UNIX, and Silicon Graphics (for an actual complete list, look at the self-description. Features demand-dial, scripting, filtering, redial, header compression, client, server, tunneling, extra escaping, the ability to work with various keycard access systems that require user interaction during the script Self-description Morning Star claims that their async PPP and SLIP run fine over UNIX systems' native serial ports, with no additional hardware required. For better performance, they recommend that users of PC-based UNIX systems install either a serial interface card based on the NS16550AFN UART, or a multiport "smart" card. They claim to do async PPP and SLIP/CSLIP as fast as the underlying UNIX supports (usually 38400), and to do sync PPP up to T1 (1.544Mb/s) or E1 (Euro-T1, 2.048Mb/s) over their SnapLink. They provide dynamically-loadable modules for SunOS 4.1.* and NeXTStep 2.1 and 3.0, so users needn't even reboot during the installation process. WWW http://www.morningstar.com FTP ftp.morningstar.com ftp.uu.net:/vendors/MorningStar/ E-mail: marketing@morningstar.com 7.5 for SUN computers running SunOS 7.5.1 MORNING STAR PPP see above. 7.5.2 BRIXTON PPP Supported systems: Sun 4 Features: demand-dial 7.5.3 SUNLINK PPP 1.0 was announced in SunFLASH Vol 49 # 1 (January 1993) Requires SPARC(R) system running Solaris(R) 1.x operating environment and either SunLink HSI/S or SunLink MCP. Features supports only synchronous up to 2MB/s lines, load-sharing, dynamic routing. Only the obsolete RFC1171/2 standard, but should interoperate with newer implementations. Price $1,225 (media, doc, and RTU) [in the USA only] Comment for a necessary patch, look at the configuration section. 7.5.4 SOLARIS 2.3 Solaris 2.3 and up contains a ppp module. Most ppl. think dp-3.1 is riper. You're mileage may vary. The patch for the mishandling of Async control character mapping (in the LCP and IPCP negotiation) for Solaris 2.3 is patch number 101425 (the current revision level is -01). It should now be available from your favorite Sun patchetorium (e.g. U.S. Answer Center, SunSolve, SunService, etc.) This should allow you to interoperate with PPP that weren't able to deal with this bug such as the Telebit Netblazers. It also allows interoperation with versions of PPP that do not support IP address negotiation. therbert@r2d2.Eng.Sun.COM (Tom Herbert) 7.6 for NeXT 7.6.1 MORNING STAR PPP SEE 7.4 7.7 for Apple Macintosh 7.7.1 INTERPPP Vendor InterCon Systems Corporation 950 Herndon Parkway, Herndon, VA 22070 USA +1 703 709 5500 (voice), +1 703 709 5555 (fax) Self-description InterPPP is an implementation of PPP for the Apple Macintosh that supports both TCP/IP (in conjunction with MacTCP) and AppleTalk protocols over PPP, sharing the same PPP connection. Users can define multiple PPP configurations for use with different servers or from different locations, selectable on the fly. InterPPP also provides extensive logging and monitoring capabilities which can be useful for troubleshooting. Price: $99.95 for a single copy, with discounts available for volume, educational, or government purchasers. Contact Phone: 1-800-INT-RCON (1-800-468-7266) in North America or +1 703 709 5500 worldwide. Email to "sales@intercon.com" 8. PPP HARDWARE Before even thinking of reading this document, refer to the disclaimer in part 1 of the "frequently asked questions". 8.1 Hardware that does async PPP [Started by: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti) and heavily edited, to include information from the net, by i.s.] This is an INCOMPLETE list of hardware that supports async PPP, in the form of a terminal server or terminal server / router combination. 8.1.1 DECSERVER Vendor Digital Equipment Corporation Phone: +1-800-DIGITAL (+1-800-344-4825) SELF-DESCRIPTION Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 13:06:19 EDT From: Jesse Walker Digital Equipment Corporation's DECserver family of Network Access Servers support IP, IPX, and AppleTalk over PPP, with interoperability demonstrated with all the commonly available client implementations for all three protocols. The DECserver family includes the DECserver 90M, 90TL, 700, and 900TM. The 90M and 90TL are 8 asynch line servers, supporting speeds up 57.6 Kbps. The 700 comes in two models: an 8 asynch line version using DB25 connectors that support full modem control, and a 16 asynch line model. The 900 is a 32 asynch line server. The 700 and 900 class machines support speeds up to 115.2 Kbps. All work well with any Hayes compatible modem. All except the 90TL have a FLASH RAM option, or can be loaded either via BOOTP or MOP. For more information about DECserver Network Access Server, contact the Digital Technical Consulting Center at 1-800-DIGITAL (1-800-344-4825) and press "1" to order or "2" to speak with a technical consultant. 8.1.2 TELEBIT NETBLAZER Telebit Phone: +1 800 TELEBIT ftp information from ftp.telebit.com SELF-DESCRIPTION Date: Mon, 12 Sep 94 09:57:58 PDT From: Mark.S.Lewis@Telebit.com The NetBlazer supports 24 async lines. An individual line can be run at 115.2Kbps. A benchmark by LANQUEST showed the NetBlazer could run PPP on 24 async lines at 38.4Kbps. I don't know of any customers who run exclusively PPP on 24 lines, but I know of several that run mixtures of SLIP and PPP on 24 lines. OPINION: From: bjs@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian J. Smith) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 23:35:18 GMT A NetBlazer works flawlessly for remote site PPP/SLIP links. As a term server it doesn't fit the bill. And a bit costly. 8.1.4 LIVINGSTON PORTMASTER PM-11 Vendor Livingston Enterprises, Inc: +1 510 426 0770 ftp information from gator.netcom.com:/pub/livingston/ SELF-DESCRIPTION ... have 10-, 20- and 30-port configurations. List prices ranging from ~US$2.7K to ~US$3.8K. Contact for more information. 8.1.5 XYLOGICS MICROANNEX XL AND ANNEX 3 - Xylogics MicroAnnex XL (8-16 ports - release 9.2 firmware) - Xylogics Annex 3 (8-64 ports - release 9.2 firmware) (up to 57600 bps) - Xylogics Remote Annex 2000 (8 or 16 ports, 486-class processor) - Xylogics Remote Annex 4000 (16 to 72 ports, 2 or 3 486's) (up to 115200 bps) SELF-DESCRIPTION From: carlson@xylogics.com (James Carlson) Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1993 14:28:40 EDT Current version has IPCP and PAP. We don't have a sync PPP version yet, mostly because we don't support sync serial yet. That is scheduled for the R9.3 release, along with ATCP, IPXCP and CHAP. We have had async PPP since our R7.0 release in October 1992 for our Annex 3 and Micro Annex XL platforms. PPP is not supported on the (now obsolete) Annex 2 nor on the Micro Annex ELS. The Annex 3 can be customer-upgraded from 8 to 64 async serial lines, with full modem controls on each line, and two to three i376 processors. (The i376 is an embedded version of the 80386 which does not have an MMU.) The motherboard has one i376 and each serial card (maximum two) has one. Packet routing and user-level functions are handled on the motherboard, while framing and PPP/SLIP link-level processing are done on the serial cards. The Remote Annex has the same architecture, but with a TI486SLC2 processor instead of the 80376. It's about twice the speed. OPINION From: bjs@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian J. Smith) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 23:35:18 GMT I have been *VERY* happy with my Xylogics terminal servers I have to Annex II's and a Annex 3. They were designed for the Unix type person, and take 2 mins to get working on the network. Port configuration will take longer, but normally you only have a few sets of configurations "modem dialin high speed" etc. Two thumbs up to this company, now if they didn't cost so much. :) :) 8.1.6 DATABILITY VCP 200/300 ( ??? ) Opinion From: bjs@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Brian J. Smith) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 92 23:35:18 GMT I tested one of these, they come in 8-16 port configurations, a TCP or LAT or TCP/LAT version. Very VMS like, I would guess a off spring of DECservers. Cheaper than the Xylogics in Price. Didn't fit my feel due to the VMSish help and commands. 8.1.7 3COM CS/2100 (10 LINES MAX) [Was mentioned in a posting of Peter Galbavy, summarizing suggestions other ppl. made to him about ppp-capable terminal servers. i.s.] 8.1.8 COMPUTONE INTELLISERVER Self-Description "The IntelliServer is a high-performance, expandable, TCP/IP terminal server that supports slip/cslip/ppp. Some features include - High performance MIPS R3000 RISC processor at 20 mips. Expandable from 16 to 64 serial ports. Baud rates up 115.2K baud. Full modem control. LCD panel with diagnostics and monitoring features. Supports Unix syslog facility. Shell and menu interface. Up to 8 virtual terminals per serial port. Several options to support printers. Network loadable kernels with bootp, tftp. Demand dial ppp and slip. Firewall support using ip filtering. Ports can be shared between logins and ppp/slip. Remote administration using telnet. Some commands - whodo, ps, route, tip, netstat, arp, ping, rlogin, telnet, route, etc... EMAIL sales@computone.com, support@computone.com Phone +1 404 475 2725 FAX sales +1 404 664 1510, support +1 404 664 1110 ftp server ftp.computone.com WWW server http://www.computome.com 8.2 Hardware that supports sync PPP Newsgroups: comp.protocols.ppp Original-From: emv@msen.com (Edward Vielmetti), but heavily edited by i.s. Note that sync PPP is rather well established and it's not surprising to see lots of vendors using it as their only sync serial line protocol. Various folks do various of the configuration options, anywhere from a full implementation to very bare bones. The price point is arbitrary. These are list prices for the cheapest box that has at least 1 sync PPP port that runs at 56 kb/sec plus one ethernet. Prices approximate, your milage may vary, contact your vendor for details. - Cisco E-mail: sales@cisco.com - Telebit Netblazer Phone: +1 800 TELEBIT E-mail: ...@telebit.com NS2-1ESN + SYN35 two EIA-232 SYNC ports and two V.35 sync ports NB40 + 2 * SYN232 + SYN35 + SYN530 + SYN449 total of 10 sync ports (4 EIA-232, 2 V.35 ports, 2 EIA-530 ports, 2 EIA-422/449) SELF-DESCRIPTION Date: Tue, 3 Aug 93 23:55:49 -0700 From: cslater@mondavi.sunnyvale.telebit.com (Charlie Slater) As of this February (93), the NetBlazer/40 supports up to 10 sync ports. All can be run at 128Kbps and several can be run at 2Mbps (I don't have any field or independent test data on how many can be run at 2Mbps, but I think that the answer is at least 2). - Livingston E-Mail: ...@livingston.com IR-4 1 ethernet + 4 56K + 1 RS-232 - Morning Star SNAPlink E-Mail: marketing@morningstar.com SnapLink SCSI-attached serial interface for Unix systems 1 T1 + 2 56K, RS-232 or RS-449 HDLC driver for sun4c ttya and ttyb included with PPP software. Works only with SunOS "haven't been able to extract the information from Sun that we need to make it work under SunOS 4.1.* or Solaris 2.*. The HDLC driver works on NeXTs under NeXTStep 2.[12], but because of NeXTStep's interrupt structure, we can only get it up to 19200 sync. It's also available from ftp.morningstar.com:pub/tools/sun-hdlc.tar.Z. It started as something from one of Torben Nielsen 's grad students, and we're required to pass along any changes we make to it. We hope that if someone gets it working under 4.1.*, they'll be nice enough to pass their changes along too." - Imatek Vendor: Imatek Product: OnRamp DSU-Router Description: Low-Cost, Ethernet-to-56Kbps Sync, Access Router (with DSU/CSU, $1195!) Base unit includes a 32-character Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a data entry keypad, Twisted Pair (UTP) and DB15 (AUI) Ethernet connectors. Front-panel menus configure addresses, routes, netmasks, etc. (terminal.) Sync options include integrated DSU/CSU, V.35, or RS-232. Dimensions: 9.5" x 7.5" x 4". Price List (includes IP routing software with support for PPP and Frame Relay) Model Cost Router w/ Synchronous RS-232 $995 Router w/ Synchronous V.35 1195 Router w/ 56Kbps DSU/CSU 1195 Network Management SW Option (RIP, SNMP, Security Filters) 200 Please direct questions to: sales@imatek.com 408.244.8864 (Voice or FAX) SOFTWARE FORGE SYNC. BOARD FOR IBM-PCS Self-Description Software Forge Ltd (part of the Racal-Airtech group in the UK) have a sync. comms card for a PC that can run PPP and X.25 over leased line, PSTN dial-up and ISDN. Standard interfaces are provided (Packet Driver and ODI). These actually emulate an Ethernet interface, so a vast range of third-party protocol stacks (IP and IPX) can be supported. Software Forge can also provide an IP Router based on the same card. N.B. - this is a _sync_ comms card, ie it can drive ISDN at the full 64K. Channel aggregation is also supported (RFC 1717 - "PPP Multilink"). Contact Robin Maidment, Software Forge (Racal-Airtech group) email: tsf@cix.compulink.co.uk phone: +44 (0)1734 312477 fax: +44 (0)1734 311301