Configuring a PPP Connection

Configuring a PPP Connection (Point to Point Protocol) can be difficult. The configuration can vary from simple to quite complex, depending on your setup. Here are some general guidelines for setting up PPP under Linux.

• Avoid WinModems

  When possible, avoid using WinModems with Linux. Most machines now shipping with internal Modems are using WinModems. While these Modems are supported under Windows, support for these WinModems under Linux is problematic at best. There is limited support for some WinModems available at LinModems.org.

• Use External Modems

  Linux supports External Modems very well. These Modems connect to one of the serial ports on your machine. The majority of PPP software will assume that you have an External Modem connected to a serial port.

The following programs provide an easy way to configure your PPP configuration.

• kppp

  This is the KDE PPP dialer. The documentation is available here. kppp provides a nice GUI interface for configuring your PPP connection.

• wvdial

  This is another PPP dialer program. The documentation is available here. There are several interfaces, rp3 is a graphical interface; wvdialconf is a text interface.

We will be updating these pages on the UMBC Linux website with more detailed instructions as further documentation becomes available.