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4. Configuring an Account

4.1 Dial

Connection Name

You must give the account a name

Phone Number

Specify the phone number to dial. You may use character such as ``-'' to make the number more legible.

Connection Speed

Choose from the list of connections speeds supported by your serial port.

Execute Program upon Connect

kppp will attempt to execute the command specified here once a ppp link has been set up.

Edit default pppd

This will bring up the pppd arguments dialog. You may use this dialog to add any desired options that you want kppp to hand to pppd. Make sure that it always contains the -detach option. See the pppd man page for a list of available options. Unless you know exactly what you are doing you should restrain from tinkering with the pppd options.

4.2 IP

Dynamic IP Address

Check this if your ISP uses dynamic IP address assignment. That is your IP address will most likely change every time you establish a connection.

Static IP Address

Check this is your ISP has given you a static IP address. In that case you will also need to fill in that address and any Subnet Mask if applicable. Ask your ISP if unsure.

Auto-configure Hostname form this IP

Select this option if you want kppp to set the hostname and domain for your machine after successful setup of a ppp link on connect. This is done by querying the defined Domain Name Server with the ip assigned for the ppp link. This option is useful for those stand-alone machines which want to use protocols like talk which require the hostname to be the same as your machine is known in the Internet. It overrides the Domain Name Option in the DNS Section. The machine defaults are restored to the original values when you close the ppp link Be careful when choosing this option: It may prove useful to you, but it may also cause lots of undesired side effect. Just play with it ...

4.3 DNS

Domain Name

Specify the domain name for your machine. As with DNS Addresses it is restored to the original specified in /etc/resolv.conf when the connection goes down. If it is left blank no changes are made to the domain name specified in /etc/resolv.conf

DNS Servers

Add the Domain Name servers assigned to you by your ISP. You must specify at least a Domain Name server for your OS to be able to resolve human readable IP addresses such as ftp.kde.org. The DNS server addresses supplied must be in numeric form, e.g 128.231.231.233. The addresses will be added at runtime to /etc/resolv.config.

Disable existing DNS Servers during Connection

Select this option if you want kppp to disable already existing nameserver entries in /etc/resolv.conf during connection.

4.4 Gateway

Default Gateway

Check this if you want pppd to use the default Gateway for your machine.

Static Gateway

Check this if you want to specify the Gateway to be used.

4.5 Login Script

Edit Script

Use this dialog to compose a dial in script for your ISP dialup connection. Use the mini-terminal and the information supplied by your ISP to understand which sequence of actions needs to be executed.

Example scripts

Here is a simple script I could use to connect to my ISP:

Expect      ID:                        # wait for ID:
Send        myid                       # you have to substitute myid with your id
Expect      word:                      # wait for 'password'
Send        4u3fjkl                    # send my password '4u3fjkl'
Expect      granted                    # My ISP send 'Permission granted' on login success.
Send        ppp                        # This starts a ppp connection for 
                                       # me on the ISP side.

Here a script for the same account with ID and password prompt: This script will prompt for ID and password each time, no matter what is typed into the ID and password field on Kppp's main dialog. This script also illustrated the use of the LoopStart/LoopEnd structure. If something goes wrong during the login procedure, for example if I mistype the password, my ISP will print an error message and restart the id/password loop by issuing the string "ID:" again. If the string "ID" is caught before the LoopEnd keyword was parsed, kppp will start the script again after the LoopStart keyword.

LoopStart   ID:                        # wait for ID:
Prompt      Enter ID:                  # Prompt me for my ID and send it off.
Expect      word:                      # wait for 'password'
PWPrompt    Enter Password:            # Prompt me for my password and send it off.
LoopEnd     granted                    # My ISP send 'Permission granted' on login success.
Send        ppp                        # This starts a ppp connection for me

Here is the script that I actually use to connect to my ISP: This script will prompt for ID and password only if I haven't filled in the respective fields on kppp's main dialog.

LoopStart   ID:                        # wait for ID:
ID          Enter ID:                  # Prompt me for my ID and send it off.
Expect      word:                      # wait for 'password'
Password    Enter Password             # Prompt me for my password and send it off.
LoopEnd     granted                    # My ISP send 'Permission granted' on login success.
Send        ppp                        # This starts a ppp connection for me
                                       # on the ISP side

4.6 Accounting

Accounting Setup

Use the ``Enable accounting'' button to enable/disable phone cost accounting. Select a rule appropriate for your region. If you can't find a rule for your region you will have to write one by following the supplied TEMPLATE in $(KDEDIR)/share/doc/HTML/en/kppp/. Don't be afraid though it is really easy. Don't forget to submit your newly created rules file to me. The newly created rules file can be checked for valid syntax with the -r rule_file command line option to kppp. and must be installed in $(KDEDIR)/share/apps/kppp/Rules or in $(HOME)/.kde/share/apps/kppp/Rules before you will be able to select it on this dialog.


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