marion.keith@gmail.com writes:
> I have successfully set up mgetty + ppp on our linux server in the past
> for the office to use as a dialin ISP server so they can come in on a
> 1-800 #, and surf out on our T-1. I am failing with my current setup,
> SUSE 9.3. I installed latest ppp, still failure. I can establish
> connection, but "netmask" option does not seem to be issued. Logs are
> silent about "netmask".
>
> Does "netmask" option still work for ppp? If so, would something else
> prevent ppp from handing out the netmask? And how can I locate it? Or
> is there another option to route traffic from modem out to the T-1?

"Netmask" is pretty meaningless on point-to-point links. With a
point-to-point link, there's only *one* peer any of your transmitted
packets can go to. That's a single IP address, not a subnet, so
there's no way to talk about a netmask in this context.

Certain Router Vendors have added features to their boxes that allow
you to set a netmask on point-to-point links. What that feature
_actually_ does is establish a static route by masking off the local
address[1] with the supplied mask and pointing the next hop of the
generated route to the peer.

Sadly, that's a bit misleading.

The right way to do this is to either add static routes (you can do
this via /etc/ppp/ip-up if you like) or just use a routing protocol.
This (figuring out where all those links go) is what routing protocols
were designed to do.

[1] One major vendor uses the local address, another well-known vendor
uses the remote address. There's no standard.

--
James Carlson, KISS Network
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677

Thanks for the explanation. I should be able to apply it in ip-up.

Has the netmask option been taken out of the Paul's PPP Package version
2.4.3 for Linux?

Thanks, Marion

marion.keith@gmail.com writes:
> Thanks for the explanation. I should be able to apply it in ip-up.
>
> Has the netmask option been taken out of the Paul's PPP Package version
> 2.4.3 for Linux?

No. It looks like the code checks to see if you have kernel version
2.1.16 or better and silently forces the mask to 255.255.255.255 if
so.

It's a placebo option -- parsed and accepted, but does nothing.

--
James Carlson, KISS Network
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677

Thanks, James. That explains a lot that I wasn't turning up out there.
Thanks again for the help. Marion