Re: [Nolug] using a Linux box as dialup server/voice mail?

On Sun, 2003-06-08 at 23:56, Steven Cardella wrote:
> Howdy, I guess I should introduce myself first....
>
> My name is Steve Cardella and I'm a recent computer science graduate.
> I guess that ought to do. I've been trolling the mailing list for
> about two weeks.
>
> Anyway, I've got a linux box, and I was wondering if anyone has had any
> success setting up a dialup server/ voice mail setup on linux. I need
> to be able to dial up using Mac OS X and Win 98 SE. It'd also be nice
> it it also worked with voicemail w/ different mailboxes.

To clarify, do you want The Outside to be able to dial in and access
the Mac and Winbox, or have the Mac or Winbox automagically access
the internet via a modem hung off the Linux box?

If the latter, then "diald" is what you want. Although I've never
used it, I remember seeing it work quite well as far back as the
mid-90s.

What you do is:
1. put the modem in the Linux box and configure it properly
2. make sure the "clients" can access the linbox via the network
3. install and configure diald.

Then, even if the modem is not connected to your ISP, if the linbox
detects packets who's destination addresses are outside the LAN,
diald dials the modem, connects to the ISP, then forwards the packets.

What the user sitting at the client notices is a time lag at first
(while, unknown to him/her, diald is making the ppp connection),
and then regular service.

If someone else then tries to access the internet, they immediately
start to surf, since the link is already up.

After a user-configuable amount to no-activity on the link, diald
hangs up the phone.

Description: dial on demand daemon for PPP and SLIP.
 Many sites use SLIP or PPP links to connect to other sites over phone
 lines. Normally these links must be explicitly turned on or off.
 diald can be used to bring a SLIP or PPP link up when there are
 Internet packets to be sent to another site, and to close the link
 down when it is idle.
 .
 diald operates by starting a virtual link on a pseudo tty and setting
up
 a route to the resulting interface. This interface is called the
 proxy. diald monitors the proxy to determine when to bring up a real
 communications link. When a real link is up diald routes packets from
 the proxy to the real link and monitors the real link to decide if it
 needs to be shut down. As well, if the link goes down unexpectedly
 diald will attempt to reestablish the link. The rules for controlling
 these operations are extensively configurable in run time startup
 files.
 .
 Diald requires that you use either the ethertap interface (available
 in recent Linux kernels) or SLIP to provide the proxy interface.
 Thus, one or the other of these interfaces is required for diald to
 work.
 .
 Diald needs a program like "chat" or "expect" to actually dial.
 Sorry, "dip" cannot be used.

[snip]
> Distro??? I'm open to anything right now.

There are lots of Debian fans here. It's a very good distro,
but not flashy.

-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Ron Johnson, Jr.     Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net          |
| Jefferson, LA  USA   http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
|                                                           |
| Regarding war zones: "There's nothing sacrosanct about a  |
| hotel with a bunch of journalists in it."                 |
|     Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor (Retired)          |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
___________________
Nolug mailing list
nolug@nolug.org