Preparing your Computer for a PPP Connection

The kppp Handbook
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# A.3. Preparing your Computer for a PPP Connection

The following sections contain some fairly generic information for several common operating systems which might run kppp. The following sites may be of interest for further information about the ppp protocol, pppd and networking in general:

- The Linux® PPP FAQ: http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/FAQ/PPP-FAQ.html

- The Linux® PPP HOWTO: http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/PPP-HOWTO.html

- http://www.thoughtport.com:8080/PPP/index.html

- The Network Administrators' Guide: http://metalab.unc.edu/mdw/LDP/nag/nag.html

## A.3.1. Preparing a Linux® system for PPP

In order for kppp (or indeed, pppd) to work, your kernel must have ppp support compiled in. If this is not the case, get yourself the latest version of pppd from any of the popular Linux® archives (such as ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Network/serial/ppp/, and recompile your kernel with ppp support enabled.

Don't fret, since this sounds a lot scarier than it actually is. Don't forget to install pppd afterwards.

If you're not sure if you have a kernel with ppp support, issue the dmesg at the command prompt and look for something like this:

     PPP: version 2.3.0 (demand dialling)
    TCP compression code copyright 1989 Regents of the University of California
    PPP Dynamic channel allocation code copyright 1995 Caldera, Inc.
    PPP line discipline registered

kppp tries to find out for itself if your kernel supports PPP. If not, you will be notified as soon as kppp starts up.

For Linux® 2.x kernels, the pppd daemon should be version 2.3 or greater. You can find out what version your system has, by issuing the command `pppd `--version`` on the comamnd line. None of the pppd daemons actually have a `--version`, but putting the option in will cause the pppd daemon to issue an error message, and then to print out a list of options and other information, which includes the version of the ppd daemon.

## A.3.2. Preparing your FreeBSD computer for ppp connections

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