Usually, you don't use minicom to initiate a ppp connection -- you run pppd
with a dialer (e.g., chat) to make the connection. Read the PPP HowTo for
general guidence about how to do this. There are many approaches to setting
up ppp, and they vary a lot by distribution, version, pppd version, and if
you use X, which wm &/or desktop environment you are using, so it is hard to
be more specific at this point.
As to your experiences ... you DO use minicom to find out how the different
ISPs want you to access ppp (if they won't actually tell you how to do it
from Linux, and most won't). In the two cases you tried, they do it
differently (assuming the first one supports ppp at all).
Your case 1:
>When dialing with minicom, one ISP dumps me straight into a shell
>when I connect (after having to enter my password twice for some
>reason),
You don't yet know how to start ppp with this ISP (assuming it provides ppp
connections). If you have been using ppp here from, say, WIndows, take a
look at the connection script you used there and see if it offers any clues.
You may have to do something like respond to "login:" with ppp, then provide
a userid and password some other way (more prompts, PAP, or CHAP) ... or
that second "password" request may need soemthing special to start ppp ...
or you may need to start ppp from the shell prompt somehow ... either a
working version from somehwhere or help from the ISP is needed here.
Your case 2:
>and the other one that I use puts garbage on the screen
>as soon as the connection is established (wrong parity?).
The "garbage" is probably the start of a ppp connection. At a guess, this
ISP starts ppp right away, then wants you to use PAP or CHAP to authenticate
yourself (that is, to provide a userid and password). Try running pppd first
with pap enabled, then, if that doesn't work, with chap enabled.
At 09:43 AM 9/6/99 -0700, Jim Reimer wrote [in part]:
>Having trouble with PPP (or getting set up to use PPP, I guess).
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------------------------------------------------
