1 This is the README file for ppp-2.3, a package which implements the
2 Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
9 The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard way to establish
10 a network connection over a serial link. At present, this package
11 supports IP and the protocols layered above IP, such as TCP and UDP.
12 The Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
14 This software consists of two parts:
16 - Kernel code, which establishes a network interface and passes
17 packets between the serial port, the kernel networking code and the
18 PPP daemon (pppd). This code is implemented using STREAMS modules on
19 SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, System V Release 4, and OSF/1, and as a
20 line discipline under Ultrix, NextStep, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux.
22 - The PPP daemon (pppd), which negotiates with the peer to establish
23 the link and sets up the ppp network interface. Pppd includes support
24 for authentication, so you can control which other systems may make a
25 PPP connection and what IP addresses they may use.
31 The file SETUP contains general information about setting up your
32 system for using PPP. There is also a README file for each supported
33 system, which contains more specific details for installing PPP on
34 that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
37 Digital Unix (OSF/1) README.osf
39 NetBSD, FreeBSD README.bsd
42 SunOS 4.x README.sunos4
43 System V Release 4 README.svr4
44 Ultrix 4.x README.ultrix
46 (Unfortunately, AIX 4 is no longer supported, since I don't have a
47 maintainer for the AIX 4 port. If you want to volunteer, contact me.)
49 In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
50 out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
51 the appropriate makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the
52 user-level code, and (as root) `make install' to install the
53 user-level programs pppd, chat and pppstats.
55 The procedures for installing the kernel code vary from system to
56 system. On some systems, the kernel code can be loaded into a running
57 kernel using a `modload' facility. On others, the kernel image has to
58 be recompiled and the system rebooted. See the README.* files for
62 What's new in ppp-2.3.1.
63 ************************
65 * Enhancements to chat, thanks to Francis Demierre. Chat can now
66 accept comments in the chat script file, and has new SAY, HANGUP,
67 CLR_ABORT and CLR_REPORT keywords.
69 * Fixed a bug which causes 2.3.0 to crash Solaris systems.
71 * Bug-fixes and restructuring of the Linux kernel driver.
73 * The holdoff behaviour of pppd has been changed slightly: now, if
74 the link comes up for IP (or other network protocol) traffic, we
75 consider that the link has been successfully established, and don't
76 enforce the holdoff period after the link goes down.
78 * Pppd should now correctly wait for CD (carrier detect) from the
79 modem, even when the serial port initially had CLOCAL set, and it
80 should also detect loss of CD during or immediately after the
81 connection script runs.
83 * Under linux, pppd will work with older 2.2.0* version kernel
84 drivers, although demand-dialling is not supported with them.
86 * Minor bugfixes for pppd.
89 What's new in ppp-2.3.
90 **********************
92 * Demand-dialling. Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
93 network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
94 the link up until it sees some data to be sent. Look for the demand
95 option description in the pppd man page. Demand-dialling is not
96 supported under Ultrix or NeXTStep.
98 * Idle timeout. Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
99 packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.
101 * Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
102 peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
103 the connection is subsequently terminated. This can be useful for
106 * A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
107 This uses the same compression method as `gzip'. This method is free
108 of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
109 compression than BSD-Compress. It does consume more CPU cycles for
110 compression than BSD-Compress, but this shouldn't be a problem for
111 links running at 100kbit/s or less.
113 * There is no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
114 Clements' restrictive copyright notice. The STREAMS modules for SunOS
115 and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
116 were written from scratch without any Clements code.
118 * Pppstats has been reworked to clean up the output format somewhat.
119 It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
120 those columns which would normally display bytes.
122 * Pppd options beginning with - or + have been renamed, e.g. -ip
123 became noip, +chap became require-chap, etc. The old options are
124 still accepted for compatibility but may be removed in future.
126 * Pppd now has some options (such as the new `noauth' option) which
127 can only be specified if it is being run by root, or in an
128 "privileged" options file: /etc/ppp/options or an options file in the
129 /etc/ppp/peers directory. There is a new "call" option to read
130 options from a file in /etc/ppp/peers, making it possible for non-root
131 users to make unauthenticated connections, but only to certain trusted
132 peers. My intention is to make the `auth' option the default in a
135 * Several minor new features have been added to pppd, including the
136 maxconnect and welcome options. Pppd will now terminate the
137 connection when there are no network control protocols running. The
138 allowed IP address(es) field in the secrets files can now specify
139 subnets (with a notation like 123.45.67.89/24) and addresses which are
140 not acceptable (put a ! on the front).
142 * Numerous bugs have been fixed (no doubt some have been introduced :-)
143 Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.
149 The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
150 that used in the Unix "compress" command. It is apparently covered by
151 U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by Unisys),
152 and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
153 Australia). If this is of concern, you can build the package without
154 including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit net/ppp-comp.h to change the
155 definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The bsd-comp.c files are then no
156 longer needed, so the references to bsd-comp.o may optionally be
157 removed from the Makefiles.
163 The comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup is a useful place to get help if you
164 have trouble getting your ppp connections to work. Please do not send
165 me questions of the form "please help me get connected to my ISP" -
166 I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to answer all the
167 questions like this that I get.
169 If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
170 for the port for the operating system you are using:
172 Digital Unix (OSF/1) Farrell Woods <ftw@zk3.dec.com>
173 Linux Al Longyear <longyear@pobox.com>
174 NetBSD Matthew Green <mrg@eterna.com.au
175 FreeBSD Peter Wemm <peter@haywire.DIALix.COM>
176 NeXTStep Steve Perkins <perkins@cps.msu.edu>
177 Solaris 2 Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
178 SunOS 4.x Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
179 System V Release 4 Matthias Apitz <Matthias.Apitz@SOFTCON.de>
180 Ultrix 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
186 All of the code can be freely used and redistributed.
192 The primary site for releases of this software is:
194 ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
197 ($Id: README,v 1.9 1997/07/14 03:48:52 paulus Exp $)