1 This is the README file for ppp-2.4, 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 and Solaris ports of this package have optional support for
13 IPV6; the Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
15 This software consists of two parts:
17 - Kernel code, which establishes a network interface and passes
18 packets between the serial port, the kernel networking code and the
19 PPP daemon (pppd). This code is implemented using STREAMS modules on
20 SunOS 4.x and Solaris, and as a line discipline under Linux and FreeBSD.
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.
27 The primary platforms supported by this package are Linux and Solaris.
28 Code for SunOS 4.x is included here but is largely untested. I have
29 code for NeXTStep, FreeBSD, SVR4, Tru64 (Digital Unix), AIX and Ultrix
30 but no active maintainers for these platforms. Code for all of these
31 except AIX is included in the ppp-2.3.11 release.
37 The file SETUP contains general information about setting up your
38 system for using PPP. There is also a README file for each supported
39 system, which contains more specific details for installing PPP on
40 that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
45 SunOS 4.x README.sunos4
47 In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
48 out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
49 the appropriate makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the
50 user-level code, and (as root) `make install' to install the
51 user-level programs pppd, chat and pppstats.
53 N.B. Since 2.3.0, leaving the permitted IP addresses column of the
54 pap-secrets or chap-secrets file empty means that no addresses are
55 permitted. You need to put a "*" in that column to allow the peer to
56 use any IP address. (This only applies where the peer is
57 authenticating itself to you, of course.)
60 What's new in ppp-2.4.2.
61 ************************
63 * Support for MS-CHAP v2 authentication, plus support for
64 authenticating the peer with MS-CHAP v1 or v2.
74 * Password-via-pipe plugin
80 * Radius plugin code included
82 * Extra hooks for plugins
86 * ipcp-no-addresses and ipcp-no-address options
88 * lock filename changes?
91 What was new in ppp-2.4.1.
92 **************************
94 * Pppd can now print out the set of options that are in effect. The
95 new `dump' option causes pppd to print out the option values after
96 option parsing is complete. The `dryrun' option causes pppd to
97 print the options and then exit.
99 * The option parsing code has been fixed so that options in the
100 per-tty options file are parsed correctly, and don't override values
101 from the command line in most cases.
103 * The plugin option now looks in /usr/lib/pppd/<pppd-version> (for
104 example, /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.1b1) for shared objects for plugins if
105 there is no slash in the plugin name.
107 * When loading a plugin, pppd will now check the version of pppd for
108 which the plugin was compiled, and refuse to load it if it is
109 different to pppd's version string. To enable this, the plugin
110 source needs to #include "pppd.h" and have a line saying:
111 char pppd_version[] = VERSION;
113 * There is a bug in zlib, discovered by James Carlson, which can cause
114 kernel memory corruption if Deflate is used with the lowest setting,
115 8. As a workaround pppd will now insist on using at least 9.
117 * Pppd should compile on Solaris and SunOS again.
119 * Pppd should now set the MTU correctly on demand-dialled interfaces.
122 What was new in ppp-2.4.0.
123 **************************
125 * Multilink: this package now allows you to combine multiple serial
126 links into one logical link or `bundle', for increased bandwidth and
127 reduced latency. This is currently only supported under the
128 Linux-2.3.99pre5 or later kernels.
130 * All the pppd processes running on a system now write information
131 into a common database. I used the `tdb' code from samba for this.
133 * New hooks have been added.
135 For a list of the changes made during the 2.3 series releases of this
136 package, see the Changes-2.3 file.
142 This package supports two packet compression methods: Deflate and
143 BSD-Compress. Other compression methods which are in common use
144 include Predictor, LZS, and MPPC. These methods are not supported for
145 two reasons - they are patent-encumbered, and they cause some packets
146 to expand slightly, which pppd doesn't currently allow for.
147 BSD-Compress is also patent-encumbered (its inclusion in this package
148 can be considered a historical anomaly :-) but it doesn't ever expand
149 packets. Neither does Deflate, which uses the same algorithm as gzip.
155 The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
156 that used in the Unix "compress" command. It is apparently covered by
157 U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by Unisys),
158 and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
159 Australia). If this is of concern, you can build the package without
160 including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit net/ppp-comp.h to change the
161 definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The bsd-comp.c files are then no
162 longer needed, so the references to bsd-comp.o may optionally be
163 removed from the Makefiles.
169 The comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup is a useful place to get help if you
170 have trouble getting your ppp connections to work. Please do not send
171 me questions of the form "please help me get connected to my ISP" -
172 I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to answer all the
173 questions like this that I get.
175 If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
176 for the port for the operating system you are using:
178 Linux Paul Mackerras <paulus@linuxcare.com>
179 Solaris James Carlson <james.d.carlson@east.sun.com>
180 SunOS 4.x Adi Masputra <adi.masputra@sun.com>
186 All of the code can be freely used and redistributed. The individual
187 source files each have their own copyright and permission notice; some
188 have a BSD-style notice and some are under the GPL.
194 The primary site for releases of this software is:
196 ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/
199 ($Id: README,v 1.26 2003/02/16 22:19:47 paulus Exp $)