serial lines.
In this first beta release, the ports for SunOS, Solaris, NetBSD and
-OSF/1 are believed to be working correctly. The Linux port mostly
-works, but still has some known bugs. The remaining ports haven't
-been tested extensively. For information on the current status of the
-NeXTStep port, see http://www.thoughtport.com:8080/PPP/.
+Digital Unix (OSF/1) are believed to be working correctly. The Linux
+port mostly works, but still has some known bugs (demand dialling
+doesn't work correctly). The remaining ports haven't been tested
+extensively. The NeXTStep port is not included here since it hasn't
+been updated from 2.2 yet. For information on its current status, see
+http://www.thoughtport.com:8080/PPP/.
Introduction.
The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard way to establish
a network connection over a serial link. At present, this package
supports IP and the protocols layered above IP, such as TCP and UDP.
-The Linux port of this package also supports IPX.
+The Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
This software consists of two parts:
that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
files, are:
- SunOS 4.x README.sunos4
- NetBSD, FreeBSD README.bsd
- Ultrix 4.x README.ultrix
+ Digital Unix (OSF/1) README.osf
Linux README.linux
- OSF/1 README.osf
+ NetBSD, FreeBSD README.bsd
NeXTStep README.next
Solaris 2 README.sol2
+ SunOS 4.x README.sunos4
System V Release 4 README.svr4
+ Ultrix 4.x README.ultrix
+
+(Unfortunately, AIX 4 is no longer supported, since I don't have a
+maintainer for the AIX 4 port. If you want to volunteer, contact me.)
In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
be recompiled and the system rebooted. See the README.* files for
details.
-(Unfortunately, AIX 4 is no longer supported, since I don't have a
-maintainer for the AIX 4 port. If you want to volunteer, contact me.)
-
What's new in ppp-2.3.
**********************
* Demand-dialling. Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
-the link up until it sees some data to be sent.
+the link up until it sees some data to be sent. Look for the demand
+option description in the pppd man page.
* Idle timeout. Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.
* Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
-the connection is subsequently terminated.
+the connection is subsequently terminated. This can be useful for
+accounting purposes.
* A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
This uses the same compression method as `gzip'. This method is free
of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
compression than BSD-Compress. It does consume more CPU cycles for
-compression than BSD-Compress, but this won't be a problem for links
-running at 100kbit/s or less.
+compression than BSD-Compress, but this shouldn't be a problem for
+links running at 100kbit/s or less.
-* There is now no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
+* There is no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
Clements' restrictive copyright notice. The STREAMS modules for SunOS
and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
were written from scratch without any Clements code.
It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
those columns which would normally display bytes.
+* Pppd options beginning with - or + have been renamed, e.g. -ip
+became noip, +chap became require-chap, etc. The old options are
+still accepted for compatibility but may be removed in future.
+
+* Pppd now has some options (such as the new `noauth' option) which
+can only be specified if it is being run by root, or in an
+"privileged" options file: /etc/ppp/options or an options file in the
+/etc/ppp/peers directory. There is a new "call" option to read
+options from a file in /etc/ppp/peers, making it possible for non-root
+users to make unauthenticated connections, but only to certain trusted
+peers. My intention is to make the `auth' option the default in a
+future release.
+
+* Several minor new features have been added to pppd, including the
+maxconnect and welcome options. Pppd will now terminate the
+connection when there are no network control protocols running. The
+allowed IP address(es) field in the secrets files can now specify
+subnets (with a notation like 123.45.67.89/24) and addresses which are
+not acceptable (put a ! on the front).
+
+* Numerous bugs have been fixed (no doubt some have been introduced :-)
+Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.
+
Patents.
********
ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
-($Id: README,v 1.5 1996/07/01 05:27:42 paulus Exp $)
+($Id: README,v 1.7 1996/08/28 06:30:32 paulus Exp $)