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.
48 The Ultrix port is untested, as I no longer have access to an Ultrix
51 In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
52 out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
53 the appropriate makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the
54 user-level code, and (as root) `make install' to install the
55 user-level programs pppd, chat and pppstats.
57 The procedures for installing the kernel code vary from system to
58 system. On some systems, the kernel code can be loaded into a running
59 kernel using a `modload' facility. On others, the kernel image has to
60 be recompiled and the system rebooted. See the README.* files for
63 N.B. Since 2.3.0, leaving the permitted IP addresses column of the
64 pap-secrets or chap-secrets file empty means that no addresses are
65 permitted. You need to put a "*" in that column to allow the peer to
66 use any IP address. (This only applies where the peer is
67 authenticating itself to you, of course.)
70 What's new in ppp-2.3.6.
71 ************************
73 * The device name is now a privileged option, meaning a non-privileged
74 user cannot specify the device name on the command line or in their
77 * The default behaviour of pppd is now to let a peer which has not
78 authenticated itself (e.g. your ISP) use any IP address to which the
79 system does not already have a route. (This is currently only
80 supported under Linux, Solaris and Digital Unix; on the other
81 systems, the peer must now authenticate itself unless the noauth
84 * Added new option `usepeerdns', thanks to Nick Walker
85 <nickwalker@email.com>. If the peer supplies DNS addresses, these
86 will be written to /etc/ppp/resolv.conf. The ip-up script can then
87 be used to add these addresses to /etc/resolv.conf if desired (see
88 the ip-up.local.add and ip-down.local.add files in the scripts
91 * The Solaris ppp driver should now work correctly on SMP systems.
93 * Minor corrections so that the code can compile under Solaris 7,
94 and under Linux with glibc-2.1.
96 * The Linux kernel driver has been restructured for improved
99 * Pppd now won't start the ip-down script until the ip-up script has
103 What was new in ppp-2.3.5.
104 **************************
106 * Minor corrections to the Digital UNIX and NetBSD ports.
108 * A workaround to avoid tickling a bug in the `se' serial port driver
109 on Sun PCI Ultra machines running Solaris.
111 * Fixed a bug in the negotiation of the Microsoft WINS server address
114 * Fixed a bug in the Linux port where it would fail for kernel
115 versions above 2.1.99.
118 What was new in ppp-2.3.4.
119 **************************
121 * The NeXT port has been updated, thanks to Steve Perkins.
123 * ppp-2.3.4 compiles and works under Solaris 2.6, using either gcc or
126 * With the Solaris, SVR4 and SunOS ports, you can control the choice
127 of C compiler, C compiler options, and installation directories by
128 editing the svr4/Makedefs or sunos4/Makedefs file.
130 * Until now, we have been using the number 24 to identify Deflate
131 compression in the CCP negotiations, which was the number in the draft
132 RFC describing Deflate. The number actually assigned to Deflate is
133 26. The code has been changed to use 26, but to allow the use of 24
134 for now for backwards compatibility. (This can be disabled with the
135 `nodeflatedraft' option to pppd.)
137 * Fixed some bugs in the linux driver and deflate compressor which
138 were causing compression problems, including corrupting long
139 incompressible packets sometimes.
141 * Fixes to the PAM and shadow password support in pppd, from Al
144 * Pppd now sets some environment variables for scripts it invokes
145 (ip-up/down, auth-ip/down), giving information about the connection.
146 The variables it sets are PEERNAME, IPLOCAL, IPREMOTE, UID, DEVICE,
149 * Pppd now has an `updetach' option, which will cause it to detach
150 from its controlling terminal once the link has come up (i.e. once it
151 is available for IP traffic).
154 What was new in ppp-2.3.3.
155 **************************
157 * Fixed compilation problems under SunOS.
159 * Fixed a bug introduced into chat in 2.3.2, and compilation problems
160 introduced into the MS-CHAP implementation in 2.3.2.
162 * The linux kernel driver has been updated for recent 2.1-series
163 kernel changes, and it now will ask kerneld to load compression
164 modules when required, if the kernel is configured to support kerneld.
166 * Pppd should now compile correctly under linux on systems with glibc.
169 What was new in ppp-2.3.2.
170 **************************
172 * In 2.3.1, I made a change which was intended to make pppd able to
173 detect loss of CD during or immediately after the connection script
174 runs. Unfortunately, this had the side-effect that the connection
175 script wouldn't work at all on some systems. This change has been
178 * Fix compilation problems in the Linux kernel driver.
181 What was new in ppp-2.3.1.
182 **************************
184 * Enhancements to chat, thanks to Francis Demierre. Chat can now
185 accept comments in the chat script file, and has new SAY, HANGUP,
186 CLR_ABORT and CLR_REPORT keywords.
188 * Fixed a bug which causes 2.3.0 to crash Solaris systems.
190 * Bug-fixes and restructuring of the Linux kernel driver.
192 * The holdoff behaviour of pppd has been changed slightly: now, if
193 the link comes up for IP (or other network protocol) traffic, we
194 consider that the link has been successfully established, and don't
195 enforce the holdoff period after the link goes down.
197 * Pppd should now correctly wait for CD (carrier detect) from the
198 modem, even when the serial port initially had CLOCAL set, and it
199 should also detect loss of CD during or immediately after the
200 connection script runs.
202 * Under linux, pppd will work with older 2.2.0* version kernel
203 drivers, although demand-dialling is not supported with them.
205 * Minor bugfixes for pppd.
208 What was new in ppp-2.3.
209 ************************
211 * Demand-dialling. Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
212 network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
213 the link up until it sees some data to be sent. Look for the demand
214 option description in the pppd man page. Demand-dialling is not
215 supported under Ultrix or NeXTStep.
217 * Idle timeout. Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
218 packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.
220 * Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
221 peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
222 the connection is subsequently terminated. This can be useful for
225 * A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
226 This uses the same compression method as `gzip'. This method is free
227 of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
228 compression than BSD-Compress. It does consume more CPU cycles for
229 compression than BSD-Compress, but this shouldn't be a problem for
230 links running at 100kbit/s or less.
232 * There is no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
233 Clements' restrictive copyright notice. The STREAMS modules for SunOS
234 and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
235 were written from scratch without any Clements code.
237 * Pppstats has been reworked to clean up the output format somewhat.
238 It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
239 those columns which would normally display bytes.
241 * Pppd options beginning with - or + have been renamed, e.g. -ip
242 became noip, +chap became require-chap, etc. The old options are
243 still accepted for compatibility but may be removed in future.
245 * Pppd now has some options (such as the new `noauth' option) which
246 can only be specified if it is being run by root, or in an
247 "privileged" options file: /etc/ppp/options or an options file in the
248 /etc/ppp/peers directory. There is a new "call" option to read
249 options from a file in /etc/ppp/peers, making it possible for non-root
250 users to make unauthenticated connections, but only to certain trusted
251 peers. My intention is to make the `auth' option the default in a
254 * Several minor new features have been added to pppd, including the
255 maxconnect and welcome options. Pppd will now terminate the
256 connection when there are no network control protocols running. The
257 allowed IP address(es) field in the secrets files can now specify
258 subnets (with a notation like 123.45.67.89/24) and addresses which are
259 not acceptable (put a ! on the front).
261 * Numerous bugs have been fixed (no doubt some have been introduced :-)
262 Thanks to those who reported bugs in ppp-2.2.
268 The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
269 that used in the Unix "compress" command. It is apparently covered by
270 U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by Unisys),
271 and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
272 Australia). If this is of concern, you can build the package without
273 including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit net/ppp-comp.h to change the
274 definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The bsd-comp.c files are then no
275 longer needed, so the references to bsd-comp.o may optionally be
276 removed from the Makefiles.
282 The comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup is a useful place to get help if you
283 have trouble getting your ppp connections to work. Please do not send
284 me questions of the form "please help me get connected to my ISP" -
285 I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to answer all the
286 questions like this that I get.
288 If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
289 for the port for the operating system you are using:
291 Digital Unix (OSF/1) Sowmini Varadhan <varadhan@zk3.dec.com>
292 Linux Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
293 NetBSD Matthew Green <mrg@eterna.com.au>
294 FreeBSD Peter Wemm <peter@haywire.DIALix.COM>
295 NeXTStep Steve Perkins <perkins@cps.msu.edu>
296 Solaris 2 Paul Mackerras <Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au>
297 SunOS 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
298 System V Release 4 Matthias Apitz <Matthias.Apitz@SOFTCON.de>
299 Ultrix 4.x Paul Mackerras (for want of anybody better :-)
305 All of the code can be freely used and redistributed.
311 The primary site for releases of this software is:
313 ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/
316 ($Id: README,v 1.14 1999/03/02 05:25:29 paulus Exp $)