Getting Connected to the Internet

If you are thinking about setting up a Linux distribution for yourself, the most important hurdle will be setting up a dial-in connection to access the Internet. The connection will use the Point-to-Point Protocol, otherwise known as PPP. If your computer is hardwired directly to a network, you should have been using Tom’s distribution thus far if it automatically detects your ethernet card and establishes a connection. In Debian Linux you will be prompted to establish this connection in the process of setting up the system. If you have to work through a modem, setting up an Internet connection is less transparent and can be quite difficult if you are dealing

with a university network whose service may be free and not-for-profit, with the result that university personnel have no incentive to support anything but MS-Windows operating systems.

It turns out that an Internet connection can be established rather easily in BasicLinux. After the system loads, execute the command

/<#>pppsetup

and you will be presented with a screen giving a number of options. Choose ‘2. Edit your PPP settings’. You will be prompted to modify a number of files. The first one will appear on the screen as follows:

#!/bin/sh

#

# substitute your ISP's telephone number for 087304484

#

# if your ISP uses PAP/CHAP then remove the last two lines;

# otherwise, substitute your username/password for ichi/xxx

exec chat \

TIMEOUT 3 \

ABORT '\nBUSY\r' \

ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r' \

'' \rAT \

TIMEOUT 30 \

OK ATS11=55 \

OK ATDT087304484 \

CONNECT '' \

ogin ichi \

word xxx

If your Internet Service Provide uses either the PAP or the CHAP protocol your task is dead-easy. Simply do as instructed and press the Ctrl and x keys simultaneously to save your changes and exit the screen. If your ISP requires a text dialogue, as do the University of Toronto Systems, things can get quite complicated. To proceed, you must be using the version of BasicLinux obtained from my website.