*BSD News Article 76298


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From: Ken Bigelow <kbigelow@www.play-hookey.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: ppp -auto problem
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 14:36:20 +0000
Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site
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Message-ID: <3215D8E4.167EB0E7@www.play-hookey.com>
References: <4uqitj$ais@stratus.skypoint.net> <321199A2.167EB0E7@FreeBSD.org>
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Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> 
> Patrick Sonnek wrote:
> >
> > I have ppp -auto running in the background.  Occasionally the modem
> > disconnects, and ppp dosn't notice.  Because ppp didn't notice that
> 
> Are you sure you have the cable physically wired so that the serial port
> gets indication of CD/DTR transitions from the modem?  A good test is to
> simply connect to the modem with kermit or tip, dial out and then drop
> carrier - kermit/tip should notice and drop back to the command prompt.
> If not, your cable probably pulls up some of the signals in the
> connector (jumpers) or your modem is configured to not report CD
> transitions.
> --
> - Jordan Hubbard
>   President, FreeBSD Project

That may not quite be the problem, or it may not be fixable. In my
gateway machine I use pppd to connect to my ISP, but I have the same
problem that the daemon does not automatically detect the loss of the IP
connection, whether the modem actually drops out or not. But my modem is
an internal 33.6K unit; no serial cables are involved.

My solution to the problem is to run a cron task every 5 minutes. This
script first does a 1-packet ping to my connect point at the ISP. If
this succeeds, the job simply quits. If it fails, it kills the pppd task
and then restarts it from scratch. I did it this way instead of just
redialing, in case something got zapped in memory.
-- 
Ken

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