An Odd PPP Problem

["Christopher J. Booth" <cbooth aixx net>]

Hi, All:

I have Red Hat 6.2 on a new PC (AMD K-6 @ 450 MHz, 128k RAM, 56-k modem,
IDE drives). The modem is not a Winmodem.

I have an ISP in New York City [Zone One], and for now I am dialing in
from New Jersey. I have some local dial-up numbers that my ISP shares with
at lease one other ISP--I don't know who is hosting the connection, but my
ISP is using their dial-up numbers for NJ access. I am able to dial in and
connect.

My problem is that shortly afterward the connection to my ISP fails,
although I am not disconnected from the dial-up host. I am then unable to
download email, surf the 'Net, or browse newsgroups. The only way I have
found so far to talk to my ISP thereafter is to hang up and dial in again.
Sometimes I have to dial in several times just to download my email.

I have tried two modems with the same problem.

I received a promotional CD-ROM with a 30-day trial of bellatlantic.net,
and have signed on to try it. I have no problems connecting to their
servers and staying connected, even to downloading email without stalling
by connecting to bellatlantic.net but using my mail server at my original
ISP. I want to keep the original ISP, whether I keep the second or not.

The twist is this: I also have Windows 98 and Caldera on my machine, and
they both were able to connect to the first ISP with the NJ dialup number
without the connection stalling. I could stay connected to download my
email, use a Web browser, or read newsgroups with no problem.

This last fact makes me think that the problem is not at my ISP, but in my
Red Hat settings. I currently have my /etc/hosts file set up as:

127.0.0.1	localhost.localdomain	localhost	ponte_vecchio.

where ponte_vecchio. (with the dot) is the hostname of my computer when in
its Red Hat incarnation.

Can anyone suggest where this problem may originate?

[I don't know if this is relevant, but I find that neither the
Control-Panel's Network Configuration nor the RH PPP Dialer, nor even the
Dialup Configuration Tool will dial out and connect me successfully to any
number. I use wvdial to dial out.]

Thank you.

Chris Booth

Christopher J. Booth
cbooth aixx net