Earthlink not helping.

[jdow]

From: "Lokrin" <redhat at lokrin.net>
> Added the above.  No difference.
> 
> >Another potential problem is that your connection itself is bad. What
> >does "ifconfig pppN" say comparing your working and non-working
> >connections? You might see something obvious.
> >
> ppp0      Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol 
>           inet addr:165.121.58.190  P-t-P:209.165.103.236  
> Mask:255.255.255.255
>           UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
>           RX packets:23 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
>           TX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
>           RX bytes:2529 (2.4 Kb)  TX bytes:142 (142.0 b)
> 
> ppp0 is the seanet account.  ppp1 is the earthlink account.  That gives 
> an error of DEVICE NOT FOUND

This is where you are dead. But you MUST disconnect the seanet
account before you connect to Earthlink. Otherwise strange things
will happen.

Um, what does your /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ppp1 file
look like compared with the one above? It should have a line in it
something like USER='ELN/foopuppy at earthlink.net'. The ELN/ part is
important. You also want "DEFROOT=yes".

Another place that is important is the /etc/ppp directory. It should
have a "pap-secrets" file in it that contains your password in a line
something like this:
"ELN/foopuppy at earthlink.net"   * "foopuppies"

Of course in both places replace "foopuppy" with your Earthlink account
name and "foopuppies" with a real password for your account.

> The thing is everything worked before they put my account on hold and no 
> it doesn't.  I have not changed my system.

Something else may have changed your system for you. Let's take baby
steps looking for missing items. The two files I mentioned are quite
important to getting connected. And being disconnected from any other
ISP is also fairly important to avoid confusion.

>From the command line as root:
# ifdown ppp0
# ifup ppp1

After that it might be interesting to note what "ifconfig ppp1" has to
tell you. The fact that you get MODEM sounds is encouraging. A next but
brutal step to take if the above stuff is OK and still fails miserably
is using minicom to dial the Earthlink modems. Enter your name and
password to the text prompts that I believe are still there. Then see
if you get some garbage printing to the screen a few times. I would
expect it to disconnect if the garbage is not answered correctly.

Now let's make another temporary assumption - suppose you found something
not right and the ifup ppp1 works. Now you play with multiple consoles.
It helps. In one type "tail -f /var/log/messages" and in the other try
the "traceroute mail.earthlink.net" command. If your firewall is closed
then you'll have error messages popping up in the window that has the
tail command running. At which time the right response is the flat
forehead maneuver, slap palm of hand against forehead and exclaim "I
forgot the firewall!" I bet it addresses a "ppp0" connection but not a
"ppp1" connection. So you'd have to make the appropriate changes. But
I am worried that this is not your problem and that one of the other files
is messed up because you get the error message from the "ifconfig ppp1"
command. That hurdle needs to be covered first.

> Side note:  I couldn't connect with Seanet and found out it was because 
> my modem volume was set to high.  That kept giving me a modem error 8 - 
> no dial tone.  I'm guessing there was not enough power for the high 
> volume and to pick up the line both.

The noise bugs me. So when I am playing road warrior I turn the modem
down to its lowest level. I can still hear it go through its motions.
But I don't get lifted out of the chair by the screeches. {^_-}

{^_^}