Dialup Instructions for Redhat Linux Versions 7.0 and above.
This document will assume you have a standard Redhat 7.0 or higher installation with GNOME installed and you have root privileges on sed machine.
Installing your modem External Hardware Modem (Serial or Parallel) are extremely easy to install
As root run the command:
# wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf
This should create a file in /etc called wvdial.conf with your modem specifications.
If you are using a laptop you can find some help with installing your modem here . If you cannot find your laptop on this list or the links there do not work you could also look through the extensive list at www.linux-laptop.net . Furthermore, if you have a Lab purchased Dell laptop, chances are it uses a Conexant based modem and you can find an easy setup tool here .
If you are using a PCI software based modem (Winmodem) and/or it is not automatically picked up by the wvidal script you should then visit the Linmodems.org web site to find if your modem will be supported or not, and how to install the software.
Configuring your modem to dial-in to US Netizen
Once your modem has been installed your can then run another command as root that will load the Redhat network connection tool. You may have used this tool before if you have setup any ethernet connections.
As root run the command:
# /usr/bin/neat
This will bring up the Network configuration window.
Under the hardware tab you should see a modem if installing the modem from the command line was successful. If it was not you could try to add it using the "Add..." button on the screen. If you know the device name under /dev then you can add the modem this way as well. NEAT is just a front end tool for building the scripts and config files, you could use WVDIAL alone without using NEAT, a brief HOWTO for WVDIAL command line is provided at the end of this one.
Now you are ready to configure the ppp daemon to dial-in to the US Netizen network.
Begin by clicking on "Add...." under the Devices tab. This should bring up a new window with a walk through wizard.
You want to highlight "Modem connection" and click on "Next" which will bring you to another window where you can start entering in information required.
Do not worry about the internet provider list to the left, you will not find US Netizen there. You must enter in the information in the fields as shown. If you have to enter an Area Code for a local call you can just enter it in the Phone Number field before the number. For Provider Name, entering in US Netizen should be sufficient. Next, enter your usename and then your password. Then you can click next.
Verify that this information is correct and click "Finish" complete this process. It will return you to the previous network configuration screen. It should be changed and look similar to this:
Afterwards you might want to make a few changes and tweak the setup just a little, so users of your machine can bring the dialup connection up and down without being root or having required sudo privileges. To do this you can highlight the device called ppp0 and then click on "Edit..." . This will bring up a new window with some extra setting.
If it isn't checked for you already you can check "Allow users to enable and disable the device". You should leave all the other settings the same or your dialup connection will not work right.
Bringing your connection UP and DOWN
If you checked off the box in the last step to allow users to enable and disable this device, then the easiest way to start the dialup procedure is to use a command in your favorite terminal program.
> ifup ppp0
This will bring the interface ppp0 up and you should hear your modem dialing out. Once the connection has been made it will return the command line. Accordingly to bring the interface down you could use this command.
> ifdown ppp0
This will disconnect ppp0 and hang up the phone, it will return the command line once the modem has successfully hung up the phone.
There are other ways of bringing the interface up and down, you could use a GUI to control the interface along with your other interfaces by using this command (NOTE: All commands for NEAT and NEAT-CONTROL can be found under the Main Menu -> Programs -> System -> Network Device Control and Network Configuration (the latter requiring root password)
> /usr/bin/neat-control
It should look similar to this image, except it will have the ppp0 interface as well.
Highlighting your device you can click Activate or Deactivate depending on what you want to do. You can also click on Monitor if you would like to monitor the bandwidth as it is running.
