[techtalk] Intro & Netscape mail/PPP? problem

[Janet M Swisher]

Greetings Chix and Others,

I just joined this list, so here's my introduction and first problem.

I'm a technical writer by trade, and once I learn more about Linux, I'd
like to get involved in the Linux Documentation Project and/or the Open
Writers Group. (I have the impression that there are some politics
between those two groups, which I'm not sure I want to know about :-) 
The reasons I want to do this are: 1) it's really cool; 2) it's a
service to the world; and 3) it's a service to myself, since all the
more-technical documentation I produce for my job is proprietary, and
couldn't be used in a portfolio if I were to look for another job.

I have installed RedHat 6.2 on my system, and I want to set it up to
read email and news, and do web-browsing, so that it will become my
primary operating environment (at home, anyway).  The programs I
anticipate still needing to run MS-Windows for are Quicken and Lotus
Notes (for work stuff).  I have some previous experience with Unix, but
only as a user, not a system administrator, and not much involving X
Windows.

I have set up my Netscape preferences with, as near as I can tell, the
same settings that I use under MS-Windows for mail and news servers. 
However, when I try to connect to either one, I get a message that the
server refused the connection and to try again later.  However, if I
connect under Win98 immediately afterward, I can connect with no
problem.  I suspect that this problem is due to some interaction with
PPP. Because the servers are in an edu domain, they refuse connections
if you are not in the same domain.  This means I have to use the campus
dial-in in order to access these servers.  The PPP connection appears to
be working OK (I can do regular web-browsing), but I wonder if my
dynamic IP address is not being reported properly.

I had trouble setting up my PPP connection using the RedHat Dialup
Configuration Tool.  I would define an account, but when I opened the
tool again later, the account would not show up, even though it existed
in the wvdial.conf file.  Another problem with that tool was that it
would show you the login conversation with the server, but would not let
you define a custom login script.  I need a custom login script for
connecting to the campus dial-in server.  

So I ended up configuring ppp0 using netcfg, which does let me define a
custom "chat" script.  But it doesn't offer a debug feature.  So I'm not
certain that the IP address assigned to me by the dial-in server is
being stored in whatever location it needs to be for the mail & news
servers to recognize my machine as being on their domain.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this situation?  Is there a way to get
Netscape to show me the real response from the server?  Is there a way
to see if my machine "knows" its dynamic IP address?  Is there a way to
debug a "chat" script that's defined using netcfg?  Why isn't RH Dialup
Configuration Tool showing the accounts that are defined in
wvdial.conf?  Is there a way to define a custom script using that tool?

TIA,
--Janet

-- 
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You are expected to know the difference.
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