Linux Networking Clearly Explained - lions-wing.net

CHAPTER 1 • CREATING A DIAL-UP INTERNET CONNECTION 5
the type of authentication (PAP or CHAP), your login
name (also called username), your password, the
Internet addresses of the primary and secondary DNS
servers you need to use, the type of Internet address
your computer will have (static or dynamic), and the
IP address of your ISP’s default gateway, if any. If
your ISP uses static IP addressing, find out which IP
address to use. It is unnecessary to worry about what
all this information means just now; you just need to
know this information so that you can supply it to
KPPP.
• A Linux-compatible modem. As the next section
explains, not all modems work with Linux.
Now that you know what you need, we will start with the
hardware.
Getting the Right Modem
Chances are you are already familiar with modems, those
all-but-essential devices that translate the 0s and 1s of
your computer’s internal messaging into the warbling
sounds that can be carried by analog telephone systems.
This process is known as modulation. A modem at the
receiving computer translates the sound from the telephone
back into 1s and 0s, which is a process known as
demodulation.
In most cases, you can get almost any modem working
with Linux in short order. As this section explains,
though, it is worth learning a bit more about modems so
that you can choose the ideal modem for your Linux
system.