Linux Dummies 9th

Chapter 8: Connecting to the Internet
143
Dialin’ out
Using a modem to dial a connection to your ISP is a two-step process. First,
you must configure your modem with the settings from your ISP. After that,
you must manually start and stop the Internet connection (you probably
don’t want your modem tying up your phone line all day long).
The GNOME and KDE desktops each have distinct packages for configuring
the modem and connecting to an ISP:
✓ GNOME-PPP: This one works for the GNOME desktop.
✓ KPPP: This one works for the KDE desktop.
If your Linux distribution doesn’t include these programs (Fedora includes
KPPP but not GNOME-PPP), both packages can be installed from the standard
installation CD of most Linux distributions (see Chapter 16). After they’re
installed, you can walk through the upcoming sections that show how to
configure them to work with your modem.
Setting up GNOME-PPP
After installing the GNOME-PPP package, you can follow these steps to configure
a PPP session to connect with your ISP:
1. Choose Applications➪Internet➪GNOME PPP from the top edge panel
menu.
The main GNOME PPP dialog box, shown in Figure 8-1, appears.
Figure 8-1:
The GNOME
PPP dialog
box.
2. Click the Setup button at the bottom of the dialog box.
The Setup dialog box opens, shown in Figure 8-2, where you can configure
you modem settings.