PPP is a network protocol that allows two computers to exchange IP packets
over serial lines. It is used by most Internet providers to allow remote
computers to connect to Internet via a modem dialup.
PPP offers some advantages over SLIP (another packet transmission protocol used
by dialup services) especially because of its automatic negotiation of IP addresses,
connection parameters and authentication.
PPPdriver allows FreeNet or Acorn Internet TCP/IP stack to communicate with
remote hosts using serial lines. There are two versions of PPPdriver:
- PPPdriver 1.16 (DCI2 version, suitable for use with FreeNet 1.XX, Acornet 0.19 and AcornetF)
- PPPdriver 2.30 (DCI4 version, suitable for use with Acorn Internet, FreeNet 2.XX and AcornetA)
The DCI2 version of PPPdriver is no longer developed since a DCI4 version of
FreeNet is finally available (version 2.00 or later) and Acorn includes its
own DCI4 Internet stack in RISC OS 3.60 or later.
The main reason that pushed me to write the PPP driver for FreeNet was that
my italian internet provider (Video On Line)
supports only PPP: FreeNet and TCP/IP (KA9Q) only support SLIP and (at that time,
ie. late '95) the only software supporting PPP for RISC OS was the
Ant Internet Suite costing nearly 100 UKP!
PPPdriver is based on Unix's pppd (2.2) and features:
- LCP negotiation
- IPCP negotiation
- PPP protocol/address compression
- PAP authentication (using Unix-style 'pap-secrets' file or an easy to use
command line option)
- CHAP authentication
- VJ header compression of TCP packets
- BSD-Compression
PPPdriver has been tested with a number of different providers (including
Telecom Italia Net,
Demon,
TCP,
Enterprise,
Global Internet (UK),
Knoware,
NLnet,
Global Internet Access (South Africa),
UUNET Internet Africa,
Voyager New Zealand,
Metronet,
Wanadoo,
NetDirect,
Virgin Net)
and it always worked very well.
PPPdriver 2.30 is based on the newer Unix's pppd (2.3) and has the following new features:
- automatic killing of a PPP interface if the modem line is dropped
- automatic connection close after a specified idle period
- improved logfile output (statistic data written when a connection is closed, timestamp added for every logging information)
- logfile now stays closed most of the time, so it is possible to read its content while PPPdriver is still running
- it is possible to load it before entering the desktop so that it can be integrated in the Acorn Internet boot sequence
Both versions of PPPdriver are fully StrongARM compatible.
The DCI4 version is also compatible with the new Internet module present in
the RISC OS 3.70 ROMs and with FreeNet 2.00 and later.
PPPdriver 1.16 and 2.30 include a new installation and registration program with
easy-to-use desktop interface.
PPPdriver is SHAREWARE: this means that if you use it for
more than 30 days then you MUST register. For more information about
registering and conditions of distribution, read the Licence file included
in the PPPdriver archives.
In the unregistered version the connection time has been limited to 15 minutes,
after this time PPPdriver will close the connection without notice.
The latest version of PPPdriver can be downloaded via HTTP from here:
The latest publicly distributed version should also be available via HTTP from the
Freenet archive,
via FTP from the Freenet archive,
from its Demon mirror and
from HENSA and
via email using my mailserver by sending me an email
with subject MAILLIST: SEND PPPdrv116 or MAILLIST: SEND PPPdrv230
(use MAILLIST: SEND index for a list of the available files).
If you want to be informed via email when new releases of PPPdriver are ready
you can subscribe to the PPPdriver announce mailing list by sending me an
email with Subject:
MAILLIST: SIGNON pppdrv-l
The new installer program supplied with PPPdriver 1.16 and 2.30 requires the
Acorn Toolbox modules. You probably have them already installed but if you
haven't then you can download them from here:
Note that this archive contains only the Toolbox modules used by
the PPPdriver Installer so it will not give you a complete Toolbox installation.
PPPdriver doesn't deal with phone number dialing or connection; I suggest you
to get the latest version of FreeDial (by Gert-Jan de Vos),
a powerful but easy to setup dialing program that includes some script for
connecting to different providers using either SLIP or PPP
(including
Stuttgart,
Video On Line,
EuroNet,
NLnet,
IAEhv,
TUE-DialIn,
Demon,
OnWe,
Netsurf,
Knoware,
TCP).
It can be downloaded either from this page:
or via FTP from ftp://freenet.barnet.ac.uk/pub/Acorn/freenet/g.devos/.
PPPdriver and FreeDial require the SerialBuffer module (by David Pilling and
Jeroen Wessels) and the Serial Device Drivers (by Hugo Fiennes). The latter
can be found in many FTP sites (including HENSA)
and are already widely distributed while the former is harder to find so you
can download it directly from here:
PPPdriver 1.16
(DCI2 version, Spark archive, 119 Kbytes)
