Getting Dialup Working

Getting Dialup Working

[Janina Sajka]

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Well, there's more than one way to do it. Here's a simple way to
get you started ...

Attached to this email is a file called wvdial.conf. It goes in
your /etc directory, so you'll have to be root to mv it over
there.

You will also need to edit it. First, the simple stuff. Change
the phone number to the one you use for your isp. The number in
this file is UU_Net dial up for West Houston, Texas, because
that's where I am today. The '9,' is because I'm in a hotel and
must dial '9' to get out, and the ',' tells the modem to wait a
second (or so) before continuing to dial.

Also, put your real username and your real password in.

The tricky part is finding out what /dev/ttyS port your modem is
on. Here's how to find out, assuming you actually hear dialtone
and touchtones when your modem dials:

As root do:

echo ata >/dev/ttyS0

If that comes back with just a prompt, that's not the one. So, do
up arrow, backspace once to take the 0 off, 1 to change the
command to read:

echo ata >/dev/ttyS1

and enter. If, you get dial tone, great. If not, keep trying,
with 2, then 3, etc. You'll probably find it by 3, and you'll be
trying to figure out how to turn the darn thing off. Here's how:

echo ath >/dev/ttySX

where X is the number that actually got the dial tone, 0 1 2 or
3, whichever it turns out to be.

Now, you know how to edit that line in the wvdial.conf file.

And, you can use pico to make all these edits!

Now, to actually dial do:

wvdial &

The '&' symbol tells Linux to put the dialup job in the
background so you can have your root console back. Just press
enter and you'll get it back without killing your dialup. You may
later get some messages again on screen, just hit enter again.
You're now online.

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

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[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyS3
Baud = 115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 S11=55 +FCLASS=0
; 
Phone = 9,2815040080
 Username = [your.username]
 Password = =[your.password]
Supid Mode = yes

Re: Where to start.

[Janina Sajka]

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Now that you're online, you can start using your own Pine. But,
first, you need to get mail delivery working on your system.

Attached here is a simple file that goes in your home directory.
Call it .fetchmailrc and be sure to notice the dot at the
beginning of the filename. That makes it a hidden file.

You will need to edit it with your own settings. The 60 number
at the top means "get my mail every 60 seconds."

The 'poll' command tells fetchmail what place to go looking for
your mail. You can put the pop address for your isp's mail server
here, but I recommend putting the ip address instead, because it
saves one step. There's no reason to make Linux look up the
address every 60 seconds, after all.

If you don't know what this address should be, your isp can tell
you, and they certainly will.
I'm assuming your isp makes mail available as pop3, but it could
be imap, in which case we just change the proto (which is short
for protocol) to imap--though that may require a bit more in
settings, I don't recall. Let's cross that bridge only if we need
to.

Now, put in your username and password.

Lastly, you may need to start fetchmail. Still as yourself, enter
the command:

fetchmail

and press enter.

PS: You can make this run allthe time by adding it to the end of
your .bashrc file in your home directory which you can also edit
with pico. It doesn't hurt that you're not on line all the time.
It will just magically work when you do connect.

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

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set daemon 60

poll [your.isp.address]
proto pop3
user [your.username]
pass "your.password"

Microsoft Word

[Janina Sajka]

About Microsoft Word ...

There are several ways to pull text out of Word files, but I want
to ask first whether you'd like to join the campaign to get
people to stop doing that.

Notice the last line in my signature below. Please consider
putting something like that in your $home/mail/.signature file.

PS: Yes, if you don't have one, just create one with pico! <grin>

When people send me word or PowerPoint, here's what I send them
in return. I do this often enough that I keep this as a file, as
$HOME/mail/noword:


You sent me a document in Microsoft Word format, a secret proprietary format, so it is hard for me to read. If you send me plain text or HTML, then I
will read it.

Distributing documents in Word format is bad for you and for others. You can't be sure what they will look like when viewed with a
different version of Word. They may even not work at all.

Receiving Word attachments is bad for you because they can carry viruses (see http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/acro.html). Sending Word
documents is also bad for you, because a Word document normally includes hidden information about the author, enabling those in the know to pry into
the author's activities (maybe yours). Text that you think you deleted may still be embarrassingly present. See
http://www.microsystems.com/Shares_Well.htm for more info.

But above all, sending people Word documents puts pressure on them to use Microsoft software and helps to deny them any other choice. In effect, you
become a buttress of the Microsoft monopoly. This pressure is a major obstacle to the broader adoption of free software. Would you please reconsider
the use of Word format for communication with other people?

To convert the file to HTML is simple. Open the document, click on File, then Save As, and in the Save As Type strip box at the bottom of the box,
choose HTML Document or Web Page. Then choose Save. You can then attach the new HTML document instead of your Word document. Note that Word changes
in inconsistent ways--if you see slightly different menu item names, please try them.

To convert to plain text is almost the same--instead of HTML Document, choose Text Only or Text Document as the Save As Type.


-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Hanging Up The Modem

[Janina Sajka]

I forgot to tell you how to hang up the modem.

Go back to the same console where, as root, you issued the wvdial
& command.

Remember we put it in the background so you could have your
console back? Now, bring it to the foreground with the following
command:

fg

Now, just do a Ctrl-C


-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: Where to start.

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Anna:

I know you replied privately, but my attempt to send you several
reply messages failed, so I'm sending them to the Speakup list.
After all, others may find this info useful, too.

PS: You're right. You fooled me. I didn't notice you were using
your isp, and not your own Pine! <grin>


On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Anna Schneider wrote:

> Hi, I'm going to reply privately since I know I can never wade through all 
> the postings on the list.
> 
> Firstly, I fooled you.  *grin*  My Internet provider has Pine, one reason 
> I got it, so actually I am not using my new computer or Pine on it.  
> That's okay actually.  I prefer to read my e-mail online, but I can't dial 
> in from my new computer and I do want to set up lynx on it because the 
> version with my provider doesn't do everything I need.  How do I get dial 
> up working?  I have a PPP directory with some long name like ppp-2.1, 
> that's what they are all like, and I'd like to simplify this for one.  And 
> it has a README which I tried to read once and I got confused really fast.  
> Shouldn't there be like a file for me to make or change or something in 
> there somewhere?
> 
> As for Pico, I am familiar with it.  I've used it on my e-mail accounts 
> for years.  I'll start with that.  One problem though too is that I 
> occasionally need to open Word files and can't.  Any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Anna
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: Where to start.

[Janina Sajka]

I have sent two more messages which the Speakup list won't post
automatically, apparently because they're too long. Kirk will
have to release them.

What makes them too long are the attachments.

One explains how to start using pine, and it has a suggested
default .pinerc file attached.

The other has a suggested default, blind friendly lynx.cfg
attached.

Hopefully, Kirk will release these soon enough. Else, we'll have
to figure something else out.


-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: Microsoft Word

[David Poehlman]

Thanks.  I love having teeth.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Janina Sajka" <janina@afb.net>
To: "Anna Schneider" <annas@drizzle.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 30, 2002 7:05 PM
Subject: Microsoft Word


About Microsoft Word ...

There are several ways to pull text out of Word files, but I want
to ask first whether you'd like to join the campaign to get
people to stop doing that.

Notice the last line in my signature below. Please consider
putting something like that in your $home/mail/.signature file.

PS: Yes, if you don't have one, just create one with pico! <grin>

When people send me word or PowerPoint, here's what I send them
in return. I do this often enough that I keep this as a file, as
$HOME/mail/noword:


You sent me a document in Microsoft Word format, a secret proprietary
format, so it is hard for me to read. If you send me plain text or HTML,
then I
will read it.

Distributing documents in Word format is bad for you and for others. You
can't be sure what they will look like when viewed with a
different version of Word. They may even not work at all.

Receiving Word attachments is bad for you because they can carry viruses
(see http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/acro.html). Sending Word
documents is also bad for you, because a Word document normally includes
hidden information about the author, enabling those in the know to pry
into
the author's activities (maybe yours). Text that you think you deleted
may still be embarrassingly present. See
http://www.microsystems.com/Shares_Well.htm for more info.

But above all, sending people Word documents puts pressure on them to
use Microsoft software and helps to deny them any other choice. In
effect, you
become a buttress of the Microsoft monopoly. This pressure is a major
obstacle to the broader adoption of free software. Would you please
reconsider
the use of Word format for communication with other people?

To convert the file to HTML is simple. Open the document, click on File,
then Save As, and in the Save As Type strip box at the bottom of the
box,
choose HTML Document or Web Page. Then choose Save. You can then attach
the new HTML document instead of your Word document. Note that Word
changes
in inconsistent ways--if you see slightly different menu item names,
please try them.

To convert to plain text is almost the same--instead of HTML Document,
choose Text Only or Text Document as the Save As Type.


--

Janina Sajka, Director
Technology Research and Development
Governmental Relations Group
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org



_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: Where to start.

[Toby Fisher]

On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Janina Sajka wrote:

<snip>

> The 'poll' command tells fetchmail what place to go looking for
> your mail. You can put the pop address for your isp's mail server
> here, but I recommend putting the ip address instead, because it
> saves one step. There's no reason to make Linux look up the
> address every 60 seconds, after all.

Janina,

I do agree in principal, however with one caviat.
Isps can have a nasty habbit of changing the ip address of their pop
server, since after all none of their users (who, of course, are all using
Winblows) should be using the ip address to call it since the install file
they ran sets it up as a name.  Also, many isps, especially larger ones,
have more than 1 pop server which connects to the same disk arrays, which
are called on a round-robin or random basis, so there may be several ip
addresses related to the name pop.isp.com.  This means that nobody sees
the point to tell anybody if one or more of these machines needs to be
taken down for any reason, for emergency or routine maintenance.

Cheers.

-- 
Toby Fisher	Email: toby@g0ucu.freeserve.co.uk
Tel.: +44(0)1480 417272	Mobile: +44(0)7974 363239
ICQ: #61744808
   Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Microsoft Word

[Janina Sajka]

On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, David Poehlman wrote:

> Thanks.  I love having teeth.

Hmmm, another kind of jaws? <grin>

PS: My favorite part of the no word text, which I took from the
GNU web page, is that documents look different on different
systems. Even that doesn't come in the price.

Re: Where to start.

[Janina Sajka]

Interesting, Toby. Thanks.

Also filed for that next HOWTO.


On Mon, 1 Jul 2002, Toby Fisher wrote:

> On Sun, 30 Jun 2002, Janina Sajka wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > The 'poll' command tells fetchmail what place to go looking for
> > your mail. You can put the pop address for your isp's mail server
> > here, but I recommend putting the ip address instead, because it
> > saves one step. There's no reason to make Linux look up the
> > address every 60 seconds, after all.
> 
> Janina,
> 
> I do agree in principal, however with one caviat.
> Isps can have a nasty habbit of changing the ip address of their pop
> server, since after all none of their users (who, of course, are all using
> Winblows) should be using the ip address to call it since the install file
> they ran sets it up as a name.  Also, many isps, especially larger ones,
> have more than 1 pop server which connects to the same disk arrays, which
> are called on a round-robin or random basis, so there may be several ip
> addresses related to the name pop.isp.com.  This means that nobody sees
> the point to tell anybody if one or more of these machines needs to be
> taken down for any reason, for emergency or routine maintenance.
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org