Desktop internet dialler in Ubuntu 5.10
Hi, In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a sensible internet dialler. I was able to connect to the Internet by using the "Network settings" gui to configure the ISP parameters and then activate the modem device. But that seems like an odd way to dial up and isn't particularly obvious. I then installed GnomePPP but it didn't work. After some searching I discovered that it needs to have wvdial set up but that didn't work either due to the restrictive permissions of /etc/ppp/*secrets, and the wvdial man page just says "yeah we know about that and don't have a solution". I could probably fix that but I was expecting it to "just work". Whats up with that? I expected that an internet dialler frontend would have been part of the basic functionality. Did I screw up the installation in some way? I don't remember answering any questions that pertained to this. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz
On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 08:36:29PM +1300, Glenn Ramsey wrote:
Hi,
In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a sensible internet dialler.
There is a gnome panel applet for this - right-click on a panel, and choose the "Modem Monitor" under the "System and Hardware" grouping of applets. John
Thanks John, Next question.... John R. McPherson wrote:
On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 08:36:29PM +1300, Glenn Ramsey wrote:
Hi,
In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a sensible internet dialler.
There is a gnome panel applet for this - right-click on a panel, and choose the "Modem Monitor" under the "System and Hardware" grouping of applets.
John
This appears to just be a shortcut to the same dialog as you can get to from "network settings" and so requires you to enter your password every time you want to dial up. Is there a way to configure it so that it doesn't ask for a password every time? BTW: John (jaytee), I couldn't find it at first either, it turned up on the panel when I typed "modem" into the search box... then I saw the scroll bar on the RHS of the dialog. It's interesting how subtle good gui design can be. On my system that dialog looks complete and apart from the scroll bar (which my brain had tuned out for reasons I'll never know) there are no visual cues to indicate that more information is available. If the last row of icons had been partially obscured I would have seen the scroll bar immediately. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz
participants (2)
-
Glenn Ramsey -
John R. McPherson