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12 <h1>tkpppoe - A GUI for managing PPPoE Connections
</h1>
17 TkPPPoE is a graphical user interface for managing PPPoE connections. It
18 performs two different functions:
20 <li>TkPPPoE lets you
<em>define
</em> connection properties. This step must
22 <li>TkPPPoE lets you
<em>start and stop
</em> PPPoE connections. This step
23 may be done as a normal user, depending on how you configured the connection.
26 <h1>Defining Connections
</h1>
28 To define connections, start TkPPPoE as root. You can do this from
29 a terminal by typing
<code>tkpppoe
</code>, or from the KDE or GNOME menus
30 by selecting
<b>Internet : TkPPPoE
</b>. The following window pops up:
33 <center><img src=
"mainwin.png" width=
"361" height=
"73" alt=
"Main Window">
37 Because you have not yet defined any connections, the connection property
41 <center><img src=
"props-basic.png" width=
"440" height=
"259" alt=
"Connection Properties - Basic">
44 You can pop up the connection property window at any time by clicking
45 <b>New Connection...
</b> You can edit the properties of an existing
46 connection by selecting the connection's name and clicking
48 <h4>Basic Information
</h4>
50 Let's fill in the basic information:
52 <li>For
<b>Connection Name
</b>, enter a unique name for this connection. It
53 can be anything you like, but must contain only letters, numbers, underscores
54 or dashes. In particular, it can't contain spaces. If you have only one
55 PPPoE connection, a good name is
<b>Default
</b>.
56 <li>For
<b>User Name
</b>, enter the user name supplied by your ISP. Enter
57 only the user name; do not enter an
"@isp.com" part.
58 <li>For
<b>Network
</b>, you may have to enter your ISP's domain name.
59 (For example,
<b>isp.com
</b>.) Some DSL providers add this to your user
60 name; others do not. You may have to experiment a bit. The two most likely
61 choices are your ISP's domain name, or blank. Try both.
62 <li>For
<b>Password
</b>, enter the password your ISP provided you with.
66 Click on the
<b>NIC and DNS
</b> tab:
69 <center><img src=
"props-nic.png" width=
"440" height=
"259" alt=
"Connection Properties - NIC and DNS"></center>
72 <li>For
<b>Ethernet Interface
</b>, enter the Ethernet interface connected
73 to the DSL modem. It is something like
<b>eth0
</b> or
<b>eth1
</b>. Click
74 on
<b>...
</b> to browse a list of detected Ethernet interfaces.
75 <li>For
<b>DNS Setup
</b>, you have three options:
77 <li><b>From Server
</b> means that the system will obtain DNS information from
78 the PPPoE server. This is the correct choice for most ISPs.
79 <li><b>Specify
</b> means that you will enter the IP addresses of your DNS
80 servers manually. In this case, enter the addresses in the
<b>Primary DNS
</b>
81 and
<b>Secondary DNS
</b> entries.
82 <li><b>Do not Adjust
</b> means that you want RP-PPPoE to leave your
83 DNS setup alone. Use this if you are running your own caching DNS server
84 or know that you don't want the DNS setup touched.
89 Click on the
<b>Options
</b> tab:
92 <center><img src=
"props-options.png" width=
"440" height=
"259" alt=
"Connection Properties - Options"></center>
95 <li>If you want ordinary users to be able to start and stop this connection,
96 enable
<b>Allow use by non-root users
</b>. If you do not enable this,
97 non-root users will be able to monitor the connection, but not control it.
98 <li>If you want to use synchronous PPP, enable
<b>Use synchronous PPP
</b>.
99 This is recommended as it conserves CPU usage, but may not work on some
100 (misconfigured) Linux kernels.
101 <li>For
<b>Firewalling
</b>, you have three options:
103 <li><b>Stand-Alone
</b> installs a simple firewall ruleset for stand-alone
104 machines. Use this if you have only a single computer connected to the DSL
106 <li><b>Masquerading
</b> installs a simple firewall ruleset for using
107 your Linux computer as an Internet sharing device. If you have two Ethernet
108 cards, you can connect one card to the DSL modem and the other to an
109 internal LAN. The masquerading firewall ruleset lets internal machines
110 share the DSL connection.
111 <li><b>None
</b>. If you already have your own firewall rules, or you wish
112 to run servers on your machine, select None. This is
<em>not recommended
</em>
113 unless you take steps to secure your machine, and know what you are doing.
118 Click on the
<b>Advanced
</b> tab:
121 <center><img src=
"props-advanced.png" width=
"440" height=
"259" alt=
"Connection Properties - Advanced"></center>
124 In most cases, you can leave
<b>AC-Name
</b> and
<b>Service-Name
</b> blank.
125 In some cases, your ISP may require you to enter information in these fields;
126 contact your ISP for more information.
128 <h1>Controlling Connections
</h1>
129 For these examples, run
<code>tkpppoe
</code> as a normal user (not root).
130 The main window appears like this:
133 <center><img src=
"mainwin-nonroot.png" width=
"206" height=
"73" alt=
"Main Window - Non-root">
137 <li>To start a connection, press
<b>Start
</b>. The two LEDs flash red
138 and grey. If the connection is established, they turn green.
139 <li>To stop a connection, press
<b>Stop
</b>.
142 <p>The two rectangles to the right of the connection name are the
143 <em>status LEDs
</em>. The top LED corresponds to transmitted data and
144 the bottom to received. The LEDs are colored as follows:
146 <li>Grey -- connection is not established.
147 <li>Flashing red/grey -- connection is being started.
148 <li>Green -- connection is up, but idle.
149 <li>Yellow -- connection is up and data is being sent or received.
150 <li>Red -- connection has been lost, but the system is trying to reestablish it.
154 When a connection is established, two graphs appear:
157 <center><img src=
"mainwin-busy.png" width=
"206" height=
"73" alt=
"Main Window - Established Connection">
161 The left (red) graph shows transmitted packets and the average
162 transmission speed (in bits per second) over the sample time. The
163 right (green) graph shows received packets.
165 <h1>Miscellaneous Information
</h1>
167 <li>The connection menu has an entry called
<b>User's Manual
</b> which
168 will pop up this user manual (if you have Netscape installed.)
169 <li>You can define multiple PPPoE connections, but you should not use
170 more than one simultaneuously unless you feel comfortable editing scripts
171 and setting up routing tables. By default, TkPPPoE tries to add a default
172 route for connections. This does not work well with multiple simultaneous
174 <li>If you exit from TkPPPoE, connections which are up remain up. You
175 have to explicitly stop connections if you want them terminated.
178 <a href=
"http://www.roaringpenguin.com/pppoe/">TkPPPoE
</a> is Copyright
2001 by
<a href=
"http://www.roaringpenguin.com">Roaring Penguin Software Inc
</a> and
179 is licensed under the GNU General Public License.
180 <p>Screenshots show TkPPPoE running under the
<a href=
"http://www.xfce.org">XFCE
</a> desktop, a lightweight UNIX and Linux desktop.