[ILUG] Dial-up workstation

[Peter Flynn]

   I was wondering if someone could help me.

   I have a redhat 5.1 box
   with my modem linked as 
   /dev/modem

   I want to have the box as a dial up workstation
   ie. shell account basically

You mean you want to be able to dial OUT to other places, 
or you want other people (or you) to be able to dial IN to your
machine?

BIG difference.

Dial-out should be trivial, use Minicom.

Dial-in is harder, I've never done it under Linux. Under most unices,
there's a program called getty (did I see something called mingetty on
Linux?). You configure /etc/gettytab and /etc/ttytab to specify the
parameters for dial-in (speed, port, etc) and then HUP init so that
the config lines cause getty to run and sit there looking at the
serial port, waiting for someone to dial the modem. Getting it to work
under SunOS was a nightmare, but I'm using it now (so I know it works
:-) but I'd imagine it's now _much_ easier with Linux.

BTW if any old SunOS 4.1.3 user knows why my IPX appears to be unable
to handle incoming calls on a 33.6 modem when it works perfectly at
14.4 (on a 14.4 modem) , I'd be glad to know. The serial port is
supposed to be able to take it...but this is off-topic, sorry.

///Peter