[ILUG] problems with wvdial and pppd

[Niall]

On Tue, May 16, 2000 at 10:14:18AM +0100, Conor Lennon wrote:

> Yes.  I can ping IP addresses by number but not by name.
> 
> /etc/resolv.conf didn't exist.

OK - resolv.conf is the problem (God but I'm a great diagnostician - pity
about the bedside manner :-) )

> So I got a copy from a working installation of SuSE.
> Apart from commented lines, this is all that it contained:
> 
> nameserver YAST_ASK
> 
> 
> /etc/rc.config contained the following lines (as well as a lot more):
> 
> CREATE_RESOLVCONF=yes
> NAMESERVER="YAST_ASK"

I've never seen that, but then I've never installed SuSE (or any Linux) on a
machine without a NIC. Obviously YAST is going to fill these in when it asks
you for them, but if you never get to that part of YAST . . . .

> Copying these two files and restarting wvdial didn't fix the problem.

Well, it wouldn't, as that resolv.conf file is incomplete. You say you took
it from a working installation of SuSE - by working did you mean that when
that machine was connected to the net, it could ping by name ? If so, I'm
puzzled (actually, I'm more than puzzled :-) ). Was it using wvdial ? Some
diallers (e.g. kppp) will edit resolv.conf on the fly i.e. when you
configure kppp you give it the name server addresses to use, and it puts
them into resolv.conf when it starts, and deletes them when it shuts down,
but wvdial doesn't do that.

Anyway, the way to fix this is to put your ISP's name server addresses into
/etc/rc.config by replacing the line

NAMESERVER="YAST_ASK"

and then run /sbin/SuSEconfig. What if you don't know your ISP's name server
addresses ? Well, you could use these which is from my rc.config. I'm an
ESAT Surf No Limits user, but these will work no matter who your ISP is

NAMESERVER="194.145.128.1 194.145.128.2"

and then you could use Netscape to surf on over to your ISP's site and get
the correct name server addresses, edit rc.config again and rerun SuSEconfig.
You should use your own ISP's name servers because that will give you the
fastest service.

BTW, in case you don't know, a name server is a computer which translates
names (like NS2.ISI.IE) into IP addresses (like 192.111.39.4). Your computer
has to know where there is a nameserver so that it can resolve these names
into numerical addresses, and /etc/resolv.conf tells it wht nameservers to
use.

Kindest regards,


Niall  O Broin