<sect1 id="connectivity-ppp-overview">

    <title>Overview</title>

    <para>
        This chapter describes how you can use the Point-to-Point
        Protocol (PPP) to create collaborative networks in situations
        where the telephone network is the only medium you and your
        friends have access to.  With PPP you can prepare a server
        computer to provide internet services for client computers
        that use the telephone network as medium for data transmition.
        The configuration described here can be thought as one client
        computer that establishes connection to a server computer in
        order to use the internet services it provides, however, based
        on this concept, other configuration are also possible to
        satisfy situations where more than two computers need to be
        involved.
    </para>

    <para>
        The operating system used by both server and client computers
        will be &TCD; release 5.5<footnote>
        <para>
            Thank to my friend Manual Chavez Manzano (Manny) for
            finding a way to download this release of &TCD; and bring
            it to me as a gift when I was completly isolated from
            Internet without any possibility of downloading it by
            myself.
        </para>
        </footnote>. The configuration described in this book doesn't
        use third party software. All the software needed in this
        configuration is available inside &TCD;.  In case you are
        using a different operating system in your client computer,
        you'll need to look the appropriate application your operating
        system provides to establish PPP connections and configure it
        to establish connection with the server computer described in
        <xref linkend="connectivity-ppp-server" />.  Generally, the
        most you need to establish connection with the server computer
        is a telephone number and the credentials for authentication,
        if any.
    </para>

    <para>
        In this chapter you'll find how to configure your client
        computer to dial-up the server computer automatically when
        client applications (e.g., e-mail clients, web browsers, etc.)
        request data transmition for the server computer at a moment
        where no connection has been established with it, yet. Also,
        this chapter covers different considerations you could take
        into account to keep the telephone line as free as possible,
        so different client computers be able of establishing
        connection to the same server computer as quickly as possible.
    </para>

</sect1>