Overview
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.
The operating system used by both server and client computers
will be &TCD; release 5.5
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.
. 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
. Generally, the
most you need to establish connection with the server computer
is a telephone number and the credentials for authentication,
if any.
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.