Very Computer

Hello Fellow Linuxians:

Thanks to the help I have been getting from you all
I am slowly but surely getting my machine to work
bit by bit, and the latest nuisance is my ppp routing.

I have 2 machines at home, networked together with
ethernet.  Modems on both but only one phone line.
I connect to the Internet via an ISP, so I setup
my valid IP address on whatever machine is calling
out.  I do not route the other machine because it
is behind the ppp connection because they do not
have valid IP numbers.

I have ppp setup as follows.  First the chat script and
then the pppd command:

CHATSCRIPT (invoked by the pppscript below with
the "connect" directive, the "chat" command uses
this "chat script" to dial the number, log in and
then hand off to pppd):
---------------------------------------------------------
'' <modem_reset_string> OK ATDT<phone#> CONNECT '' ogin: <id> word: <pw>

The connection actually works solidly!
I didn't really need to include it here, but thought maybe others
who haven't set this up should see how easy it is!

PPPD COMMAND (run in a script):
-------------------------------
/usr/lib/ppp/pppd                                     \
debug                                                 \
connect "/usr/lib/ppp/chat -v -f /local/chatscript"   \
/dev/cua1                                             \
38400                                                 \
crtscts                                               \
modem                                                 \
defaultroute                                          \
mtu 1500                                              \
netmask 255.255.255.0                                 \
<mydomain_name>

The above script is "supposed" to start ppp in debug mode,
configure the netmask and IP address, and add a default
route pointing to the ppp interface while it is up!

Here is what I get in the syslog:
--------------------------------
Oct 12 18:49:37 iggy pppd[206]:\
        could not set up connection
Oct 12 18:50:15 iggy pppd[263]: \
        ppp not replacing existing default route to eth0[

Despite what syslog says, the connection does start
and I can reach  the machine at the other end of the
link.  When this fails i do a "route add default ppp0" and
then the route is installed and I can query the DNS server
and telnet out, in other words - routing starts working.

What is stranger is that when the ppp connection is
broken the route goes back to the ethernet, and then
the next time I connect via ppp - the default route
now gets installed!

Does anyone know why this is happening and can give
me a fix, or change I can make to stop having to
manually add that route the first time I connect?

Thanks for any ideas.

Brucek