by I would like to be able to run SLIP on my Solaris 2.x SparcStation.
This includes the following steps:
+ Either a SLIP package, or some script (PERL, CSH, whatever) connects
through my serial port
+ My local ISP (internet service provider) is dialed, my login and password
supplied, the IP address of that machine is determined (I can't know what
IP address I'm going to get because my ISP chooses one of a dozen machines
for me to connect to)
+ Run TIA (The internet adapter) on my shell account, which starts speaking
SLIP protocol, effectively turning the ISP host into an internet gateway
+ Launch a SLIP daemon on my Solaris 2.x Sparcstation which needs my
local and remote IP address information
I have found one package which is commercially available, and reportedly will
allow me to make a SLIP connection through my serial port. The package is
Morningstar PPP from MorningStar Technologies at 1 800 558 7827. This is
so far the *ONLY* package I have found that will do SLIP on a Solaris 2.x
machine. All other slip packages I have seen were made for SunOS 4.1.3
and *supposedly* could run on a Solaris machine, but I have never seen proof.
So my big problem is, how? Will MorningStar PPP work? It looks like I should
do something like "pppd $localaddr:$peeraddr slip idle 120 rtscts" where
$localaddr is the address of my Solaris machine and $peeraddr is the address
of my Netcom dial-up host. But then I need to do a route command. What form
does that take? How do I automatically determine which Netcom machine I have
connected to so I can use its IP address as $peeraddr, and in the route
command so I can add it as a gateway to the internet?
I imagine a couple of possible solutions, if this MorningStar package works.
Either I could automatically telnet into a netcom machine with a known IP
address and set that up in my route table and in the Systems file for
MorningStar PPP. Or I could put together a PERL or CSH script that uses
cu to connect to the serial port, make the connection, return the IP address
start up TIA and quit (without* up), then run the SLIP daemon and
add the appropriate routes all automatically. This sounds a bit complicated
but surely sounds like the most optimal solution.
This problem must have been solved by someone, because I know that IBM RS 6000
AIX machines have a slip daemon, and I know people have connected to multiple
host ISPs. SunOS 4.1.3 certainly has many SLIP daemons available... So
what is the solution?
Please email me back if you have any ideas or leads, and I will be most
grateful!
Thanks,
Devon Tuck