On Sat, 18 Aug 2007, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.misc, in article
<5ipjeaF3q5jrhU1@mid.individual.net>, Gretch wrote:

>Moe Trin <ibuprofin@painkiller.example.tld> wrote:

>> Before we get to an authentication exchange, we've got to get the
>> darn thing talking. They're not doing that.

>I may have discovered the reason prior to reading your very informative
>and corroborative response, as a result of downloading and installing
>ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/ppp-2.4.4.tar.gz and the encryption tools
>necessary to support MSCHAP-{80,81} from
>http://www2.psy.uq.edu.au/~ftp/Crypt...es-4.01.tar.gz

MSCHAP-80 has been supported since ppp-2.3.2. MSCHAP-81 was
supported from ppp-2.4.2.

>>From the ${ppp.2.4.4}/README.MSCHAP80 file: "Another thing that might
>cause problems is that some RAS servers won't respond at all to LCP
>config requests without seeing the word "CLIENT" from the other end.
>If you see pppd sending out LCP config requests without getting any
>reply, try putting something in your chat script to send the word
>CLIENT after the modem has connected."

Yup. Thing is, these are not very common for regular ISPs (and PoPs
run for them). I think I may gave seen the "CLIENT" stanza needed less
than a dozen times in ten years. MSCHAP-81 was something invented for
W2K, and was pretty much a bust, mainly because it is totally
incompatible with MSCHAP-80. ISPs want compatibility, because having
win95 lusers calling in about the Internet being b0rken is wasting
their hell-desk staff time. In fact the number of ISPs using MSCHAP
of any kind is tiny. PAP, which was supposedly superseded by CHAP-MD5
in August 1996, is still the most common authentication algorithm.

>I simply can't find any information in the M$ ppp.log to see what
>sort of conversation is happening before the M$ box starts slinging
>PPP packets:
>[480] 16:19:29:399: PPPEMSG_Start recvd, d=,
>hPort=5,callback=0,mask=83074a,IfType=-1

No, that looks to long in the connection. What you should be seeing
is the modem initiation, dialing, and the modem connect string.

>The Linux ppp-debug.log shows (using the new pppd/chat and the
>long-distance PoP that doesn't hangup prematurely):

>Aug 18 16:34:00 linux0 chat[13526]: abort on (NO CARRIER)
>Aug 18 16:34:00 linux0 chat[13526]: send (ATS11=50^M)
>Aug 18 16:34:00 linux0 chat[13526]: expect (OK)
>Aug 18 16:34:00 linux0 chat[13526]: ATS11=50^M^M
>Aug 18 16:34:00 linux0 chat[13526]: OK
>Aug 18 16:34:00 linux0 chat[13526]: -- got it

You're not initializing the modem

>Aug 18 16:34:41 linux0 chat[13526]: send (CLIENT^M)
>Aug 18 16:34:41 linux0 chat[13526]: expect (CLIENT/SERVER)
>Aug 18 16:34:41 linux0 chat[13526]: 24000/ARQ^M
>Aug 18 16:35:26 linux0 chat[13526]: alarm
>Aug 18 16:35:26 linux0 chat[13526]: Failed

The " 24000/ARQ" is the rest of the modem connect stanza (pppd is like
a little kid - you tell it to look for something, and as soon as it
finds that, it's screaming "I FOUND IT - I FOUND IT!!!" without waiting
for the modem to finish the statement). Obviously nothing came back.

>Instead of CLIENT I tried sending MSRAS-0-W2K from the other log, but the
>expected response seems to be the problem? ... CLIENT ' ' '\d\c' seems to
>receive the expected blank response

The 'MSRAS-0-W2K' _appears_ to be a local variable, but I've never seen
it reported as being used over the wire.

>Aug 18 17:22:13 linux0 chat[13676]: send (CLIENT^M)
>Aug 18 17:22:13 linux0 chat[13676]: expect ( )
>Aug 18 17:22:13 linux0 chat[13676]:
>Aug 18 17:22:13 linux0 chat[13676]: -- got it

OK, what happened there is that 'chat' found the space between the
word CONNECT and 24000/ARQ.

>Aug 18 17:22:14 linux0 chat[13676]: expect (^M)
>Aug 18 17:22:14 linux0 chat[13676]: 26400/ARQ^M
>Aug 18 17:22:14 linux0 chat[13676]: -- got it
>Aug 18 17:22:14 linux0 chat[13676]: send (^M^M)

then you are expecting a CR, and finding that at the end of the modem
CONNECT stanza. You could try 'CONNECT CLIENT' (expect CONNECT, send
CLIENT) and see it that does anything, but I'm not holding much hope.

>The PoP list in .csv format can be found at
>http://dialup.ispnetbilling.com/exce...ISPWholesale-8

I have no means of reading that web page.

>but I'm unable to discern the M$ connection conversation from the few
>dialup numbers I've tried, as they don't differ from the portion I
>posted earlier

What we are looking for occurs before the ppp log stuff.

>As you say, the possibilities are seemingly almost exhausted, but
>perhaps you might see something useful at the PoP that's local to you,
>if you would be so kind and can spare some minutes from your busy
>schedule. I really learn a great deal from your responses, thank you.

Do you have a number in the Phoenix (Arizona) metro area? That would
be area codes 480, 602, or 623?

Old guy