pppd without dialup

Everything I've read about pppd assumes that one is going to use pppd
to tell the modem to dial up the ISP. Am I correct in thinking that
pppd is also good for having two PC's connected by a cable (one of those
cables whose connector looks like a phone jack, only bigger), where no
modem dialup is involved. If so, where is this explained in words of
one syllable? I can get the two PC's to ping each other but that's all.
I've been told that I need for one of them to be configured as a server,
which seems to imply some software I haven't been able to figure out how
to install, but I'm skeptical about that. If the two PC's can ping each
other, I don't see why they can't also exchange files.

In the past, I used to telnet and ftp from my MIT account to my laptop
sometimes while connected to the internet, just with my usual dialup.
That was enabled by setting the security level appropriately (or, rather,
inappropriately. I don't do that any more), not by installing any special
software, as far as I know. When I used the same installation CD's on another
machine and explicitly tried to tell the installer to configure it as a server,
it just hung, apparently because it was looking on the installation diskettes
for the necessary software, which wasn't there. So the laptop couldn't have
been configured as a server either.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <(E-Mail Removed)>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Allan Adler wrote:
> Everything I've read about pppd assumes that one is going to use pppd
> to tell the modem to dial up the ISP. Am I correct in thinking that
> pppd is also good for having two PC's connected by a cable (one of those
> cables whose connector looks like a phone jack, only bigger), where no
> modem dialup is involved. If so, where is this explained in words of
> one syllable? I can get the two PC's to ping each other but that's all.
> I've been told that I need for one of them to be configured as a server,
> which seems to imply some software I haven't been able to figure out how
> to install, but I'm skeptical about that. If the two PC's can ping each
> other, I don't see why they can't also exchange files.

The larger connector (RJ-45) is probably an Ethernet connector.
The phone connector is called RJ-11.

Two computers can be connected via the Ethernet interfaces
using a cross-over cable available at the nearest computer store.
The Ethernet connection does not need PPP. It is a way to pack
the Ethernet payload into a modem connection (raw simplification).

> In the past, I used to telnet and ftp from my MIT account to my laptop
> sometimes while connected to the internet, just with my usual dialup.
> That was enabled by setting the security level appropriately (or, rather,
> inappropriately. I don't do that any more), not by installing any special
> software, as far as I know. When I used the same installation CD's on another
> machine and explicitly tried to tell the installer to configure it as a server,
> it just hung, apparently because it was looking on the installation diskettes
> for the necessary software, which wasn't there. So the laptop couldn't have
> been configured as a server either.

There are several ways to exchange files:

- mount remote file systems (SMB/Samba, NFS, others),
- use file transfer programs (FTP, TFTP, scp, sftp, others)

For initial orientation in the wide world of Linux networking
get the Net-HOWTO from the Linux Documentation Project
<http://www.tldp.org/> and its mirrors. The HOWTO contains
plenty of pointers further on.

HTH

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

Allan Adler <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Everything I've read about pppd assumes that one is going to use pppd
> to tell the modem to dial up the ISP. Am I correct in thinking that
> pppd is also good for having two PC's connected by a cable (one of those
> cables whose connector looks like a phone jack, only bigger), where no
> modem dialup is involved. If so, where is this explained in words of
> one syllable? I can get the two PC's to ping each other but that's all.
> I've been told that I need for one of them to be configured as a server,
> which seems to imply some software I haven't been able to figure out how
> to install, but I'm skeptical about that. If the two PC's can ping each
> other, I don't see why they can't also exchange files.

You can exchange files if you configure an FTP server on each. If inetd
is running then that would entail putting a line similar to

ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd wu.ftpd -l -a

in /etc/inetd.conf. The wu.ftpd is the FTP server which may well vary
with distribution used. Also your distribution may have xinetd instead
of inetd, something with which I have no experience.

There also should be lines like

ftp-data 20/tcp # File Transfer [Default Data]
ftp-data 20/udp # File Transfer [Default Data]
ftp 21/tcp # File Transfer [Control]
ftp 21/udp # File Transfer [Control]

in /etc/services.

Reading these man pages might provide some more insight:

man inetd (xinetd ?)
man services
man wu.ftpd (ftpd ?)

--
Clifford Kite Email: "echo xvgr_yvahk-(E-Mail Removed)|rot13"
PPP-Q&A links, downloads: http://ckite.no-ip.net/
/* For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill.
-- R. Clopton */