KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

[asdinnie]

Hi all.

i am using KDE 4.4.5 and trying to connect to the Internet using that fossil of technology ... a dialup modem!
For those who might know Australia i am using Bigpond with automatic DNS (server assigned) being used.
You cannot connect to this ISP (Australia's largest) any more without this setting.

When using KPPP I get dreadful access speeds as the connection rate has the shape of a hedgehog ( 1.x kb, 0 kb, 1.xkb, 0, kb). I have previously had a similar problem in the distant past when I only had one working Bigpond DNS server available.
So its aping that setting though the DNS servers used look the same.

The problem has been temporarily resolved by using the "pon" & "poff" scripts after booting (in Konsole) with exactly the same ISP settings as used in KPPP! Not elegant but it works.
So I presume knetwork manager & network manager are getting in the way of KPPP &/or its DNS settings.
BTW setting privileges (even temporarily to root!) do not resolve the problem.

Many KPPP problems in the past were resolved be stopping Network Manager and its variants at boot (they do not like dialup nor support it).
Unfortunately I have not been able to work out how to ensure that it remains 100% stopped that way with KDE 4.4.x
As soon as a PPP connection is initiated it appears that Network Manager rears its head again...

Any ideas please folks?

Cheers

Andy
Perth, OZ

[Ole Juul]

Re: KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

I'm not clearly understanding what you're asking or saying. I use dialup for emergencies when the broadband is down. Although I do that in DOS, DNS seems irrelevant to me regardless of the situation. I have fooled around quite a bit and there really isn't a lot of difference between servers when it comes to browsing speed. Just use Bigpond's servers or even just 8.8.4.4 for that matter. Generally it's best to use your ISP's DNS though, unless they do some filtering. Use two or three choices and put them in /etc/resolv.conf, but I guess you know that. As far as Network Manager is concerned, you don't need it, so dump it. There's lots of info here about that.

i am using Bigpond with automatic DNS (server assigned) being used.
You cannot connect to this ISP (Australia's largest) any more without this setting.

I am not familiar with automatic DNS. Do you mean DHCP? I'm pretty sure you can still change the DNS by hand. They won't be able to detect that.

[asdinnie]

Re: KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

Hi Ole

Thanks for your reply and questions.

I guess that I had two questions in mind:
1. Is it possible to get rid of network manager, else stopping it restarting when stopped.
2. Had anyone out there had got KPPP working with Bigpond (ie. other Kubuntu folks using bigpond dialup here in Australia)

1. network manager

Is it possible to get rid of network manager (& I presume Knetwork manager in the process) and not cause any major system problems?
It seems you can but I was not sure whether it would have unintended consequences or create system instability.

2. kppp / Bigpond

DHCP is quite different to auto DNS (auto DNS is a ppp setting where the ISP provides you the DNS server IP addresses when you connect; DHCP is, of course, to do with local network IP addresses being set by the DHCP server ... similar in a way that in both cases the IPs are automatically set for you!).

I have previously found that specifying the DNS IP addresses manually (even in /etc/resolv.conf) means that you can connect but get no ISP network traffic. Also /etc/resolv.conf gets updated when you connect using PPP.
Tried all configurations and got nowhere except with the auto setting (mutter, mutter....).

Have had all sorts of dramas in the past getting kppp to work with bigpond dialup from a clean install. Have plenty of practice then and now. I guess I might have been hoping someone had found an easier way of doing it!

Cheers

Andy

[GreyGeek]

Re: KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

Completely removed the following packages:
modemmanager
network-manager
network-manager-openconnect
network-manager-openvpn
network-manager-pptp
network-manager-vpnc
knm-runtime
network-manager-kde
plasma-widget-networkmanagement

then reboot.

[Ole Juul]

Re: KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

AFAIK Network Manager is just that - a network manager. It is for configuration. The first time I saw it was when it was completely broken and useless, so I turned my back on it completely from then on. Manual configuration is pretty easy, and it looks like you got a grip on that too. The forum FAQs have detailed information on networking and removing it and I assume that GG's suggestion above will do the trick.

It sounds to me like BigPond is a rogue ISP with unusual requirements. I've heard unbelievable things about Australian internet so that sounds possible. My experience with ISPs has always been that once you're connected to the net, you're on, and it's internet rules from then on. Perhaps the information you need is to be found on some Australian site or forum where people deal with BP specifically.

I'm no expert on DNS but I guess that when you specify several addresses it tries the first in the list first. If that is the case then you could specify an outside address first and the BP's address second and thus (hopefully) get their local traffic as well.

Anyway, if I understand correctly, your query was related to a slow/bad connection. I can't see how the DNS can have much to do with that. If the problem is with browsing, how do other protocols, like FTP or telnet, respond on the same connection?

[asdinnie]

Re: KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

Thanks GreyGeek & Ole for your replies.

GreyGeek
Will remove the said packages and see how I go.
Curiously many moons, actually years, ago (when I was using Mandrake) they had a network manager install that worked fine for me, even dialup! Pity its got to this.

Ole, to answer your questions:
Bigpond is the largest ISP here. I am probably the only dialup user left on there using Kubuntu (they probably have all moved to broadband!). The Australian support sites are all now aimed at broadband. The last posts for dialup were years ago (discussion is named "Last Century").

The problem was with all Internet traffic not just HTTP traffic. It must be something to do with either my Kubuntu setup and/or their server setup. Hopefully zapping network manager will kill this problem!

Cheers

Andy

[asdinnie]

Re: KPPP - Network Manager in the way?

Hi All.

Deleted network manager and its various hangers-on.
No joy with KPPP as same old problem occurs. So I cannot point the finger at network manager this time!

pon (& poff) still work fine so I might just stick with them until I bite the bullet and upgrade to broadband!

Thanks all.

Andy