Most of us use the Internet in a place of work. However we offen need
the net at home or outside the place of work. It may be possible that
the work from home is cheaper then from a company building. I think
that the best solution is to install call-back software on the Linux
server. Call-back makes it possible to re-call index number at the
cost of the company. I'll try to present how it works. An entitled
person calls modem is varied for the first time in Linux server. Then
on the user's side the "hang up modem" is switched on. At the same
time Linux calls the user. User is verified again. We have connection
and the server is charged. The user pays only for the initiation of
connection. The double verification and extra options in the call-back
program unable the unsuitable persons to charge our bill. We can restrict
the access to the connection only to corporation network or Internet.
Call-back is very flexible. Below, I'll try to present the configuration
of a call-back server on Linux system and I'll show you how to set
up your computer for re-calling the connection.
The administrators prefer different modem but while buying a modem
we should remember about certain rules:
Don't buy the Win-Modem because it doesn't work with Linux
The external modem works faster than the modem which is inside your
computer
The internal modem with ISA slot is better then the are with PCI
slot (you can use your PCI slot for something different)
Don't use Plug&Play modem. If you have it set off, Plug&Play options
and set up modem on free com (read Plug&Play-HOWTO).
When we have the suitable modem we have to set it up in our system.
We have to check on which com our modem is. Then we have to make a
symbolic link to this hardware and /dev/modem. For example, if we
have the modem for the 2nd com we write:
The first step to make the call-back on Linux accessible is to set
up a suitable parameter in kernel. Then we check whether our kernel
serves the protocol ppp. If you don't have ppp in your kernel or in
module you will have to compile your kernel and add ppp. You will
find more information in Kernel-HOWTO. OK. We have a good kernel.
Now, we have to set up software to our system. The call-back program
is a part of mgetty-sendfax and ppp. You will find it all in your
distribution. Because call-back system we have double verification
and we create a user who will be running ppp on the side of server.
where the address 192.168.1.1 is the address of server with modem and
the address 192.168.1.2 is the address which we assigned to our modem.
We set up executable options for this file. Because we will use the
ppp demon we have to set up the options for this demon. We edit file
/etc/ppp/options:
netmask 255.255.255.0
proxyarp
lock
crtscts
modem
Proxyarp is the most important from the above options, because you
can go to Internet by the modem in the server. The remaining options
are used control your modem. Your user can work only in local network
if you remove proxyarp option. You have to see PPP-HOWTO and man pppd
for more information. We will set up our modem now. Our server must
be ready to receive a connection after start. We edit file /etc/inittab
and we add it's to modem on the 2en com.
We make init q. If we don't have information about any mistakes in
logs we go to the next step. We come back to directory /etc/ppp and
create options.ttyS1 (for modem com1 options.ttyS0)
IP_local: IP_remote
for our net it will be
192.168.1.1:192.168.1.2
We have done a lot work so far. Now, we check the file
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/login.config. The most important line is:
We have to set up suid for ppp demon, because pppuser has to run pppd
and make interface work.
chmod u+s /usr/sbin/pppd
and its effect is:
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 106892 Jan 11 1999 /usr/sbin/pppd
I think that it is a good idea is to add it to cron becouse I had a
problem after restart of my server pppd changed preference.
Our server will work as router. We have to enable IP forwarding and
we add this line for the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local :
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
If you are RedHat user you can change in /etc/sysconfig/network from
FORWARD_IPV4=false to FORWARD_IPV4=true.
For verification we call to Linux. We use scripts for it. If we do this in
MS Windows we mark options "call out a terminal after connection".
We login as pppuser with its password. I hope that all is OK.
We can already call our Linux. Now it's time Linux called us. It's
not very diffucalt. We have to edit only two files. We create a file
/etc/mgetty+sendfax/callback.conf and we leave it empty.
Then we have to ask our users for their phone number. It's time to
write the numbers we have connected earlier. In order to do it we
edit /etc/mgetty+sendfax/login.conf and add line:
call - - /usr/sbin/callback - S 123456
where call is a pseudo-user needed to initiate the connection. The
line in the /etc/mgetty+sendfax/login.conf puts in motion the program
calling the given number (in this case it's 123456). The same procedures
can be applied to other users. I'll try to explain how it works. When
we call a server. It asks us to give verification. We login as pseudo-user,
in this case it calls. The script in our computer hangs up the modem.
We wait and the connection is cut off. The program call-back starts
working and recalls us. We verify ourselves again as pppuser with
password. We combine the connection and interface ppp. That's all. The
configuration of work-stations is very simple. When you have MS
Windows, you have to install dial-up for your number. In the modem
propriety we find " propriety--->extended---> extra options" where
we write.
&c0s0=1
We close the window and call. We log in according to the description
given above. If we want to use Linux, we must refer to the script.
It's difficult to give only one good script for our Linux. A good
configuration of ppp in the system is of primary importance. (You
can call it as pppuser through the scripts first).The scripts below
were whiten by A. Gozdz. I suggest putting everything to catalogue.
It is only my suggestion & you don't have to start the scripts here.
Detailed information cocernig writing scripts on Linux can found in
PPP-HOWTO.
THESE SCRIPTS WORK WELL WITH SLACKWARE
The configuration file of daemon ppp (an example for modem on com2)
/etc/options
#!/bin/bash
teksta="Connection failed"
tekstb="Probably, You will be connect"
# /sbin/setserial /dev/cua1 spd_vhi
killall -INT pppd 2>/dev/null
rm -f /var/lock/LCK* /var/run/ppp*.pid
(/usr/sbin/pppd -detach call ppp_call &) || \
(echo $teksta; ls marsss >/dev/null; exit 1)
echo $tekstb
exit 0
You can run ppp-call, now. :)
If you have M$ Windows you can use this script for conection. I don't
test it (I use terminal) you can ask some more Adrian Debkowski
(
adrian@cr-media.pl).
The Configuration of call-back is not complicated. The most important
thing is a proper arrangement of ppp server on Linux. I don't know
a better way of setting up an access - server. The configuration presented
above is a result of numerous attempts and it can be done in a different
way. That's way I suggest reading all documents concerning this issue
man pppd, NET4-HOWTO, PPP-HOWTO.