This is the README file for ppp-2.3, a package which implements the
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
serial lines.

In this first beta release, the ports for SunOS, Solaris, NetBSD and
OSF/1 are believed to be working correctly.  The Linux port mostly
works, but still has some known bugs.  The remaining ports haven't
been tested extensively.  For information on the current status of the
NeXTStep port, see http://www.thoughtport.com:8080/PPP/.


Introduction.
*************

The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard way to establish
a network connection over a serial link.  At present, this package
supports IP and the protocols layered above IP, such as TCP and UDP.
The Linux port of this package also supports IPX.

This software consists of two parts:

- Kernel code, which establishes a network interface and passes
packets between the serial port, the kernel networking code and the
PPP daemon (pppd).  This code is implemented using STREAMS modules on
SunOS 4.x, Solaris 2.x, System V Release 4, and OSF/1, and as a
line discipline under Ultrix, NextStep, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux.

- The PPP daemon (pppd), which negotiates with the peer to establish
the link and sets up the ppp network interface.  Pppd includes support
for authentication, so you can control which other systems may make a
PPP connection and what IP addresses they may use.


Installation.
*************

The file SETUP contains general information about setting up your
system for using PPP.  There is also a README file for each supported
system, which contains more specific details for installing PPP on
that system.  The supported systems, and the corresponding README
files, are:

	SunOS 4.x			README.sunos4
	NetBSD, FreeBSD			README.bsd
	Ultrix 4.x			README.ultrix
	Linux				README.linux
	OSF/1				README.osf
	NeXTStep			README.next
	Solaris 2			README.sol2
	System V Release 4		README.svr4

In each case you start by running the ./configure script.  This works
out which operating system you are using and creates symbolic links to
the appropriate makefiles.  You then run `make' to compile the
user-level code, and (as root) `make install' to install the
user-level programs pppd, chat and pppstats.

The procedures for installing the kernel code vary from system to
system.  On some systems, the kernel code can be loaded into a running
kernel using a `modload' facility.  On others, the kernel image has to
be recompiled and the system rebooted.  See the README.* files for
details.

(Unfortunately, AIX 4 is no longer supported, since I don't have a
maintainer for the AIX 4 port.  If you want to volunteer, contact me.)


What's new in ppp-2.3.
**********************

* Demand-dialling.  Pppd now has a mode where it will establish the
network interface immediately when it starts, but not actually bring
the link up until it sees some data to be sent.

* Idle timeout.  Pppd will optionally terminate the link if no data
packets are sent or received within a certain time interval.

* Pppd now runs the /etc/ppp/auth-up script, if it exists, when the
peer successfully authenticates itself, and /etc/ppp/auth-down when
the connection is subsequently terminated.

* A new packet compression scheme, Deflate, has been implemented.
This uses the same compression method as `gzip'.  This method is free
of patent or copyright restrictions, and it achieves better
compression than BSD-Compress.  It does consume more CPU cycles for
compression than BSD-Compress, but this won't be a problem for links
running at 100kbit/s or less.

* There is now no code in this distribution which is covered by Brad
Clements' restrictive copyright notice.  The STREAMS modules for SunOS
and OSF/1 have been rewritten, based on the Solaris 2 modules, which
were written from scratch without any Clements code.

* Pppstats has been reworked to clean up the output format somewhat.
It also has a new -d option which displays data rate in kbyte/s for
those columns which would normally display bytes.


Patents.
********

The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
that used in the Unix "compress" command.  It is apparently covered by
U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by Unisys),
and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
Australia).  If this is of concern, you can build the package without
including BSD-Compress.  To do this, edit net/ppp-comp.h to change the
definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0.  The bsd-comp.c files are then no
longer needed, so the references to bsd-comp.o may optionally be
removed from the Makefiles.


Contacts.
*********

Bugs in the the SunOS, Solaris 2, NetBSD and Ultrix ports, and bugs in
pppd, chat or pppstats should be reported me at:

	email:	Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au

	mail:	Dr Paul Mackerras
		Dept. of Computer Science
		Australian National University
		Canberra  ACT  0200
		AUSTRALIA

	fax:	+61-6-249-0010

Bugs in other ports should be reported to the maintainer for that port
(see the appropriate README.* file) or to me.

Thanks to:

	Brad Parker  (brad@fcr.com)
	Greg Christy (gmc@quotron.com)
	Drew D. Perkins (ddp@andrew.cmu.edu)
	Rick Adams (rick@seismo.ARPA)
	Chris Torek (chris@mimsy.umd.edu, umcp-cs!chris).


Copyrights:
***********

All of the code can be freely used and redistributed.


Distribution:
*************

The primary site for releases of this software is:

	ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp/


($Id: README,v 1.5 1996/07/01 05:27:42 paulus Exp $)