Sometimes you also need (Web hosting uk) to have conditional execution
Sometimes you also need to have conditional execution for parts of the chat script: when you don’t receive the remote end’s login prompt, you might want to send a BREAK or a carriage return. You can achieve this by appending a subscript to an expect string. The subscript consists of a sequence of send and expect strings, just like the overall script itself, which are separated by hyphens. The subscript is executed whenever the expected string it is appended to is not received in time. In the example above, we would modify the chat script as follows: ogin:-BREAK-ogin: ppp ssword: GaGariN When chat doesn’t see the remote system send the login prompt, the subscript is executed by first sending a BREAK, and then waiting for the login prompt again. If the prompt now appears, the script continues as usual; otherwise, it will terminate with an error. IP Configuration Options IPCP is used to negotiate a number of IP parameters at link configuration time. Usually, each peer sends an IPCP Configuration Request packet, indicating which values it wants to change from the defaults and the new value. Upon receipt, the remote end inspects each option in turn and either acknowledges or rejects it. pppd gives you a lot of control over which IPCP options it will try to negotiate. You can tune it through various command-line options that we will discuss in this section. Choosing IP Addresses All IP interfaces require IP addresses assigned to them; a PPP device always has an IP address. The PPP suite of protocols provides a mechanism that allows the automatic assignment of IP addresses to PPP interfaces. It is possible for the PPP program at one end of a point-to-point link to assign an IP address for the remote end to use, or each may use its own. Some PPP servers that handle a lot of client sites assign addresses dynamically; addresses are assigned to systems only when calling in and are reclaimed after they have logged off again. This allows the number of IP addresses required to be limited to the number of dialup lines. While limitation is convenient for managers of the PPP dialup server, it is often less convenient for users who are dialing in. We discussed the way that hostnames are mapped to IP addresses by use of a database in Chapter 6. In order for people to connect to your host, they must know your IP address or the hostname associated with it. If you are a user of a PPP service that assigns you an IP address dynamically, this knowledge is difficult without providing some means of allowing the DNS database to be updated after you are assigned an IP address. Such systems do exist, but we won’t cover them in detail here; instead, we will look at the more preferable approach, which involves you being able to use the same IP address each time you establish your network connection.51 In the previous example, we had pppd dial up c3po and establish an IP link. No provisions were taken to choose a particular IP address on either end of the link. Instead, we let pppd take its default action. It attempts to resolve the local hostname, vlager in our example, to an IP address, which it uses for the local end, while letting the remote machine, c3po, provide its own. PPP supports several alternatives to this arrangement. To ask for particular addresses, you generally provide pppd with the following option: local_addr:remote_addr local_addr and remote_addr may be specified either in dotted quad notation or as hostnames.52 This option makes pppd attempt to use the first address supplied as its own IP address, and the second as the peer’s. If the peer rejects either of the addresses during IPCP negotiation, no IP link will be established.53 If you are dialing in to a server and expect it to assign you an IP address, you should ensure that pppd does not attempt to negotiate one for itself. To do this, use the noipdefault option and leave the local_addr blank. The 51 More information on two dynamic host assignment mechanisms can be found at http://www.dynip.com/ and http://www.justlinux.com/dynamic_dns.html. 52 Using hostnames in this option has consequences for CHAP authentication. Please refer to the “Authentication with PPP” section later in this chapter. 53 The ipcp-accept-local and ipcp-accept-remote options instruct your pppd to accept the local and remote IP addresses being offered by the remote PPP, even if you’ve supplied some in your configuration. If these options are not configured, your pppd will reject any attempt to negotiate the IP addresses used.