Topic: Problem - dial-up changes needing manual file editing

[iFX]

Weird problem - am I the only one this has happened to?

Basically, the internet was working fine - however the ISP was changing servers, which (for some reason) stopped us from being able to send email - though everything else worked ok - We are using an external web server to send email (ie, not the SME server and not our ISP)... until the ISPs changes it was working fine.

Now... since we couldn't send email, we tried using an alternate ISP account (a friend with the same ISP let us try their account) - and it worked fine - however somewhere along the line, after talking to the tech support at the ISP, we wanted to change it back to our account, but they told us they had a new alternate number, so we changed it back using the dial up panel in server-manager (SME 6.01-01custom) and entered in the new phone number as well.

Once that was activated, it wouldn't even connect anymore - just continually redial - checking the logs showed an error with the PAP not authenticating - strange since checking the logs showed that when it was working it was authenticating with CHAPS (I think that's the right names??? I don't have the logs handy right now).

After hours of searching the net, these forums etc and coming up with no answers, I had a look at the contents of all the files in /etc/diald and /etc/ppp and I found that the changes I was making to the username and password via the server-manager weren't being made to the chaps and pap files (don't remember what they are called, but they contain:
"username"  *  "password"

So after changing those it started to get a little further... actually dialing the old ISP phone number it worked again, but the new one wouldn't (and still won't).

Anyway, after all that raving, basically... Has anyone else found that the not all files are being updated when changing account user info via the dial up menu in server-manager?

But continuing with my problem - not being able to connect using the new phone number - I'll update this later when I am able to test it again... but roughly:
I connected using minicom both to the old number and new number to see if there was any difference in the server response... sure enough there was a difference, but I don't know what to do about it - again, I'll try to amend this later with the exact details - but roughly the old number that connects returns a few lines of text (3 I think, but can't remember exactly what they were, but it was all readable english words), however the new number after connecting starts spurting out all these garbage characters (kind of reminding me of the old Windows 3.1 days when using SLIP connections and waiting for some garbage to come on the screen before typing something to continue.

Basically it seems it's much different to what SME is expecting and so it just disconnects... any ideas what I might try to get around this?


regards,
Ingo.

[iFX]

Just tried conntecting to both the old number and new number and after entering the username and password, here's how they differ:

OLD NUMBER:

Code: [Select]

Entering PPP Session.
IP address is 203.206.102.96
MTU is 1524.

NEW NUMBER:

Code: [Select]

L2TP: Starting session
Primary server '10.25.253.128'
~ }#À!}!}!} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"M!~~ }#À!}!}"} }<}!}$}%ð
}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"•×~~ }#À!}!}#} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}
&ê}^S}'}"}(}"Ý…~~ }#À!}!}$} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"42~~ }#
À!}!}%} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"|~~ }#À!}!}&} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&
} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"¤–~~ }#À!}!}'} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^
S}'}"}(}"ìÄ~~ }#À!}!}(} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"gñ~~ }#À!}!
})} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"/£~~ }#À!}!}*} }<}!}$}%ð}"}&} }*
} } }#}$À#}%}&ê}^S}'}"}(}"÷U~
NO CARRIER

The old number works ok, (though can't send email) - So any idea what I can change in SME to get the new number to connect?


Thanks,
Ingo.

[iFX_guest]

Got it to connect - they didn't tell me the username was different   duhhh...

Anyway, everything's working though still can't send email, not sure what's going on there - may be an ISP problem...

However, the problem of chaging the dialup settings via server-manager still leaves the old username and password in the chap_secrets and pap_secrets files, so they need to be manually edited when changing the settings - anyone else come across that?