Re: Hylafax and PPP?

[Leslie Mikesell <les@Mcs.Net>]

> > and then start the 'slirp' slip/ppp emulator as that user.  The advantage
> > of slirp is that it doesn't require another IP address for the remote
> 
> If you are using Linux, you can achieve the same by masquerading, with
> the added advantage that you can include local LAN traffic as well.
> You could also use a Network Address Translating/masquerading router
> on a different LAN node.

Slirp lets you include traffic routed by the calling host as well, and
doesn't take any setup on the called machine.  It doesn't even need
to know the remote addresses ahead of time.

> I have my doubts that many ISPs would really approve of dialin sessions
> immediately dialing out to the ISP.  The most obvious use would be to resell
> their capacity, which tends not to be a permitted use.  There is a trend
> to allowing sharing of a single address by a whole site, but that normally
> involves LAN.

Slirp only handles inbound calls, so it's obvious use is to add
dialin capability to any machine that already has some network
connection. Like most office machines with dedicated internet
connections, or even just the local office network.  

> Routed networks are available if there is a good reason for them, and, if
> an ISP does permit resale, it is probably in everyone's interests that it
> be possible to trace a connection back to the incoming dialin port and thus
> to a, hopefully, authenticated spammer.

Most places with dedicated internet connections don't have enough
addresses to spare to route to any LAN that might want to connect.
I've been turned down by two large providers when I asked for enough
to let a lot of other remote offices connect the 'right' way. Of course
they could have come up with addresses if I had been talking about
connecting them though leased lines to those providers... 

Slirp packets appear to come from the called host and since it is started
at shell level it can only be run by someone who has the capability
of using the native network programs on that machine.   My only complaint
is that the shell login, slirp start-up sequence requires either
manual intervention (i.e. a tty window at startup of the Win95 dialer)
or the scripted equivalent. It seems like there should be a way to
emulate that via PAP against the passwd file so standard PPP dialer
routines would work.

 Les Mikesell
   les@mcs.com