264 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
264 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
This is the README file for ppp-2.4, a package which implements the
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Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) to provide Internet connections over
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serial lines.
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Introduction.
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*************
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The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) provides a standard way to establish
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a network connection over a serial link. At present, this package
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supports IP and the protocols layered above IP, such as TCP and UDP.
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The Linux and Solaris ports of this package have optional support for
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IPV6; the Linux port of this package also has support for IPX.
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This software consists of two parts:
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- Kernel code, which establishes a network interface and passes
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packets between the serial port, the kernel networking code and the
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PPP daemon (pppd). This code is implemented using STREAMS modules on
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Solaris, and as a line discipline under Linux.
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- The PPP daemon (pppd), which negotiates with the peer to establish
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the link and sets up the ppp network interface. Pppd includes support
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for authentication, so you can control which other systems may make a
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PPP connection and what IP addresses they may use.
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The platforms supported by this package are Linux and Solaris. I have
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code for NeXTStep, FreeBSD, SunOS 4.x, SVR4, Tru64 (Digital Unix), AIX
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and Ultrix but no active maintainers for these platforms. Code for
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all of these except AIX is included in the ppp-2.3.11 release.
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Installation.
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*************
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The file SETUP contains general information about setting up your
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system for using PPP. There is also a README file for each supported
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system, which contains more specific details for installing PPP on
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that system. The supported systems, and the corresponding README
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files, are:
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Linux README.linux
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Solaris README.sol2
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In each case you start by running the ./configure script. This works
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out which operating system you are using and creates the appropriate
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makefiles. You then run `make' to compile the user-level code, and
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(as root) `make install' to install the user-level programs pppd, chat
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and pppstats.
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N.B. Since 2.3.0, leaving the permitted IP addresses column of the
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pap-secrets or chap-secrets file empty means that no addresses are
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permitted. You need to put a "*" in that column to allow the peer to
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use any IP address. (This only applies where the peer is
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authenticating itself to you, of course.)
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What's new in ppp-2.4.3.
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************************
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* The configure script now accepts --prefix and --sysconfdir options.
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These default to /usr/local and /etc. If you want pppd put in
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/usr/sbin as before, use ./configure --prefix=/usr.
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* Doing `make install' no longer puts example configuration files in
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/etc/ppp. Use `make install-etcppp' if you want that.
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* The code has been updated to work with version 0.8.3 of libpcap.
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Unfortunately the libpcap maintainers removed support for the
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"inbound" and "outbound" keywords on PPP links, meaning that if you
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link pppd with libpcap-0.8.3, you can't use those keywords in the
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active-filter and pass-filter expressions. The support has been
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reinstated in the CVS version and should be in future libpcap
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releases. If you need the in/outbound keywords, use a later release
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than 0.8.3, or get the CVS version from http://www.tcpdump.org.
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* There is a new option, child-timeout, which sets the length of time
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that pppd will wait for child processes (such as the command
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specified with the pty option) to exit before exiting itself. It
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defaults to 5 seconds. After the timeout, pppd will send a SIGTERM
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to any remaining child processes and exit. A value of 0 means no
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timeout.
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* Various bugs have been fixed, including some CBCP packet parsing
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bugs that could lead to the peer being able to crash pppd if CBCP
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support is enabled.
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* Various fixes and enhancements to the radius and rp-pppoe plugins
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have been added.
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* There is a new winbind plugin, from Andrew Bartlet of the Samba
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team, which provides the ability to authenticate the peer against an
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NT domain controller using MS-CHAP or MS-CHAPV2.
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* There is a new pppoatm plugin, by various authors, sent in by David
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Woodhouse.
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* The multilink code has been substantially reworked. The first pppd
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for a bundle still controls the ppp interface, but it doesn't exit
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until all the links in the bundle have terminated. If the first
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pppd is signalled to exit, it signals all the other pppds
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controlling links in the bundle.
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* The TDB code has been updated to the latest version. This should
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eliminate the problem that some people have seen where the database
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file (/var/run/pppd.tdb) keeps on growing. Unfortunately, however,
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the new code uses an incompatible database format. For this reason,
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pppd now uses /var/run/pppd2.tdb as the database filename.
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What was new in ppp-2.4.2.
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**************************
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* The CHAP code has been rewritten. Pppd now has support for MS-CHAP
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V1 and V2 authentication, both as server and client. The new CHAP
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code is cleaner than the old code and avoids some copyright problems
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that existed in the old code.
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* MPPE (Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption) support has been added,
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although the current implementation shouldn't be considered
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completely secure. (There is no assurance that the current code
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won't ever transmit an unencrypted packet.)
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* James Carlson's implementation of the Extensible Authentication
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Protocol (EAP) has been added.
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* Support for the Encryption Control Protocol (ECP) has been added.
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* Some new plug-ins have been included:
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- A plug-in for kernel-mode PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet)
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- A plug-in for supplying the PAP password over a pipe from another
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process
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- A plug-in for authenticating using a Radius server.
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* Updates and bug-fixes for the Solaris port.
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* The CBCP (Call Back Control Protocol) code has been updated. There
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are new options `remotenumber' and `allow-number'.
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* Extra hooks for plugins to use have been added.
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* There is now a `maxoctets' option, which causes pppd to terminate
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the link once the number of bytes passed on the link exceeds a given
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value.
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* There are now options to control whether pppd can use the IPCP
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IP-Address and IP-Addresses options: `ipcp-no-address' and
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`ipcp-no-addresses'.
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* Fixed several bugs, including potential buffer overflows in chat.
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What was new in ppp-2.4.1.
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**************************
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* Pppd can now print out the set of options that are in effect. The
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new `dump' option causes pppd to print out the option values after
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option parsing is complete. The `dryrun' option causes pppd to
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print the options and then exit.
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* The option parsing code has been fixed so that options in the
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per-tty options file are parsed correctly, and don't override values
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from the command line in most cases.
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* The plugin option now looks in /usr/lib/pppd/<pppd-version> (for
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example, /usr/lib/pppd/2.4.1b1) for shared objects for plugins if
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there is no slash in the plugin name.
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* When loading a plugin, pppd will now check the version of pppd for
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which the plugin was compiled, and refuse to load it if it is
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different to pppd's version string. To enable this, the plugin
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source needs to #include "pppd.h" and have a line saying:
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char pppd_version[] = VERSION;
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* There is a bug in zlib, discovered by James Carlson, which can cause
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kernel memory corruption if Deflate is used with the lowest setting,
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8. As a workaround pppd will now insist on using at least 9.
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* Pppd should compile on Solaris and SunOS again.
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* Pppd should now set the MTU correctly on demand-dialled interfaces.
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What was new in ppp-2.4.0.
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**************************
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* Multilink: this package now allows you to combine multiple serial
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links into one logical link or `bundle', for increased bandwidth and
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reduced latency. This is currently only supported under the
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2.4.x and later Linux kernels.
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* All the pppd processes running on a system now write information
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into a common database. I used the `tdb' code from samba for this.
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* New hooks have been added.
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For a list of the changes made during the 2.3 series releases of this
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package, see the Changes-2.3 file.
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Compression methods.
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********************
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This package supports two packet compression methods: Deflate and
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BSD-Compress. Other compression methods which are in common use
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include Predictor, LZS, and MPPC. These methods are not supported for
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two reasons - they are patent-encumbered, and they cause some packets
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to expand slightly, which pppd doesn't currently allow for.
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BSD-Compress and Deflate (which uses the same algorithm as gzip) don't
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ever expand packets.
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Patents.
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********
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The BSD-Compress algorithm used for packet compression is the same as
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that used in the Unix "compress" command. It was apparently covered
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by U.S. patents 4,814,746 (owned by IBM) and 4,558,302 (owned by
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Unisys), and corresponding patents in various other countries (but not
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Australia). Apparently the Unisys patent expired in the US on 20 June
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2003, but the IBM patent is still pending.
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If these patents are of concern in your situation, you can build the
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package without including BSD-Compress. To do this, edit
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net/ppp-comp.h to change the definition of DO_BSD_COMPRESS to 0. The
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bsd-comp.c files are then no longer needed, so the references to
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bsd-comp.o may optionally be removed from the Makefiles.
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Contacts.
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*********
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The comp.protocols.ppp newsgroup is a useful place to get help if you
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have trouble getting your ppp connections to work. Please do not send
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me questions of the form "please help me get connected to my ISP" -
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I'm sorry, but I simply do not have the time to answer all the
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questions like this that I get.
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If you find bugs in this package, please report them to the maintainer
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for the port for the operating system you are using:
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Linux Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
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Solaris James Carlson <carlson@workingcode.com>
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Copyrights:
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***********
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All of the code can be freely used and redistributed. The individual
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source files each have their own copyright and permission notice.
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Pppd, pppstats and pppdump are under BSD-style notices. Some of the
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pppd plugins are GPL'd. Chat is public domain.
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Distribution:
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*************
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The primary site for releases of this software is:
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ftp://ftp.samba.org/pub/ppp/
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(Id: README,v 1.35 2004/11/13 12:25:54 paulus Exp)
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