On Monday 09 June 2003 17:28, Angela wrote:

Hi, I would appreciate any help and advice. I am new to linux and have recently installed SuSE Professional 8.2 on a new PC. The install went well and all hardware seems to have been recognised but I seem to have a problem connecting to the internet.

The PC is standalone connecting via a dial up modem which was correctly identified by SuSE as Intel 536EP Data Fax Modem and on install I accepted the defaults which all looked reasonable (which simply means within my limited knowledge). The problem appears to be when I attempt to configure mail in YAST2. It asks for the outgoing mail server (I entered my ISP's smtp server name) and then the incoming server name at which point I attempted to enter the pop3 server name of my ISP. My ISP happens to have the same server name for both but this does not appear to be acceptable and gives an error.

I have tried all sorts of combinations but nothing seems to work. The KInternet log reports, at best, that: "pppd died: pppd options error (exit code 2)" which appears to be conflicting information, presumably the pop/smtp name being the same.

Have I correctly identified the problem or have I completely missed the point? Is there a way around this or do I need a new ISP?

You don't need a new ISP.... It's perfectly all right if the name of the smtp server and the pop3 server are the same (and it sounds like you know what you are doing) because the7y use different TCP/IP ports.... SMTP uses port 25 and pop3 uses port 110 so you should make sure that those are the ports specified. For the pop3 port, you will also need your userid and pswd since it most likely does an authorization using those items. But the error you are getting is coming from the dial-up which really would have nothing to do with either smtp or pop3. So it appears that you are not even getting connected... Although I've never used Kinternet, I'm pretty familiar will all the parms needed for connecting to an ISP and would be glad to help. Check over your setup for Kinternet very carefully and see if there isn't a problem with it. I had problems with 8.2 in connecting to an ISP because of an option used in the default options file: /etc/ppp/options You might try: mv /etc/ppp/options /etc/ppp/options.sav and try to connect again. It might work better that way. Holler if you need more help

This whole mail and internet connection regime in linux has me completely confused and the manuals and online information appear to simply skip over the parts which are causing the problems. Is there a straight forward description of how all this works anywhere aimed at someone who simply wants to use a standalone PC with email and web access?

Thanks in anticipation, Angela

On 06/10/2003 05:28 AM, Angela wrote:

The problem appears to be when I attempt to configure mail in YAST2. It asks for the outgoing mail server (I entered my ISP's smtp server name) and then the incoming server name at which point I attempted to enter the pop3 server name of my ISP. My ISP happens to have the same server name for both but this does not appear to be acceptable and gives an error.

I don't know what error you are getting, but you need to connect first. You can always just configure your email client for the mail after you get connectivity.

I have tried all sorts of combinations but nothing seems to work. The KInternet log reports, at best, that: "pppd died: pppd options error (exit code 2)" which appears to be conflicting information, presumably the pop/smtp name being the same.

Not that at all. Check /etc/ppp/options and /etc/ppp/peers/ppp (or maybe wvdial, not sure which kinternet uses). Alternatively, I would suggest using kppp, which is my prefered dialer program. Configuration is intuitive, can be used for multiple accounts, and works very well. There are others, but for me Kppp is the best.

Have I correctly identified the problem or have I completely missed the point? Is there a way around this or do I need a new ISP?

ISP is probably fine, you are just looking in the wrong place.

This whole mail and internet connection regime in linux has me completely confused and the manuals and online information appear to simply skip over the parts which are causing the problems. Is there a straight forward description of how all this works anywhere aimed at someone who simply wants to use a standalone PC with email and web access?

With Linux you have so many more choices, which can be confusing and overwhelming at first, but you will appreciate that later on. As far as how they work, they work the same as on other OSes. If you want a familiar look, try Mozilla or Netscape. I use Netscape 7.02, and it is the same to configure in both Windows and Linux. HTH -- Joe Morris New Tribes Mission Email Address: Joe_Morris@ntm.org Web Address: http://www.mydestiny.net/~joe_morris Registered Linux user 231871 God said, I AM that I AM. I say, by the grace of God, I am what I am.