1WVDIAL(1) General Commands Manual WVDIAL(1)
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6 wvdial - PPP dialer with built-in intelligence.
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9 wvdial [ OPTIONS ] [ SECTION ] ...
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12 wvdial is an intelligent PPP dialer, which means that it dials a modem
13 and starts PPP in order to connect to the Internet. It is something
14 like the chat(8) program, except that it uses heuristics to guess how
15 to dial and log into your server rather than forcing you to write a
16 login script.
17 When wvdial starts, it first loads its configuration from
19 /etc/wvdial.conf and ~/.wvdialrc which contains basic information about
20 the modem port, speed, and init string, along with information about
21 your Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as the phone number, your
22 username, and your password.
23 Then it initializes your modem and dials the server and waits for a
25 connection (a CONNECT string from the modem). It understands and
26 responds to typical connection problems (like BUSY and NO DIALTONE).
27 Any time after connecting, wvdial will start PPP if it sees a PPP
29 sequence from the server. Otherwise, it tries to convince the server
30 to start PPP by doing the following:
31 · responding to any login/password prompts it sees;
33 · interpreting “choose one of the following”-style menus;
35 · eventually, sending the word “ppp” (a common terminal server com‐
37 mand).
38 If all of this fails, wvdial just runs pppd(8) and hopes for the best.
40 It will bring up the connection, and then wait patiently for you to
41 drop the link by pressing CTRL-C.
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44 Several options are recognized by wvdial.
45 -c, --chat
47 Run wvdial as a chat replacement from within pppd, instead of
48 the more normal method of having wvdial negotiate the connection
49 and then call pppd.
50 -C, --config=CONFIGFILE
52 Run wvdial with CONFIGFILE as the configuration file, instead of
53 /etc/wvdial.conf. This is mainly useful only if you want to
54 have per-user configurations, or you want to avoid having dial-
55 up information (usernames, passwords, calling card numbers,
56 etc.) in a system wide configuration file.
57 --remotename
59 Override the Remote Name setting in the dialer configuration
60 section of the configuration file. This is mainly useful when
61 you dial to multiple systems with the same user name and pass‐
62 word, and you don't want to use inheritance to override this
63 setting (which is the recommended way to do it).
64 -n, --no-syslog
66 Don't output debug information to the syslog daemon (only useful
67 together with --chat).
68 wvdial is normally run without command line options, in which case it
70 reads its configuration from the [Dialer Defaults] section of
71 /etc/wvdial.conf. (The configuration file is described in more detail
72 in wvdial.conf(5) manual page.)
73 One or more SECTIONs of /etc/wvdial.conf may be specified on the com‐
75 mand line. Settings in these sections will override settings in
76 [Dialer Defaults].
77 For example, the command:
79 wvdial phone2
80 will read default options from the [Dialer Defaults] section, then
81 override any or all of the options with those found in the [Dialer
82 phone2] section.
83 If more than one section is specified, they are processed in the order
85 they are given. Each section will override all the sections that came
86 before it.
87 For example, the command:
89 wvdial phone2 pulse shh
90 will read default options from the [Dialer Defaults] section, then
91 override any or all of the options with those found in the [Dialer
92 phone2] section, followed by the [Dialer pulse] section, and lastly the
93 [Dialer shh] section.
94 Using this method, it is possible to easily configure wvdial to switch
96 between different internet providers, modem init strings, account
97 names, and so on without specifying the same configuration information
98 over and over.
99
101 “Intelligent” programs are frustrating when they don't work right.
102 This version of wvdial has only minimal support for disabling or over‐
103 riding its “intelligence”, with the “Stupid Mode”, “Login Prompt”, and
104 “Password Prompt” options. So, in general if you have a nice ISP, it
105 will probably work, and if you have a weird ISP, it might not.
106 Still, it's not much good if it doesn't work for you, right? Don't be
108 fooled by the fact that wvdial finally made it to version 1.00; it
109 could well contain many bugs and misfeatures. Let us know if you have
110 problems by sending e-mail to <wvdial-list@lists.nit.ca>.
111 You may encounter some error messages if you don't have write access to
113 /etc/ppp/pap-secrets and /etc/ppp/chap-secrets. Unfortunately, there's
114 really no nice way around this yet.
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117 /etc/wvdial.conf
118 Configuration file which contains modem, dialing, and login
119 information. See wvdial.conf(5).
120 /dev/ttyS*
122 Serial port devices.
123 /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial
125 Required for correct authentication in pppd version 2.3.0 or
126 newer.
127 /etc/ppp/{pap,chap}-secrets
129 Contains a list of usernames and passwords used by pppd for
130 authentication. wvdial maintains this list automatically.
131
133 Dave Coombs and Avery Pennarun for Net Integration Technologies. We
134 would also like to thank SuSE and RedHat for adding a number of various
135 cool features to wvdial. Thanks guys!
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138 wvdial.conf(5), wvdialconf(1), pppd(8), chat(8).
139WvDial December 2005 WVDIAL(1)