ppp_mode and ipfw

[Peter Risdon]

On Mon, 2005-02-14 at 14:50 +0100, Hiram Abiff wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I've been trying to set up ipfw on my FreeBSD box
> which I use as a gateway to the Internet on my LAN.
> 
> I compiled the kernel with options IPFIREWALL and IPDIVERT,
> edited rc.conf and some other files.
> 
> Now I have 2 problems:
> 
> 1.) Each time FreeBSD boots ppp automatically establishes
> a connection via ISDN. I do not want it to do that, I want
> the connection to be established when some of the other
> 2 boxes I have on my LAN run software that demands an
> internet connection.
> 
> For Example, if I run firefox on my linux box, i want
> the FreeBSD box to receive the linux boxes request
> for a connection and dial my ISP via ISDN.
> 
> In rc.conf I set ppp_mode="auto" because in ppp's man
> page it says that this is the correct mode for
> on-demand connection.
> 

A quick note on this first problem:

The auto setting is correct for ppp. This will connect whenever anything
seeks a route for which the ppp link is necessary. When your machine
boots, several things, potentially, will want an internet connection.
sendmail is one example. To prevent this from happening, you'll have to
disable all the processes that want to do any, for example, dns lookups
as they start.

So ppp is behaving correctly, but not as you expected.

Peter.