[ale] Windows -> Linux dial out

Fri Apr 9 15:44:56 EDT 1999

On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Nick Lucent wrote:

> On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Thompson Freeman wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Well - I've got a really ugly approach that works pretty well here. Since
> > RH installs Apache by default, I point all browsers at a web page on the
> > server machine. CGI scripts then bring up and drop the ppp link, and may
> > be called from any machine on the house network. 
> > 
> > It isn't very idiot resistant, and it does require a little cooperation to
> > get along with two people on line, but it works for us.
> 
> By getting along w/ two people I assume you mean multiple connections at
> once? That wont be an issue, this is just for her, I keep a terminal open

eg. I'm running ftp, one daughter is on the web, and we have had a third
person online (ie. over the ppp link) at the same time. The way I have it
set up at the moment, anybody can bring down the link with irritating
results for the other users. I'm sure a counter and lock file would
address this, but it isn't really enough of an issue for us at this time.

> to a ssh session on that box so i can run it locally. Is there anyway of
> blocking external connections from bringing the link down? Ive played w/
> apache, but never done anything indepth with it, is cgi hard to setup?
> Thanks for your help
> 

?Firewall port 80 on the ppp link? That would probably be best. Otherwise,
either some scripting work with the CGI stuff or maybe there is something
in Apache you can configure.

Calling the scripts is easy (assuming you have CGI enabled).
The HTML is roughly:
	Start PPP Link
where you have the script "link.pl" starting the link. I used Perl, but I
think virtually anything will work.

The Perl script is:

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/html", "\n";
print "Pragma: no-cache", "\n\n";

print "<html><head>", "\n";
print "<title> PPP Link Up</title>", "\n";
print "</head><br>", "\n";

print "<body><h1>PPP Link Up</h1>", "\n";

print `/usr/local/bin/ppp-on`;

print "The PPP link should be available in moments.", "\n";

print "<hr><br>", "\n";
print "<A HREF=\"$ENV{HTTP_REFERER}\">Return to last page<\A>", "\n";

print "</body></html>", "\n";

exit (0)

You might want to note that this script simply calls a shell script which
does the actual dirty deed.

You could have the script return either a link up success or link up
failure, but I didn't feel like working that hard.

Also, since the remote host ip is made available to the script, you can
backup the firewall with a list of permitted IP numbers encoded into the
script.

Hope this helps.

> Nick
> 
> 
> > 
> > On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Nick Lucent wrote:
> > 
> > > Im looking for a way for my girlfriend to be able to dial out from her
> > > windows box over the network. I cant get diald to work, it just trashes my
> > > route on startup, it dials out, but doesnt reset the route. At one point I
> > > hacked the source of dialmon to execute my dialout script rather then talk
> > > to diald through a fifo, but Ive since lost that. I have also tried
> > > masqdialer, and it works ok, but for somereason it only brings the link
> > > up, wont bring it down. Does anyone have any other suggestions for
> > > something that can be used?
> > > 
> > > Thanks, Nick
> > > 
> > 
> > =========================================================
> > Thompson Freeman           Even the Immortal Brahma
> >                            Shaves before he hugs his mama
> > tfreeman at vnet.net          Karma Shave
> > ========================================================
> > 
> > 
> 

=========================================================
Thompson Freeman           Even the Immortal Brahma
                           Shaves before he hugs his mama
tfreeman at vnet.net          Karma Shave
========================================================