Interconnecting 2 Minix machines with PPP or SLIP
--------------------------------------------------

Both drivers allow to connect 2 Minix machines, the more easy way is
using SLIP, to avoid negotiation. The considerations are the following:

a) you need to start nonamed in both machines
b) define the ip address in /etc/hosts and in /etc/rc.net with ifconfig
c) start the network daemons you need, like telnet, ftp, rsh, etc.
d) link the 2 machines with a rs232 cable.
e) start the drivers in each machine.
f) if you are using ppp, one machine need to start with the -a flag
   to start negotiation, and you need to pass each IP address in the
   command line. One machine can be server, check server.txt for details.

I tested the same configuration under 32 and 16 bits (protected mode)
at speeds of 57600 baud. I have no problems with ping/ftp/telnet.
If you are using 16 bit real mode (example a XT), you can not start all
the daemons, because you have very little memory, and if you fine tune
the drivers and buffers, the system is slow. in this case only you can be
client of other machine with more memory (i.e. 2 Mbytes).

If you use slip, I recomended you to supply the -c flag, to allow header
compression, this speeds up the connection.

The cable must be a null modem cable between machines.

In this kind of configuration, the slip connection is faster than ppp 
because it have less packet overhead, but it have no error checking,
and is less reliable. If you link is short (1 to 5 meters), you can use slip
without problems at 38400 bauds. More length may need lower speeds, and
ppp to control the packets.

One interesting configuration is using one machine as DNS server. The other
need to be configured in /etc/resolv.conf pointing to the first machine, or
you need to start nonamed with the -n flag pointing to the IP of the first
machine. With PPP you can use the -N switch to query the server.

As an example, I have 2 machines, 10.1.1.1 and 10.1.1.2, in the A machine 
(with IP 10.1.1.1) I started nonamed as usual, and have the /etc/hosts file
with all the entries. In the B machine (with IP 10.1.1.2) after I started
PPP or SLIP, I start nonamed as:

# nonamed -n 10.1.1.1 &

Any query is send to the A machine for resolution. The same is using the
file /etc/resolv.conf and an entry like

nameserver 10.1.1.1

This is recomended for low memory machines, and do not start nonamed.


Interconecting Minix to Linux via PPP
-------------------------------------

You can connect 2 machines (Linux to Minix) using a direct conection cable.
The configuration is easy.

a) you need to start nonamed in Minix, or use some DNS in Linux.
b) define the ip address in /etc/hosts (both Minix and Linux)
c) define the Minix IP in /etc/rc.net with ifconfig
c) start the network daemons you need, like telnet, ftp, rsh, etc.
d) link the 2 machines with a rs232 cable.
e) start the drivers in each machine.

The driver in Minix can be started like:

# ppp.drv -b 38400 -u claudio -p MyPassw -R /dev/tty01 &

this command sets the default route when negotiates with Linux, and pass
the login information (user claudio and password MyPassw).

In Linux you need to configure the following:

# pppd -d -detach crtscts lock login auth 10.1.1.1:10.1.1.2 defaultroute /dev/cua1 38400 &

this command allows you:

- detach the pppd daemon from your termiinal
- use a lock for the terminal
- require login authorization
- local IP (linux) is 10.1.1.1 and Minixx will be 10.1.1.2
- add a default route to Minix
- baud rate of 38400 (like Minix above)..
- the -d flag logs packet information, yyou should disable it, but it is
  helpfull while testing.

Also you need to configure the /etc/ppp/pap-secrets or /etc/ppp/chap-secrets
files for login, like:

# Secrets for authentication using PAP
# client	server	secret	IP address
claudio		*	MyPassw	10.1.1.2

this file (pap-secrets) allows login to user claudio, any host, using the
password MyPassw and requesting IP 10.1.1.2.

Also, the account need to be a valid one in Linux.

I tested PPP with Linux pppd version 2.3.11 using it as client or server. 
I had some problems with Linux pppd version 2.2.0 while it works like server 
(it send IPCP terminate without any reason) but works fine without 
authentication.

The considerations are for both standard Minix 2.0.2/3/4 (32 and 16 bits) and 
VMD 1.7.0.

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Both are my configurations, and they are working. If you have any problems,
please let me know.

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