Easy DialUp

Requirements:

Apache
PHP

The requirements to get Easy DialUp running on your PC is that you have a Webserver running with PHP installed. The preferred Webserver is Apache.

Installing Easy DialUp:

* Download Easy DialUp from the Downloads page
* Once you have the easydialup.yyyy.mm.dd.tar.gz file, create a folder called easydialup in you webservers document root (normally /var/www/html, this depends on which vesion of Linux your running) and extract the downloaded file to that directory.
* Installation is now done - proceed to Configuring Easy DialUp

Configuring Easy Dialup:

1. To configure Easy Dialup you’ll need to know the following information
* what dialer (pon,wvidal,..) you want to use to connect to the Internet
* what the dialer profile you want to use -ifs you have already got the Internet working using pon or wvdial you should already know this, if not continue reading
* what disconnect command you want to execute(poff,etc..)

Once you have the info specified above open the config.php file thats in the config folder using a text editor and edit the file.
ie. where ‘$profile = my_isp” edit this to your specification.

** The annoying bit of configuring Easy DialUp
2. Once the config/config.php file has been edited the user that runs Apache has to be added to the User Group that can access the modem(normally DIP and DIALOUT)
* NOTE: This may be a security risk, but as Easy DialUp not intended to be used at NASA its not the end of the world if you do this.

* There are a number of ways to do this depending on which version of Linux your running. In this page we’ll examine the Linux version independent way
The linux version independent way of doing this is to edit the /etc/group file

3. Backup the current /etc/group file
** execute the following command from the commandling cp /etc/group ~
*** this command copies the existing /etc/group file to your home directory

4. Next as root open the /etc/group file
** In Ubuntu the easiest way to do this is from the commandline sudo gedit /etc/group
** or if you know what your doing sudo vi /etc/group

5. once you have the file open as root and edit the modem usergroups(this is dip or modem and dialout depending on your distro) to include the Apache user

In Ubuntu
dip:x:justin
dialout:x:justin
change this line to
dip:x:justin,www-data
dialout:x:justin,www-data
Note: www-data is the Ubuntu user that runs Apache

In Suse
dialout:x:16:guest,justin
modem:x:43:
change to
dialout:x:16:guest,justin,wwwrun
modem:x:43:wwwrun
Note: wwwrun is the Suse user that runs Apache

Note: Im not a guru on User Groups, you may have to play around with the /etc/group file or your graphical User/Groups tool(if your distro includes one).

Once the User Groups are done thats the finish of configuring Easy DialUp, now for Using Easy DialUp

Using Easy DialUp

Open up for web browser and go to the following page http://localhost/easydialup/index.php

Assuming you dont already have the Internet conencted, the page will display a message saying that the Internet is currently OFF, to connect to the Internet just click the ‘Internet ON’ button

Easy DialUp will now connect to the Internet, too easy !!

If you encoutner any errors pleaes refer to the FAQ page

Program Logic:

* config/config.php
This file contains the variable that are used in the index.php page
$profile - this is the profile that the dialer will call
$dialer - this is were you specify your ppp dialer (pon or wvdial)
$disconnection - this is were you specify your ppp disconnection command (poff or whatever the wvdial version is)
$theme - this is where you specify what theme you want Easy DialUp to use, at the moment only the Green theme works properly

* index.php

– if no GET info available
—- check if /var/run/ppp0-up exits
—— if exitst then show ‘Internet is ON’ page
—— if not exist show ‘Internet is OFF page’

– if GET info is ‘Internet ON’
—- execute /usr/bin/$dialer $profile
—- goes to ‘Connecting to the Internet now page’
—- after 5 seconds refresh and goes to ‘Connecting to the Internet now page with image’
—— refreashes every 5 seconds and checks for the existence of /var/run/ppp0-up
——– if exitst then show ‘Internet is ON’ page
——– if not exist show ‘Connecting to the Internet now page’ - THIS PAGE NEEDS WORK
———- NEED A TIMEOUT PAGE HERE

– if GET info is ‘Internet OFF’
—- execute /usr/bin/$disconnection
—- THIS PAGE NEEDS WORK

– if GET info is ’stats’
—- show ppp0 stats - THIS PAGE NEEDS WORK - ideally this info should show up on the right of the main screen next to the Internet is On/Off section

– if GET info is ‘conf’
—- prints the config/config.php variables to screen - THIS PAGE IS READ ONLY - ideally this info should show up on the right of the main screen next to the Internet is On/Off section