Topic: BPALOGIN No workies with 5.5

[Chris Whyte]

I am a little frustrated, hoping the problem is not between the keyboard and the chair hehe, but I have been a 5.1.2 user for a while and indeed through the prior versions I have not seen this problem before.

Vanilla install of 5.5, then ssh to the server and do a

"rpm bpalogin-2.0-1.i386.rpm --install"

I then copy the recent and tested working bpalogin.conf file to the /etc folder. and do the "/etc/rc.d/init.d/bpalogin start" service starts but will not forward internet calls.

Sounds easy hey. AND it works cool on 5.1.2 and other linux Redhat 7.X distros but do you think any amount of swapping hardware and proceedural installs can get this to work on bigpond on 5.5. Nup.

Anyone else faught this problem and won !!!?????

Kindest Regards

Chris Whyte

[Charlie Brady]

Chris Whyte wrote:

> Vanilla install of 5.5, then ssh to the server and do a
>
> "rpm bpalogin-2.0-1.i386.rpm --install"
>
> I then copy the recent and tested working bpalogin.conf file
> to the /etc folder. and do the "/etc/rc.d/init.d/bpalogin
> start" service starts but will not forward internet calls.

Back when I was a BigPong user I found bpalogin 2.0 to be unreliable. OTOH, bpalogin 1.3 worked fine. You can find an RPM in my contrib area on ftp.e-smith.org. You'll also find e-smith-bpalogin there.

Charlie

[Luke Drumm]

I agree. Anything above 1.3 seems to be pratically unusable.

[Lloyd Keen]

To keep it nice and simple, when I run setup I choose dhcp - send ethernet address for the external interface. Then install the latest bpalogin, edit the bpalogin.conf file manually only changing USERNAME and PASSWORD, then MOST IMPORTANTLY:
#mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/hosts
cd /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/hosts
#mcedit 21hostname
add the following into this file
61.9.192.13       dce-server.nsw.bigpond.net.au        dce-server
Save the file, then
#/sbin/e-smith/expand-template  /etc/hosts
Now start bpalogin
#/etc/rc.d/init.d/bpalogin start
And create a symlink in run level 7
#/ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/bpalogin /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S91bpalogin
Big Darren has some more info on his site reagarding the auth servers. Check it out here: http://www.ozcableguy.com/cable.html#172

[Charlie Brady]

Lloyd Keen wrote:

> To keep it nice and simple, when I run setup I choose dhcp -
> send ethernet address for the external interface. Then
> install the latest bpalogin, edit the bpalogin.conf file
> manually only changing USERNAME and PASSWORD [etc]

IMO it's even simpler with my e-smith-bpalogin RPM. To quote from the RPM information:
  - Install it
        rpm -ivh e-smith-bpalogin-

  - Use the e-smith console to configure the external interface:
        - Select PPPoE
            - Enter your BPA username (just the username, not the
               domain)
            - Enter your BPA password
            - These values are used by bpalogin, but BPA does not use  
               PPPoE
        - Select to the external interface configuration
            - Select "DHCP - send Ethernet address"
        - Press to accept all further values and save
           configuration
  - Check /var/log/messages for messages with the string "bpalogin"

You say "latest bpalogin". So you don't have problems with bpalogin 2.0?

Charlie


, then MOST
> IMPORTANTLY:
> #mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/hosts
> cd /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/hosts
> #mcedit 21hostname
> add the following into this file
> 61.9.192.13       dce-server.nsw.bigpond.net.au      
> dce-server
> Save the file, then
> #/sbin/e-smith/expand-template  /etc/hosts
> Now start bpalogin
> #/etc/rc.d/init.d/bpalogin start
> And create a symlink in run level 7
> #/ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/bpalogin /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S91bpalogin
> Big Darren has some more info on his site reagarding the auth
> servers. Check it out here:
> http://www.ozcableguy.com/cable.html#172

[Lloyd Keen]

Charlie,
I tried various combinations of e-smith-bpalogin with bpalogin (1.3 & 2.0) and perl-Net-Dns under SME 5.5 but just couldn't get it to authenticate (various error messages, I can't remember them all). In the end I started from scratch, installed the latest bpalogin-2.0.1-1 and just put the entry in the hosts file and it connected first go. It seemed as though it wasn't resolving the auth-server (dce-server) correctly. I had it going for a couple of days and did notice some entries in the log about losing the heartbeat but it always reconnected. I'm now running of a static dsl connection so I can't check further. One other note I had been playing with a snapgear internet device with a builtin bpalogin client and the only entries in their bpalogin.conf file were username, password & minheartbeatinterval.

[Kelvin]

Hi Charlie and Lloyd,

I was playing with version 2 a few weeks back as I was having issues with Ver. 1.3 not logging back on after extended outages. And even after a reboot (which logs me back on), SME did not detect the changed IP address and therefore did not update DynDNS. Version 2 allows me to run a script / program upon successful logon which means I can call an update script when it logs on.

As seen by others, Version 2 have problems. I have no problems logging on to bigpond. I do have problems staying connected without needing to re-logon after the 7 minute heartbeat timeout. I have been in contact with William Rose who was willing to try and help me troubleshoot the problem but unfortunately I had other commitments and could not follow through at this time.

Kelvin

[Craig]

Hi Guys

I have the same problem as Kelvin I get the bugger to login but it spits the dummy every 7 minutes because it doesnt like the heartbeat packet or something similar I didnt have this issue with 5.1 and I used the same 3 RPMS this time on a clean install of 5.5 perl-Net-DNS-0.12-3.i386.rpm  e-smith-bpalogin-1.3.0-02.noarch.rpm and bpalogin-1.3-2.i386.rpm.

[Tony De Keizer]

Hi Guys,

I believe the problem with the Heartbeat is Telstra not e-smith or bpalogin.  Telstra has increased the heartbeat interval to beyond 7 minutes which is the timeout value hard-coded into bpalogin (420 seconds).    Most users would not even notice but  those of us who watch the logs and/or use VPN's would.  I noticed when suddenly, some 5-6 weeks ago,  VPN's in and out of my network started failing at regular intervals.  

I believe many Australian cable users have contacted Bigpond support about this issue with little or no response (i.e are you a windows user ? NO.  Sorry can't support you ...).

The solution to the problem would be modify the bpalogin 1.3 source to allow the timeout interval to be set via the bpalogin.conf file (just in case Telstra get sneaky and try and break our non-windows systems again ... ) and then set the timeout value to something between 7 and 15 minutes.  I believe some users have succesfully used a 14 minute value.

Regards

Tony De Keizer

[Kelvin]

Hi Tony,

Interesting piece of info. However, I am only having a problem with bpalogin version 2.x. The bpalogin installed from the howto (ie. Ver. 1.3) does not exhibit the heartbeat timeout issue. I checked my messages log and found that most days, there might only be two hearbeat timeouts requiring a log-on again. With bpalogin 2.x, the hearbeat times out consistently every 7 minutes or so.


Kelvin

[Tony De Keizer]

Hi Kevin,

When I first noticed the problem I also had Bpalogin v2.x installed and also thought it was the culprit.  I removed it and reinstalled V 1.3 and exactly the same issues persisted.  The code I looked at to verify the timeout value was hardcoded to 7 minutes was v2.x.  It may be different (higher) in v1.3.  Also Telstra may be having a problem with their network that is causing a varying time interval between heartbeats.  I have also noticed on some forums that some states/areas have the problem and others do not.  

I will try and find the 1.3 code to see if it is different.

Keep you informed.

Regards
Tony

[Kelvin]

Thanks Tony.

I look forward to seeing if you can track down this irritant !

Cheers,

Kelvin