Ubuntu Manpage: wvdial - PPP dialer with built-in intelligence.

NAME

       wvdial - PPP dialer with built-in intelligence.

SYNOPSIS

       wvdial [ OPTIONS ] [ SECTION ] ...

DESCRIPTION

       wvdial is an intelligent PPP dialer, which means that it dials a modem and starts PPP in order to connect
       to  the  Internet.  It is something like the chat(8) program, except that it uses heuristics to guess how
       to dial and log into your server rather than forcing you to write a login script.

       When wvdial starts, it first loads its configuration from /etc/wvdial.conf and ~/.wvdialrc which contains
       basic information about the modem port, speed,  and  init  string,  along  with  information  about  your
       Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as the phone number, your username, and your password.

       Then it initializes your modem and dials the server and waits for a connection (a CONNECT string from the
       modem).  It understands and responds to typical connection problems (like BUSY and NO DIALTONE).

       Any  time  after connecting, wvdial will start PPP if it sees a PPP sequence from the server.  Otherwise,
       it tries to convince the server to start PPP by doing the following:

       •   responding to any login/password prompts it sees;

       •   interpreting “choose one of the following”-style menus;

       •   eventually, sending the word “ppp” (a common terminal server command).

       If all of this fails, wvdial just runs pppd(8) and hopes for the best. It will bring up  the  connection,
       and then wait patiently for you to drop the link by pressing CTRL-C.

OPTIONS

Several options are recognized by wvdial.

-c, --chat
Run wvdial as a chat replacement from within pppd, instead of the more normal method of having
wvdial negotiate the connection and then call pppd.

-C, --config=CONFIGFILE
Run wvdial with CONFIGFILE as the configuration file, instead of /etc/wvdial.conf. This is mainly
useful only if you want to have per-user configurations, or you want to avoid having dial-up
information (usernames, passwords, calling card numbers, etc.) in a system wide configuration
file.

-n, --no-syslog
Don't output debug information to the syslog daemon (only useful together with --chat).

wvdial is normally run without command line options, in which case it reads its configuration from the
[Dialer Defaults] section of /etc/wvdial.conf. (The configuration file is described in more detail in
wvdial.conf(5) manual page.)

One or more SECTIONs of /etc/wvdial.conf may be specified on the command line. Settings in these
sections will override settings in [Dialer Defaults].

For example, the command:
wvdial phone2
will read default options from the [Dialer Defaults] section, then override any or all of the options
with those found in the [Dialer phone2] section.

If more than one section is specified, they are processed in the order they are given. Each section will
override all the sections that came before it.

For example, the command:
wvdial phone2 pulse shh
will read default options from the [Dialer Defaults] section, then override any or all of the options
with those found in the [Dialer phone2] section, followed by the [Dialer pulse] section, and lastly the
[Dialer shh] section.

Using this method, it is possible to easily configure wvdial to switch between different internet
providers, modem init strings, account names, and so on without specifying the same configuration
information over and over.

BUGS

       “Intelligent” programs are frustrating when they don't work right.   This  version  of  wvdial  has  only
       minimal  support  for disabling or overriding its “intelligence”, with the “Stupid Mode”, “Login Prompt”,
       and “Password Prompt” options.  So, in general if you have a nice ISP, it will probably work, and if  you
       have a weird ISP, it might not.

       Still,  it's  not  much  good if it doesn't work for you, right?  Don't be fooled by the fact that wvdial
       finally made it to version 1.00; it could well contain many bugs and misfeatures.  Let  us  know  if  you
       have problems by sending e-mail to <wvdial-list@lists.nit.ca>.

       You  may  encounter  some  error  messages  if  you  don't  have write access to /etc/ppp/pap-secrets and
       /etc/ppp/chap-secrets.  Unfortunately, there's really no nice way around this yet.

FILES

       /etc/wvdial.conf
              Configuration file which contains modem, dialing, and login information. See wvdial.conf(5).

       /dev/ttyS*
              Serial port devices.

       /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial
              Required for correct authentication in pppd version 2.3.0 or newer.

       /etc/ppp/{pap,chap}-secrets
              Contains a list of usernames and passwords used by pppd for authentication.  wvdial maintains this
              list automatically.

AUTHORS

       Dave Coombs and Avery Pennarun for Net Integration Technologies.  We would also like to  thank  SuSE  and
       RedHat for adding a number of various cool features to wvdial.  Thanks guys!