The most salient aspects of the relationship between rp3and wvdialare that rp3-config maintains the wvdialconfiguration file, /etc/wvdial.conf, and that rp3establishes Internet connections described by that file.

To configure wvdial, become the root user and issue the following command:

               wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

This command analyzes your system and creates a template configuration file, /etc/wvdial.conf. You must edit this file to specify the username and password your ISP expects.

The contents of the template file look something like this:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyS1
Baud = 115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 S11=55 +FCLASS=0
; Phone = <Target Phone Number>
; Username = <Your Login Name>
; Password = <Your Password>

Edit the last three lines of the file, deleting the leading semicolon and space and substituting the proper phone number, username, and password required to connect to your ISP. When you’re done, your file should look something like this:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyS1
Baud =  115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Phone = 15625551100
Username = bill100
Password = donttell

Now, you’re ready to make a connection by issuing the following command:

               wvdial &

The command generates quite a bit of output, which makes further use of this virtual terminal distracting. The simplest solution is to switch to another virtual terminal by pressing Alt- n, where n stands for the virtual terminal (17). Alternatively, you can direct the output of the command to a file, by typing this command in place of the one given earlier:

               wvdial 2>/tmp/wvdial.messages &

Of course, you’ll need to consult the file if something goes wrong with wvdial. Do so by using the less command:

               less /tmp/wvdial.messages

Once your connection is up, you can browse the Web and access other Internet services, as described later in this chapter. For now, simply verify that your connection is working by issuing the command:

               ping www.redhat.com

The ping command should report that echo packets were successfully received from the server. If not, check your name server configuration and other details, as described in the preceding section.

When you want to terminate the Internet connection, issue the command:

               killall wvdial

If you prefer, you can use rp3 to establish and terminate the Internet connection. When you build the /etc/wvdial.conf file by using rp3-config, the file contains more sophisticated entries than those generated by wvdialconf. However, the simpler entries are sufficient to enable rp3 to establish an Internet connection.