2.1. Clients and Servers

PPP is strictly a peer to peer protocol; there is (technically) no difference between the machine that dials in and the machine that is dialed into. However, for clarity's sake, it is useful to think in terms of servers and clients.

When you dial into a site to establish a PPP connection, you are a client. The machine to which you connect is the server.

When you are setting up a Linux box to receive and handle dial-in PPP connections, you are setting up a PPP server.

Any Linux PC can be both a PPP server and client - even simultaneously if you have more than one serial port (and modem if necessary). As stated above, there is no real difference between clients and servers as far as PPP is concerned, once the connection is made.

This document refers to the machine that initiates the call (that dials in) as the CLIENT, whilst the machine that answers the telephone, checks the authentication of the dial in request (using user names, passwords and possibly other mechanisms) is referred to as the SERVER.

The use of PPP as a client to link one or more machines at a location into the Internet is, probably, the one in which most people are interested - that is using their Linux PC as a client.

The procedure described in this document will allow you to establish and automate your Internet connection.

This document will also give you guidance in setting up your Linux PC as a PPP server and in linking two LANs together (with full routing) using PPP (this is frequently characterized as establishing a WAN - wide area network - link).