I have two dialup ISPs, one of which is working.
The other has, until recently, had a major telco handling all the phone number, dialup and telecom details and supplying the network access servers. These NASs consulted the ISP's RADIUS server for authentication. The ISP has never had to deal directly with dialup, LCP, PAP or the many potential telecom gotchas.
Now the telco has dropped out of the deal. The ISP now offers an 844 toll-free number in Ontario for their dialup customers. Only it doesn't work for me (Linux) or for my wife (Win-XP).
The 844 number answers, the modem handshake completes and I get a connection. Then the server fails to respond in any way to LCP ConfReq packets. After 10 tries, my pppd client drops the connection. Fail.
Support at the ISP say, "Gee, it works for me. Must be your phone line."
Ha. My phone line works fine for the other dialup ISP, both Win and Linux. I get the banner text from the new server without funny chars. My USR modem diagnostics report no blers, no retrains, good SNR. Carrying a laptop to another phone line in 902-688-nnnn (instead of my 902-543-nnnn) exchange produces the same good connection with failure of LCP after the connection.
Is there any way this could be attributed to the various ways/options by which toll-free numbers are routed? Or other telco factors that I don't understand? (And that perhaps the ISP guys don't either?)
I'd welcome any suggestions that I can pass on to the ISP, either about getting the 844 number set up right for this purpose or about configuring the the server to which it connects.
Off-list email welcome if you have helpful wisdom of little interest to the general reader.
- Mike