path: root/doc/kppp/global-settings.docbook

<chapter id="global-settings">
<title>Global &kppp; settings</title>

<para>The changes made here affect all accounts you have set up in &kppp;</para>

<sect1 id="global-accounts">
<title>The <guilabel>Accounts</guilabel> tab</title>

<screenshot>
<screeninfo>The <guilabel>Accounts</guilabel> tab</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="kppp-config.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>The <guilabel>Accounts</guilabel> tab</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The <guilabel>Accounts</guilabel> tab</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>

<para>In this dialog, you can manage the accounts themselves.  The names of the
accounts appear in a list on the left of the dialog.</para>

<para>To delete an account, select the <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> button.
You will be asked to confirm before the account is finally deleted.</para>

<para>You can make a copy of an account with the <guibutton>Copy</guibutton>
button.  You could use this for example, to separate different users in the
family, although that would normally be better done by having them be different
users in the OS as well!  Or perhaps you just have more than one account with
the same <acronym>ISP</acronym> and wish to use both of them.</para>

<para>Choosing <guibutton>Edit...</guibutton> will take you to the dialog
described in <link linkend="dialog-setup">Dialog Setup</link>, but with the
selected accounts details.</para>

<para>Choosing <guibutton>New...</guibutton> will offer you the choice between
the <link linkend="wizard">Wizard</link> or the <link
linkend="dialog-setup">Dialog Setup</link> already described.</para>

<para>If you select an account, and you have turned on <link
linkend="account-accounting">accounting</link> then the accumulated information
for that account will appear in the two panels labelled <guilabel>Phone
Costs:</guilabel> and <guilabel>Volume:</guilabel> respectively.</para>

<para>To the left of the accounting display, are two buttons:
<guibutton>Reset...</guibutton> and <guibutton>View Logs</guibutton>.</para>

<para>Pressing <guibutton>Reset...</guibutton> will reset the <guilabel>Phone
Costs:</guilabel> and <guilabel>Volume:</guilabel> information to 0.  You would
typically want to do this once a month or quarter, when you have received your
phone bill and reconciled the telephone costs. You can reset either
independently, and are offered the choice of which item you want to reset, when
you press the <guibutton>Reset</guibutton> button.</para>

<para>Pressing <guibutton>View Logs</guibutton> will open another window, where
a log of all the calls made with &kppp; will be displayed.  If you have kept
logs, you can move forward and backward, in monthly steps.  This might be useful
if you have received an abnormally large phone bill and are investigating
why!</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="global-device">
<title>The <guilabel>Device</guilabel> tab</title>

<screenshot>
<screeninfo>The <guilabel>Device</guilabel> tab</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="kppp-device-tab.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>The <guilabel>Device</guilabel> tab</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The <guilabel>Device</guilabel> tab</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>

<para>Here you can select and configure your modem.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Modem Device</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Choose the device appropriate for your hardware.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><filename>/dev/ttys0</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>DOS or &Windows; users will know this as COM1, while COM2 is
<filename>/dev/ttys1</filename> and so on.  These devices are
the ones normally used on &Linux; systems.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><filename>/dev/cua0</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>The first serial line (COM1).  COM2 is usually
<filename>/dev/cua1</filename> and so on.  These devices are commonly used on
BSD systems, namely FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.  Older &Linux; systems may also
have these, although on &Linux; they were renamed some time ago to <filename>/dev/ttyS<replaceable>x</replaceable></filename>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><filename>/dev/ttyI0</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>On &Linux; these belong to internal <acronym>ISDN</acronym> cards.  These
devices emulate a common Hayes compatible modem.
<filename>/dev/ttyI0</filename> is for the first,
<filename>/dev/ttyI1</filename> is for the second
<acronym>ISDN</acronym> card and so on. These devices are only available in the
&Linux; version.</para> 
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><filename class="symlink">/dev/modem</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>Many &Linux; distributions make a symbolic link from the real modem device
to <filename class="symlink">/dev/modem</filename>.  <emphasis>You should avoid
using this one.</emphasis>.  Use the real device that it is pointing to
instead.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Flow Control</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Select from Hardware (CRTSCTS), Software (XON/XOFF) and no flow control.
The recommended setting is Hardware flow control.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Line Termination</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Choose the correct <quote>Enter</quote> character sequence for your
modem.  Most modems will use <quote>CR/LF</quote>, however some modems need a
different setting.  If you experience trouble while running a login script, play
with this parameter.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Connection Speed</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>Choose from the list of connection speeds supported by your
serial port.  Note that the serial port supports much higher speeds than your
modem in most cases. You should probably start with the highest number
available, and only reduce it if you have connection problems.
</para></listitem> 
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term id="lock-files"><guilabel>Use Lock File</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Activate this option if you want &kppp; to create a lockfile. Under
&Linux; the folder for such a file will be <filename
class="directory">/var/lock</filename>.  Programs such as
<application>mgetty</application> depend on the existence of such lock files,
and &kppp; will not work with <application>mgetty</application> if the lock file
is not set.  Make sure that you don't use the option <option>lock</option> for
<application>pppd</application> if you want &kppp; to lock the modem, since the
<application>pppd</application> option <option>lock</option> will induce
<application>pppd</application> to try to lock the modem device.  Since &kppp;
will have already locked the device, <application>pppd</application> will fail,
and &kppp; will display the error <errorname>pppd died
unexpectedly</errorname>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Modem Timeout</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This is the time in seconds that &kppp; will wait for the
<returnvalue>CONNECT</returnvalue> response from your modem.  A setting of about
30 seconds should be sufficient for most purposes.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="global-modem">
<title>The <guilabel>Modem</guilabel> tab</title>

<screenshot>
<screeninfo>The <guilabel>Modem</guilabel> tab</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="kppp-modem-tab.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>The <guilabel>Modem</guilabel> tab</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The <guilabel>Modem</guilabel> tab</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Busy Wait</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This is the length of time the modem should wait before redialing, after
it has received a busy signal.  Note there are requirements by telecom providers
in some countries, which ask you to not set this too low.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Modem volume</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Use the slider to set the modem volume.  Left is low volume, center is
medium volume, and right is high volume.  On some modems, low volume is the same
as turning the volume off, and on other modems, medium and high are effectively
the same thing.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id="modem-commands">
<term><guibutton>Modem Commands</guibutton></term>
<listitem>
<para>In this dialog you can fill in any particular commands appropriate for
your modem.  If you own a Hayes compatible modem, you most likely won't need to
change any of the defaults, but you are encouraged to read the <link
linkend="appendix-hayes-commands">Hayes Commands</link> Appendix in this help file.  The
information supplied there can be very helpful in cases where you experience
trouble setting up a stable connection with your <acronym>ISP</acronym>'s
modems.  In particular the two settings for <guilabel>Pre-Init Delay</guilabel>
and for <guilabel>Post-Init Delay</guilabel> if you are experiencing modem
lockups.  These settings make &kppp; pause a little just before and just after
sending the initialization string to your modem.  The <guilabel>Pre-Init
Delay</guilabel> will by default also send a CR, unless you have set it the
delay interval to 0.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guibutton>Query Modem</guibutton></term>
<listitem>
<para>Pushing this button will make &kppp; ask your modem to identify itself.
On success, your modems response will be displayed in a dialog.  This may or may
not prove to be informative, depending on your modem.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guibutton>Terminal</guibutton></term>
<listitem>
<para>Pushing the <guibutton>Terminal</guibutton> button will bring up a mini
terminal. You can use the mini terminal to test your modem and to experiment
with the negotiation protocol for initializing a ppp connection with your
<acronym>ISP</acronym>.  You no longer need a terminal program such as
<application>minicom</application> or <application>Seyon</application>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="global-graph">
<title>The <guilabel>Graph</guilabel> tab</title>

<screenshot>
<screeninfo>The <guilabel>Graph</guilabel> tab</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="kppp-graph-tab.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>The <guilabel>Graph</guilabel> tab</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The <guilabel>graph</guilabel> tab</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>

<para>Here you can set the colors used by the &kppp; graph.  You can set
different colors for <guilabel>Background color</guilabel>, <guilabel>Text
color</guilabel>, <guilabel>Input bytes color</guilabel> and <guilabel>Output
bytes color</guilabel>.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="global-misc">
<title>The <guilabel>Misc</guilabel> tab</title>

<screenshot>
<screeninfo>The <guilabel>Misc.</guilabel> tab</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="kppp-misc-tab.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>The <guilabel>Misc.</guilabel> tab</phrase>
</textobject>
<caption><para>The <guilabel>Misc.</guilabel> tab</para>
</caption>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>

<para>Here are some options that don't really fit in with other sections, but
can be very useful nonetheless.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>pppd Version</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The version number of the pppd daemon on your system.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>pppd Timeout</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>&kppp; will wait this amount of time after running the script and starting
<application>pppd</application> for <application>pppd</application> to establish
a valid <acronym>ppp</acronym> link before giving up and killing
<application>pppd</application></para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Dock into Panel on Connect</guilabel></term>
<listitem>

<para>If this option is chosen, &kppp; will dock into the panel where it will be
symbolized by a small animated icon.  Use the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton>
mouse button on this icon to restore &kppp;'s window.  The
<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse button will open a popup menu that offers
to restore the window, show transfer statistics, or close the connection.  This
option overrides <guilabel>Minimize Window on Connect</guilabel>.</para>

</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Automatic Redial on Disconnect</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Selectintg this will have &kppp; try to reconnect if you are
disconnected.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Show Clock on Caption</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This will have &kppp; display the time connected on the caption of the
&kppp; window, while you are online.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Disconnect on X-server shutdown</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Checking this will cause &kppp; to terminate the <acronym>ppp</acronym>
link, disconnect the modem, and terminate accounting in an orderly fashion, when
the X-server shuts down.  This is useful if you are prone to forgetting you are
online, when you shut down the X-server, or if you simply don't want to worry
about manually disconnecting your session.  If you don't want &kppp; to hang up
the modem on X-server exit, you should leave this checkbox empty.  Beware that
if you have accounting enabled, and you leave this option turned off, you will
have an unterminated accounting entry in your logs, from each time the X-server
exits and &kppp; terminates.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Quit on Disconnect</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>If enabled, &kppp; will exit when you disconnect from the internet.  If disabled, &kppp; will stay open after disconnection.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Minimize Window on Connect</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>If this option is chosen, &kppp; will be minimized after a connection is
established.  The elapsed connection time will be shown in the taskbar.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="global-about">
<title>The <guilabel>About</guilabel> tab</title>

<para>The <guilabel>About</guilabel> tab shows version, license, and author
information about &kppp;.</para>

</sect1>

</chapter>