KB 178
iPass with Linux
Article:178 Created:2002-09-22 09:18:04 Categories: iPass
Question or Symptom
How does iPass work with Linux or other unix systems? One of our customers has had good experience with using iPass under Linux. Here's what he has to say about it. Note: this is not supported by iPass.
Resolution
(captured from email)
iPass under Linux works like a charm! None of the following is Linux specific; any Unix flavor will work that way. I tested two iPass access points in Albuquerque, and one in Phoenix.
City Phone number Login Name Albuquerque 505-514-0030 IPASS/robson@swcp.com Albuquerque 505-222-4980 IPASS/Probson@swcp.com Phoenix 480-212-0101 robson@swcp.com
Either robson@swcp.com or Probson@swcp.com work as login names (with the appropriate SWCP password). Both setup a PPP session. I used minicom to setup the connection manually. Once logged in, I used pppd on my end to establish the PPP connection. I tried ssh and netscape (Selecting "Direct connection to the Internet" in preferences). Note that the IPASS/cca/user@swcp.com in the earlier instructions is wrong. "cca" would only be there if it is in field 9 of pbook.txt.
The information needed to establish the connection is in the file
C:\Program Files\iPass\iPassConnect\pbook.txt
You need to install the iPass software on a Windows machine and get that file.
Logging in consists mostly of hitting the Enter key a number of times and answering the prompts. That is basically what the scripts "script?.scp" do (they are in the same directory as the pbook.txt file above). I tried one entry that uses "scripts.scp", which is more elaborate, and was not able to get in. PPP started, but aborted before I could use it. Attached is a Bash script that extracts most of the necessary information from pbook.txt to establish the PPP connection manually. Here is the output of one example:
#./iPassExtract albuq rolf
For Albuquerque, US use the following parameters:
Phone number: 505 514 0030
User ID: IPASS/robson@swcp.com
Password: Your SWCP password
Price: US $2.87/hr
Script: scriptq.scp
For Albuquerque, US use the following parameters:
Phone number: 505 222 4980
User ID: IPASS/robson@swcp.com
Password: Your SWCP password
Price: US $2.87/hr
Script: scriptu.scp
The scripts should not be hard to be converted into expect scripts. From there it would be a small step to a graphical user interface...
Also attached are my notes what the fields in pbook.txt mean (as far as I can tell).
Files are in:
C:\Program Files\iPass\iPassConnect
pbook.txt contains the access numbers and which script to use for each
destination.
script?.scp are the access scripts.
pbook.txt Format:
-----------------
Fields are separated by commas.
Field 1: Abbreviated country code: US for USA, CA for Canada, CH for
Switzerland, AT for Austria, DE for Germany, etc.
Field 2: a number
Field 3: City
Field 4: Area code
Field 5: Phone number
Field 6: a number
Field 7: Script to use: script[ehinqsu].scp or none
Field 8: User ID portion 1
Field 9: User ID portion 2
Field 10: Always empty
Field 11: Always empty
Field 12: Always empty
Field 13: Always 0
Field 14: Always 0
Field 15: Price in US$/hr
Field 16: Baud rate
Field 17: 0 = modem, 1 = Wireless?, or 2 = ISDN?
Field 18: empty, 0, or 1
Field 19: empty, or 0
Field 20: empty, or 0
Field 21: Always empty
Field 22: 0 = normal entry, or 1 = Hotel entry without a phone number
Field 23: Tech support phone number
Field 24: Always empty
Field 25: empty, 0, or 1 (70 entries)
Field 26: Some sort of ranking within city or area code
Field 27: BROADBAND or MODEM
Field 28: a number
Field 29: a bit pattern: 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x8, 0x80, or 0x100 (might encode
ISDN speed)
Field 30: "IT.1" for hotel entries
Field 31: empty or 2 for the hotel entries
Field 32: Hotel name
Field 33: empty or "HOTEL"
Field 34: Hotel address
Field 35: Always empty
