Connect README

by Stuart Rackham
<srackham@methods.co.nz>

IMPORTANT

For the latest updates and online documentation see the connect home page at http://www.methods.co.nz/connect

I don't consider Connect a production release. I've been using it day-in day-out for over two years on production servers for dialup Internet access but it has major drawbacks:

Installation and configuration has a hefty learning curve and relies on detailed pppd(8), chat(8) and daemon management knowledge.
It only runs on Linux with SysV startup. I'm working on a FreeBSD port, the current version compiles under FreeBSD 4.7 but has not yet been tested).
The one connection per command protocol is dumb, needs multiplexed server with persistant connections.

This year (2003) I plan to take it to a 1.0 release: - Will run under both Linux and FreeBSD. - Installation will include a lot more hand holding. - The messy server protocol and implementation will be redesigned.

Status

Connect 0.5.2 has been compiled and tested using GNU gcc 2.96 i386-redhat-linux under Redhat 7.3 using pppd version 2.4.1.

Requisites

Connect is currently distributed as a source code tarball and you need the following applications installed to compile, install and run connect: - GNU gcc compiler. - A-A-P, a portable super make application created by Braam Moolenaar (the creator of the Vim editor). You can find out more about A-A-P and download it from http://www.a-a-p.org.

Installation

Installation and configuration instructions can be found in the Installation and Configuration section of the documentation (see connect.html or connect.txt).

Other Platforms

See the IMPORTANT section at the start of this document.

Before trying to compile and install on other platforms: - Review the distribution A-A-P main.aap "make" file for installed file locations. - Review the distribution connect-classes.h file for OS location dependencies.