Setting up Linux for Dial-In

You can set up the same modem for dial-in use as well as dial-out use (only one operation is allowed at any one time, of course). Setting up a modem for dial-in use involves setting up a program that monitors the serial port for any incoming calls; this program provides the login prompt. You can use the mgetty program for this purpose.

Chapter 13 describes how to set up Red Hat Linux as a dial-in PPP server. That description also tells you how to set up the mgetty program for dial-in. You can learn more about setting up dial-in modems by reading the latest Modem-HOWTO at the URL http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO. You should also read the mgetty manual-just type kghostview /usr/share/doc/mgetty*/mgetty.ps in a terminal window from the GUI screen to read the PostScript manual that comes with the mgetty software distribution. If mgetty is not installed on your system, you'll find the mgetty RPM on one of the CD-ROMs (see Chapter 21 for information on how to install RPMs).