Technical Notes On Dial-Up Networking

The Dial-up Networking client connects to a broad set of networks because support is included for IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, and TCP/IP network protocols, using PPP, NetWare Connect, or RAS for Windows NT or Windows for Workgroups over a modem, or SLIP over a modem to older UNIX networks.

Notes

Because the Microsoft Dial-Up adapter driver is primarily an NDIS 3.1 network driver, it is important to note which protocols are bound to the Dial-Up driver (PPPMAC.VXD). Different protocols, when used in combination with other Dial-Up Networking connection choices, affect which features you can use.

When Dial-Up Networking tries to establish a connection, it first tries to use PPP by default, because PPP provides more flexibility than other connection protocols. Unlike SLIP, PPP provides the following:

• A method for encapsulating datagrams over serial links, based on the ISO High-level Data-Link Control (HDLC) protocol.
• A Link Control Protocol (LCP) for establishing, configuring, authenticating, and testing the data-link connection.
• A family of Network Control Protocols for establishing and configuring different Network Layer protocols.

PPP is designed to work with a variety of hardware, including any asynchronous or synchronous, dedicated or dial-up, full-duplex bit-serial circuit. It can employ any common serial communications protocol, including EIA-232-E (formerly, RS-232-C), EIA-422, EIA423, EIA-530, and CCITT V.24 and V. 35. PPP does not place any particular restriction on the type of signaling, type of transmission speed, or use of modem control signals.