Alternative pppd for Darwin - OSX



You find here a pppd for Darwin, which is meant to replace the pppd Apple delivers with osx 10.3.X. Tested with 10.3.5 and 10.3.6.
The difference:
If you have problems connecting with the built in VPN client to your VPN device at home using your notebook and GSM or GPRS maybe give this file a try.
This pppd is tested against the Draytek router family.
Short installation manual:
- download the file.
- unpack the archive, there should be one file inside called pppd
- open a terminal
- type: sudo chmod a+x (drag the file into the terminal window ), press enter, authenticate with your password
- type: sudo chown root:wheel (drag the file into the terminal window ), press enter
- type: sudo mv /usr/sbin/pppd /usr/sbin/pppd.apple
- type: sudo mv (drag the file into the terminal window ) /usr/sbin - close the terminal window

Try out if your problems have been gone.

What I did change:
Sometimes, or better most of the time in my case, the challenge response from the VPN server arrives too late, this maybe is a fault of the GPRS network or the Draytek router or Apples pppd. OSX then generates a new challenge. Later, the answer of the VPN router arrives. But it is now compared to the new challenge. Of course this does not match and the connection is terminated.
An error will be logged - mutual authentication failed.
This patched pppd does not generate a second challenge. Use at your own risk. In case you want to undo the changes, do a:
sudo mv /usr/sbin/pppd /usr/sbin/pppd.deactiaved
sudo mv /usr/sbin/pppd.apple /usr/sbin/pppd

Note, the size of the new pppd is much bigger, because its a build with debug symbols included. The actual changes in the source are 3 lines.