Masqdialer

The masqdialer system is designed to provide easily accessible control of multiple dialout modem connections to the members of a LAN using IP Masquerade for their internet connectivity. The server utilizes standard dialing tools to make the connection (such as pppd and chat) to make the connection so you can easily setup the server to use your existing scripts. The system is a client/server design, so as long as a client can be written for a particular platform, that platform can take advantage of masqdialer's offerings. The masqdialer daemon runs on the linux machine, and upon an authorized client request, carries out the user's request.

The perl daemon and the concept of the masqdialer system were created by Jeff Meininger of Boxy but good, however the project is now under the guidance of Charles P. Wright.

	Contents
	Downloads Debian Packages RedHat Packages Clients Documentation Development Roadmap User Feedback Helping the Project Alternatives

Downloads

The latest version of the masqdialer package can always be obtained from the download area (You can also obtain the releases via (ftp). The current stable release of the server is c-mserver-0.1.0. You can read about the changelog to find out about the recent developments.This software is beta, however there are no major bugs that I am aware of.

You can get the bleeding edge versions of the server through anonymous cvs. The CVSROOT variable is ":pserver:anoncvs@cvs.cpwright.com:/usr/share/cvsroot". The password for cvs login is "anoncvs", this should work for read access though you can not commit to the repository. You can access the repository through the world wide web through CVSWeb.

Debian Packages

You can get Debian packages for Debian 2.1 (previously code-named slink) and the current development version (currently code-named potato). They are maintained by Brian Bassett, and are available for all architectures supported by Debian. Debian 2.1 shipped with c-mserver-0.0.9 due to the long freeze cycle. However, the current version of mserver is in potato.

A version of the Debian package found in potato has been compiled against the libraries found in Debian 2.1. It is available by adding the following bit of apt-magic to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://www.debian.org/~brianb/masqdialer/ stable main

Please note that the Debian package mserver is a raw modem sharing server. masqdialer is the package that you want to download.

Redhat RPM Packages

If you run Redhat 5.x there are RPM packages available. They are maintained by Nick Clifford. Packages are available in either source or for the Intel i386 architecture. You can download them here.

If you would like to contribute RPMs for libc5 (Redhat 4.x), the Alpha, or Sparc I will gladly put them on this site.

	SuSE 6.x RPM Packages
	If you run SuSE 6.x there are RPM packages available. They are maintained by Oliver Kurth. Packages are available in either source or for the Intel i386 architecture. You can find more information or about these packages or download them from his site.

Clients


The communication protocol used by the masqdialer system is documented in the distribution (see the `PROTOCOL` file), making it easy to create custom client programs. Many people have contributed to this open source project by writing custom clients for various platforms and toolkits. If you have written a custom client of your own, please tell me so that we can provide a bit of information about your client, and link to your site in the list below.
	Java Client Java, a great cross-platform programming language, adapts well to solving this cross-platform problem. The java client has a simple, straightforward interface that makes using masqdialer easy. This one comes straight from boxy but good, the original authors of the masqdialer server, and has been extensively tested. "Java" is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
	muhClient This is an alternative Java Client made by Sven Ludwig, who has suffered through my idiocy of continually losing his URL and deleting his link. "Java" is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
	winMasqDialer Voytek Jarnot (vjarnot@mindspring.com) "not entirely happy with the current state of the Windows Masqdialer client (especially the fact that VB is the evil agent of the dark forces)" wrote this client in C++ Builder. It has user authentication and a system tray icon. Windows 95, Windows NT, and that little wavy logo thing are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.
	winMClient Peter G. Millard (millard@buffnet.net) wrote this very compact client with a nice GUI is written in Delphi 4. This client just needs a single executable, and not any of the Visual Basic or BC++ Builder bloat (VB is especially horrid). Windows 95, Windows NT, and that little wavy logo thing are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.
	Win95/NT Client I, Charles P. Wright (cpwright@cpwright.com), wrote the first Windows 95/NT client, this client should not be used and is not being maintained, try one of the other windows clients. Visual Basic 5.0 source is available, as well as an intel binary. If someone else wants to maintain this client please send me mail. Windows 95, Windows NT, Visual Basic, and that little wavy logo thing are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.
	Windows 3.1 Client Matthew Leigh has written a client for Windows 3.1 in Delphi. This is really nice since Windows 3.1 was essentially the only platform that has been left out so far and I have gotten inquiries. Delphi is a cool programming language by and also a Trademark of Inprise (formerly Borland).
	Command Line Client Charles P. Wright has written a command line client in C based on Kevin Lindsay's client. This client is much nicer than telnet and rather full featured. This client should work with most unices without additional libraries, if it doesn't work on your favorite flavor contact me and I'll make it work.
	Tcl/Tk Client Michael Voase (mvoase@midcoast.com.au) wrote this client in tcl/tk/expect. This one has some really cool features, such as displaying a fortune each time you use it, as well as audio alerts. Tcl/Tk and wish are probably trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc, but I'm not certain.
	Venezia (GTK+ Client) Vincent Le Prince (vincent.leprince@wanadoo.fr) wrote a GTK client! Venezia handles more than one mserver, has automatic management of locks, and more. GTK is an Open Source X toolkit that is used in the Gimp and GNOME.
	Gnome Client Timo Sirainen (a@sicom.fi) wrote a GNOME client! Check this one out, it has some really nice features such as a network load graph and also takes advantage of the features of the new servers. Gnome is an ultra-cool project who's goal is to bring a friendly, GPL'ed desktop environment based on Gtk+ to unix.
	Qt Client I (Charles P. Wright, cpwright@cpwright.com) have written a clone of the Windows 95/NT Masqdialer client in C++ and the Qt toolkit. This version has some advantages over the Windows client, yet some of the advanced featrues are not there yet. Qt is a trademark of Troll Tech AS.
	Python based CGI Client John Chia has integrated a Python client into his Intranet homepage. Besides the client he has interfaces to search engines, and a few other nice SSIs. Python is a scripting language with a BSD Style license.
	Macintosh Client Stuart Glenn has written a client for the Macintosh. This is really useful as it was one of the few platforms that there was no client for. This client is distributed in binary form and should work on PowerPC and 68k machines with 700K of RAM and ethernet. Macintosh is a TradeMark of Apple Computer.

Documentation

Frequently Asked Questions

This documentation applies to the latest 0.3.x server, most of it also applies to 0.1.0, but I am pushing for a new stable release so it is in a state of flux at the moment.

Development Roadmap

Version 1.0.0
- Ability for another client to cancel dials
- Stability, stability, stability
- Have someone else read every line of source code over (Volunteer)
Beyond version 1.0.0
- Config file preprocessing (includes,defines) and better parsing
- User time limits and time of day restrictions
- More remote server administration
- Create connection scripts on the fly
- Multiple Modem Support
- A way to capture the modem so that a client can dial out to BBSes and other stuff.

User Feedback

Just a note to register my appreciation of the excellent work you and the other contributors have done the masqdialer suite of utilites. This would have to be the one of the most heavily used applications on my home LAN - and the only Linux app that my Win32 users conciously use! --Sam Reid

Nice job on the masqdialer server btw, this something i've always wanted. Diald is such a b*tch. --John Chia

Thanks for a great util, being able to dial out my linux box without having to open a telnet session saves me an endless amount of hassle. --Aden Diedrichs

Keep up the good work - besides Samba, it's the most useful application on my hybrid Win95/Linux LAN ever! --George Georgakis

Oh and by the way, thanx for maintaining mserver. Its a deadly little app that is a really useful piece of software. My congratulations to you. Rewriting it in C turned the corner for mserver by making it easy on the resources as well. --Michael Voase

I will be ready to show this off to all of my friends running Win32 machines. Mserver rocks! --Joseph Martin

Alternatives

Diald is designed with a similar purpose, but takes a different approach, rather than having any human intervention involved in the dialing process it will listen for packets and then bring up the link for a specified amount of time.

Connect take a similar approach to that of the masqdialer in that it is client/server in nature, but it will bring the link up and down automatically based on whether there are any clients connected. With an autoconnecting client like the Windows or Qt clients the Masqdialer system can be used in the same manner.

AOMasq is a package that was created to add authentication to the masqdialer. It doesn't have as many features and the masqdialer system now has username/password authenticication.

Also, masqd is available from Jaume Miralles. It seems to be more of a firewall configuration tool than a modem dialer, however. Check it out.