Ok, first I tried going into the ppp/options file and setting a debug level but that didn't put any more information into syslog. When I tried typing pppd debug I was told "the remote system is required to authenticate itself but I couldn't find a suitable secret password for it to do so. None of the available passwords would let it use an ip address." If this is talking about my password with ameritech.net, I checked what I have in pap-secrets and it's the one ameritech claims is my password, though it's not the one I tried to put it in the system so it must be a default one. Any more ideas? I do try to research things and read info and man pages, but if you tell me to do something it might be wise to tell me how to do it. Thanks. One thought: is the dsl system completely separate from the ppp/dialup system? If not, I was wondering if I could try accessing it through the access number by ppp to see if my user id and password really work. The interesting thing is that when I try sending email to my supposed new email address, I get it back as undeliverable. Maybe they don't activate your email until you actually log in for the first time? I don't know. Cheryl