thanks for the respons to my question
however it has still not solved my problem
I belive the problem may lie in how earthlink.net is set up
in its freePPP environment
heres the layout
the actual NAMESERVER for earthlink.net is:
204.250.46.123
the NAMESERVER for MY end of earthlink is:
206.85.92.79 (ns2.earthlink.net)
the NAMESERVER (as would appear in irc is)
207.76.6.12 (max*.Houston.TX.MS.UU.NET)
as it turns out
i log on to UU.NET every day
NOT
earthlink.net
therefor my DOMAINNAME would be at UU.NET
however both my local host and UU.NET's connection are dynamic
mine would be 153.36.0.0
and UU.NETS 207.76.6.0
with the zeroes representing wildcards
* - wildcard also
I can reinstall ppp.setup.tgz till Im blue in the face but it still wont 
fix my connection problems
as listed in freePPP I conact a server named eln_thxrci
and my username is ELN/thxrci
of course how would unix like this
s/\$LOGIN/ELN/thxrci/g
it wouldnt
the / would screw the whole thing up
perhaps i CANT dial up earthlink.net from my netbsd1.2 host 
which incidentaly is
hobby.netbsd.org
Im starting to think earthlink.net has deliberatly formated itself so 
that freeppp is the ONLY way to dial up
? mabey thats it
I dont know
id appreciate any help and info for this problem im having
Im affraid ppp.setup.tgz cant help me now :(

Richard