Actually, I think the big reason might be the "/" that needs to go into your user name. Try quoting it: ELN\/xxxxx Also, if you haven't done so already, put a -v in the chat command line, and add an entry to your /etc/syslogd.conf to enable local2: local2.* /dev/console Then watch the console output to see why you're failing to log in to your ppp server.