End of my rope with PPP

I'm about to give up and install Win98 on a machine
I'm preparing for my non-computer-literate son.
I just can't get PPP dial-in to work, and they keep
asking if I'll ever be done.

I am a full time Unix weenie, and I enjoy doing my
own hacking on Linux, but I'm equipped for it. I know
a "product" when I see one, and this is not one. It
makes me sad, but dialup networking is the main use
they want to make of this thing, and they don't want to
hack root each time they dial in.

Linux definitely has a way to go as far as the
casual desktop user is concerned. RP3 blows up on
me -- segment violation. If they don't know how
to use pointers, they shouldn't let the package
out the door. (Where's the source to rp3, anyway?
Maybe I could fix it ... in my cultural time.)
So I went the KDE route and it connected, but
hung up immediately. Very Redmondian behavior.

This is a new RH 7.0 system and I have not yet
succeeded in dialing into the ISP (Inficad) with
PPP. I did dial in successfully to a shell prompt
via minicom. (Yes, I do have the right number,
though their incorrect web page did waste
one evening of my time.)

Originally, when I set this up, I was able to
get it to dial (endlessly) but I had an obsolete
number and it never answered. At that time, I
had to go in and kill wvdial to stop the dialing.
Then new wvdial instances kept popping up so I
killed ppp as well. After that I had the
machine shut down for a while.

Coming back later, I configured the correct
phone number and tried again, after confirming
it via minicom. This time rp3 "Failed to
activate interface". When I tried again, rp3
reported a segmentation error.

Where are all those wizards Eric Raymond is always
talking about? Any diagnostic advice will be greatly
appreciated! Some specific info is appended to this
message, regarding my rp3 attempts. If I can't get it
done this coming weekend, I will allow this machine to
be assimilated -- not my machine, not my decision.

Thanks,

Vic

-------------------------------

I don't know what version information would be helpful,
and don't know how to obtain it.
uname -a returns 2.2.16-22.
I think I have rp3 1.1.4. "strings rp3" returns that value,
and also /lib/ld-linux.so.2; libgnomeui.so.32;
libc.so.6; GLIBC_2.0, 2.1.3 and 2.1;

At the end of system startup, /var/log/messages shows these messages:
ifup-ppp: pppd 2.3.1.1 started for ppp0 on /dev/ttyS0 at 115200
kernel: registered device ppp0 <<<=== redundant with ppp1 below?
pppd[1002]: pppd 2.3.11 started by root, uid 0
pppd[1002]: Using interface ppp0
pppd[1002]: local IP address 10.64.64.64
pppd[1002]: remote IP address 10.112.112.112

Red Hat Dialer showed a progress bar for a couple of seconds
with the message "waiting to connect". Then it puts up
a message box, "Failed to activate interface".

I clicked the "connect" button again, it shows the progress
bar for a few seconds, then puts up an Error dialogue:

Application "rp3" (process 958) has crashed
due to a fatal error (Segmentation fault)

/var/log/messages shows these messages:
ifup-ppp: pppd started for ppp0 on /dev/ttyS0 at 115200
pppd[7557]: pppd 2.3.1.1 started by root, uid 0
kernel: registered device ppp1
pppd[7557]: Using interface ppp1 <<<=== redundant with ppp0 above?
pppd[7557]: local IP address 10.64.64.65
pppd[7557]: remote IP address 10.112.112.113 <<< was 112 above.