Q: I dial up with kppp, and pppd dies on the first try every time. Then when I try again, it usually works fine. The error code I get is like "pppd died unexpectedly, error 17". How do I get it to connect first time, every time? - JD

A: I unchecked lock file, set the modem wait to 120s, the pppd wait to 60s, and the connection speed to 38400 (since I have a 28800 modem); and that may be working. And, trying different access numbers, if you have them, may help.

A: From man pppd : "error 17 - The PPP negotiation failed because serial loopback was detected."