There are many types of Internet connections: this section explains how to connect to a provider using a modem over a telephone line using the PPP protocol, a very common setup. In order to have a working connection, the following steps must be done:

Get the necessary information from the provider.

Edit the file /etc/resolv.conf and check /etc/nsswitch.conf.

Create the directories /etc/ppp and /etc/ppp/peers if they don't exist.

Create the connection script, the chat file and the pppd options file.

Created the user-password authentication file.

Judging from the previous list it looks like a complicated procedure that requires a lot of work. Actually, the single steps are very easy: it's just a matter of modifying, creating or simply checking some small text files. In the following example it will be assumed that the modem is connected to the second serial port /dev/tty01 (COM2 in DOS.)

Besides external modems connected to COM ports (using /dev/tty0[012] on i386, /dev/tty[ab] on sparc, ...) modems on USB (/dev/ttyU*) and pcmcia/cardbus (/dev/tty0[012]) can be used.

NetBSD プロジェクトについて

FreeBSD Advanced Installation Guide