Well not yet having a handle on Linux 
recursive searches with ls or grep as yet it 
took me some 30 minutes to find the script file
pppsetup in /usr/sbin and cp'ed it into /tmp
to look into the called configeration files
which I imagine I'll edit so ppp-on doesn't bomb
or require a disk.
BTW I _did_ find just invoking and exiting pppsetup
does indeed cause ppp-on to operate as desired with no
need to open the file just as I'd suspected.
Saw some interesting stuff in that script, understood about half of
it or a bit more right off.
Now using pico -w instead of the alias thinking it best to get a grip
on the real syntax before moving on.
tomorrow's another day and I'll try editing the required
files to bypass pppsetup entirely.
Heck I'll likely take a look at ppp-on, resolve, ect. before 
calling it a day today.
This ain't Bill Gates operating system, thank dog.
Takes a bit of effort but the rewards are great.
I mean here I am sitting on a 20 meg partition that with all the 
junk currently in /tmp shows 31 percent usage of that partition
and I can telnet, edit, write and edit files, receive e-mail, browse
and open JPG's off the local weather radar page already!!!
Another thing before lights out, I'm going looking for the 
modem init string and nuke the damn pulse dialing in favor of
DTDF. Can't stand hearing that darn relay snapping all the time
using ppp-on :-( 
Might turn the modem sound off while I'm at it too!
This is getting awfully addictive and I DO still have all my *nix
books from that short lived programming school effort :-)


 
--- MultiMail/PBellDOS v0.42