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Sorry for the gap. 

It would appear that screen needs some extra settings to connect properly -- being a command-line utility means that much man page reading is required to work out what to set and how. And I didn't have the time or inclination. 

PuTTY on the other hand is graphical, and it's basic settings work out-of-the-box -- at least in this situation. 

• choose the 'Serial' category
• enter the 'Serial line to connect to'
• enter the speed (115200)
• click 'Open'

The terminal screen begins blank. Press enter and you'll get the terminal prompt... 

I was then able to reset the router. And, after setting the modem in bridge mode, I was connected! 
Well, I was connected enough to update the router's software. 
Now to work out how to configure the firewall... :) 

Many thanks again, marjohn56. 

Thank you again, marjohn56 

It's a Deciso OPNsense A10 Dual Core Desktop Gen2 DEC600: 
https://www.deciso.com/product-catalog/DEC600/ 

The above page links to Online Resources: 
https://www.deciso.com/resources-opnsense-a10/ 

Which in turn links to a Serial Console Access further details page: 
https://www.deciso.com/serial-console-access-boot-options/ 

I've attached the only documentation that comes in the box -- one side of A4. 

Thank you, marjohn56 

Some useful pointers there that I'm pursuing. 

Good to know about bridged mode. 

Now that you've pointed it out, it seems pretty obvious that the modem is doing the PPPoA side of things and passes it on as PPPoE to the router. Hence there's no PPPoA option in the router software. 

I'm still struggling to get console access. The machine comes pre-installed. Console access is via USB. All I get through GNU screen is a blank screen. But I can't be sure if I'm looking at the correct device on my Linux PC: 

Apologies if the following is a bit off-topic for the forum -- I'm running out of options

The device contains an integrated usb to serial converter.
The manufacturers recommend using GNU screen, with settings 115200 and 8N1.

When I connect the USB cable, dmesg (on Linux) shows:

[36720.632358] usb 7-2: new full-speed USB device number 3 using ohci-pci
    [36720.799398] usb 7-2: New USB device found, idVendor=04e2, idProduct=1410
    [36720.799407] usb 7-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
    [36720.801429] cdc_xr_usb_serial 7-2:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.

Code Select Expand

sudo screen /dev/bus/usb/007/003 115200,8N1
yields

[screen is terminating]

and I'm back to the prompt.

One line from ls -l /dev/tty* is

crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 266,  0 Sep  8 22:57 /dev/ttyXRUSB0

which, given the 'XR USB' part, looked promising.

Code Select Expand

sudo screen /dev/ttyXRUSB0 115200,8N1
gives me a blank screen and no output from the remote machine.

I have wondered if the username and password should be part of the initial screen command but, if this is possible, I can't understand how to do it from screen's man page.

Beyond that, I've run out of ideas.

Can somebody help an OPNsense absolute beginner who is tearing his hair out?

I have what I always assumed was a bog standard Internet connection: PPPoA with a username and password. 

I don't know what to set where. 
I worked my way through the Wizard. But there was nowhere for the username and password. 
I found an option for PPP (which I assume means PPPoA) in WAN settings and entered my username and password. 
There are places for IP addresses for things like gateway and DNS servers, but nothing makes it clear whether these options are for local or remote values. I've tried permutations all over the place but with no success. 

When I choose PPP there's a dropdown for country. So I chose Britain (UK). But the ISP list is for cellphone providers (!), so I'm not sure if PPP is correct.

I do have a fixed IP address, but I believe that is assigned by the ISP once my router has logged in. 

And now I think I've managed to delete something important -- I thought I was deleting an old WAN config, but it seems to have been the LAN config to allow web access, because now I can't connect to 192.168.1.1 !

My device -- Deciso OPNsense A10 Dual Core Desktop Gen2 DEC600 -- comes with a USB cable which "can be used to gain console access". But I have no idea what that means or how to use it.

Any help gratefully received. Thank you.