I hope that this is a case of 'so near, but yet so far'.

In my quest to banish type 5 errors and singletasking from my machine, I
am trying to configure netbsd to dialup and connect using pppd to
compulink. I used various sources of information to add appropriate
nameservers to resolv.conf, and create a chat script etc.

When I initiate the connection, 'pppd call compulink', The chat script
logs me in OK, and pppd regains control, and states (looking at the debug
output) 'local IP 197.153.7.54' on one line, followed by 'remote IP
194.153.0.x' where x varies from call to call. This all seems sensible. 
There is a 'defaultroute and a '197.153.7.54:' in
/etc/ppp/peers/compulink, by the way. The problem is that nothing happens
next.

The most communication I've had with the outside world is a successful
ping to the remote IP. This remained silent for over a minute before doing
anything, and then successfully returned every packet. Trying to ping
anywhere else (ie the nameserver!) gives packet loss 100%. pppd isn't
giving any errors, and exits fine when killed.

I hope that someone will know what it is that's missing/wrong in my
setup - it must be something pretty basic in order to not be able to get
as far as the nameserver, surely!

Cheers,

Bill