In Debian do I have to be root to connect to the internet?

[BK1]

I have done pppconfig and can connect and surf the web as root. I would definitely prefer not to. I did find one way. While in X, I pressed Ctrl, Alt F2 to get to the virtual console and typed PON (ISP) and connected. Then I pressed Ctrl, Alt F6 ( I believe) to get back to X, as the non-root user and surfed the web. I downloaded Mozilla Milestone18 into my users home directory. So though I connected as root, I surfed as the non-root user. Is there an easier way?
Thanks,

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The Hills of Defeat are covered with the bleached bones of those, who with victory in sight, paused to rest. Hurry up everytime you think about it.

[Boris]

I don't know Debian directly, but at least in SuSE (which I think is pretty similar) that when you run the YaST, which is a front-end for a lot of system administration utilities, there is an entry under 'users' that allows you to choose whether to allow them access to a modem. However, no, surfing as root is a -bad- thing, and I have at least heard that many ISP's look down on this......fervently.....

Maybe someone else will have a more direct answer, though. Good luck!

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--"Forget the Beaver. The -Penguin- is a noble and proud animal...err...mascot!"--

[pipe]

To allow a user to use the modem with the 'pon' and 'poff' commands you have to add the user to the 'dip' group like this:

adduser BK1 dip

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