Pi ISP

Run a Raspberry Pi as an old-school dial-up ISP for retro computers.

The goal of this repository is to create the simplest possible dial-up emulation setup, not to create a full ISP-like setup with a PBX and multiple phone lines. Just one retro computer 'dialing up' to the Internet through a Raspberry Pi.

For a more elaborate setup, check out Doge Microsystems Dial-up pool instructions.

Hardware Setup

I'm using the following hardware:

• Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5 (or equivalent) ($35)
• StarTech.com 56K USB Dial-up Modem ($45)
• Viking DLE-200B Two-Way Line Simulator ($120)

TODO: Add an image of the setup here.

There are other hardware configurations you can use for a Pi-based dial-up ISP, and other ways to emulate phone lines for a little less money, but these devices can be purchased new and work reliably.

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Software Setup

This project uses Ansible (pip install ansible).

To get started:

1. Copy example.hosts.yml to hosts.yml (change the hostname or IP to match your Pi).
2. Copy example.config.yml to config.yml and modify any settings to your liking.
3. Install Ansible dependencies: ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.security.

Run the Ansible Playbook

To set up the Pi as a local ISP, run the Ansible playbook.

ansible-playbook main.yml

Monitoring

When 'dialing' the Pi, observe the mgetty logs:

sudo journalctl -fu mgetty

See also

This project relies heavily on the research and guidance of other projects:

• Doge Microsystems Dial up server
• PPP Dialin Server

License

GPLv3

Author Information

This project was created in 2026 by Jeff Geerling.