Generally pronounced as “weave dial”, WvDial is a Point to Point Protocol (PPP) utility that is used to manually connect to the ISP. The connection type would also be PPP based. The connection is made via a modem dialer. Like any other dialer, WvDial dials a modem and starts a PPPD in order to connect to the internet.
Supported by some Linux distributions, WvDial uses wvstreams library and works as follows:
. Once started, the dialer loads its configuration from /etc/wvdial.conf and ~/.wvdialrc. These files contain basic information about the port, speed and type of the modem etc in addition to information about the ISP used which include the access phone number, username and password required to establish the connection.
. Then the modem is initialized and dials the server and waits for an acknowledgement from the server.
. After connecting, wvdial starts ppp on seeing a ppp sequence from the server. If not, wvdial sends a request for establishing a ppp sequence to the server. If these fail, the connection is kept idle.
.wvdial can drop the connection by pressing ctrl-C in the terminal window.

Though a compromise needs to be made in certain areas like “chat”, WvDial makes up for more than that
by providing a list of advanced features. Some of these features include:
. Ability to stay at ease while the utility goes about the task of connecting to the internet. All that the user needs to do is provide the access telephone number, the username and the password.
. Provision to work with almost all the modems and log into most servers without any external help.
. No need to use “chat” to handle most common situations.