Gnome PPP dial-up problems

[Jonathan <gardnerj pro-usa net>]

I'd like to wean myself away from as many kde apps as possible, but
I find I have to use kppp because the Gnome PPP utility dies as soon as
I try to dial. I get everything configured and then press connect and
I get a crashing sound and an error message. Any ideas what could be
causing this.

Also, While I use Netscape Mail for most of my email, since it only
allows one POP mail account, I have to use another utility here agin
kmail seems to fit the bill best, except when I want to click on link
and it brings up all the kde icons. I'd like to use Balsa, but that
doens't seem to be able to send via SMTP. It looks like the option is
there, but I cannot choose it. Is this just not usable yet?

Jonathan

PS I had thought that I needed to use the kde CD player, but just now
the Gnome CD player worked and in fact brought up the CDDB info that the
kde player seemed unable to.