ppp problem

I'm getting "Failed to connect to server pop3.ontera.net" trying to use 
my dial-up account from knoppix 3.4 (hard-disk install). What did I 
change before the problem started? Well, I tried to configure eth0. What 
that has to do with the dial-up device I can't imagine. The  server is 
fine -- I'm emailing from my account from another machine.

At one point it was reported that another pppd process was running. I 
did kill -9 [PID} on several pppd processes.

At another point I got

PPP Log
/var/log/syslog.ppp
/var/log/sylog
/var/log/messages

I'm connected but the server connection fails (whatever the difference 
is) -- by my email browser or webmail -- so it really does seem to be 
the server -- but it's not as I am able to access it from my other machine.

Chris