Dialup internet is weird in 2015. As my ISP continues to experience periodic routing problems with their local dialin numbers, I thought I'd sign up for another ISP.

Before I did so, thought I'd check if this other ISP supported PAP authentication. So, I changed ppp to call their dialin number to check how it failed to connect.

But it didn't fail. Somehow, my old, currently broken ISP's login/password worked to authenticate with, and indeed got me online with working routing. Routing via an ISP I've not signed up for.

Seems I stumbled on two VISPs that use the same pool of POPs. http://globalpops.com/about_visp.html Probably also explains why the ISP with the routing problem is completely unable to debug it, since they're not running the gear at all.