Networking :: dialup needs manual gateway added

I've been using the same ppp setup in DSL for a couple of years, so it didn't come to mind until today when I started from scratch and configured ppp again.

I have a lucent winmodem that is automatically detected by DSL and linked to /dev/modem. The ppp setup goes smoothly, and it connects to the ISP after using the ppp configuration tool. But there seems to be a necessary part missing. My default gateway has never been adjusted automatically (maybe because I have a local network set up through eth0?), so I need to add this to ip.up:
route add default gateway $PPP_LOCAL device ppp0

Without that command, there is no internet connection and the connection to the ISP times out after a few minutes.

Am I missing something that can be configured with the ppp gui?

original here.