Columbia University Kermit 95 Site-License Download

This page last updated: Thu Feb 18 15:31:45 2010

Kermit 95: Communications software for Windows by and for Columbia University, providing terminal-emulation shell access to our central Cunix servers and any other text-based host, service, or device. It emulates about 40 different terminals, supports a number of file-transfer protocols, can handle text in many languages and character sets, and is fully automatable. Released January 2003, K95 2.1.3 runs in a GUI (Graphical User Interface) window and includes a SSH v1/v2 client for secure connections. All Columbia University students, faculty, and staff may download Kermit 95 2.1.3 from this page.

DOWNLOAD AND SETUP

Installing Kermit 95 usually takes only a minute or two. If you already have K95 installed and wish to create a Cunix shortcut, start at step 5.

1. Click the button to download the K95 2.1.3 install package (approximately 11MB):

2. When the download is complete choose "Open". This starts the installation procedure.

3. Choose all defaults (click OK, Yes, and/or Next a bunch of times).

4. When done you might have to press F5 to refresh the desktop.

5. Now make a desktop shortcut for your Cunix SSH connection: Right-click on the following link and choose "Save as" (or "Save target as"):

   cunix-setup.ksc ← Right-click this link and choose Save

   Then when the Downloads window pops up, right-click on cunix-setup.ksc if necessary (it's not necessary in Internet Explorer) and choose Open. If a dialog pops up saying "A website wants to open web content using this program on your computer", click Allow. Answer the two questions (what is your UNI and how many lines do you want on the screen) and you will see a Cunix icon (Columbia crown) on your desktop. Any time you want to make a secure SSH connection to the Cunix shell, just double-click the icon.

To view the cunix-setup.ksc script instead of executing it, left-click on the link instead of right-clicking it. This is a Kermit script, executed by Kermit 95 itself. You can automate anything you can do by hand in Kermit; you can find more information about this in the Kermit Script Library.

If you'd like to read a tutorial on Kermit 95, CLICK HERE.

If you have questions or problems, see the Kermit 95 Frequently Asked Questions page or send email to: kermit-support@columbia.edu.

CONTENTS

• Introduction
  
• Documentation
  
• If you have problems or questions
• Explanation of Cunix setup

Introduction

Kermit 95 is Columbia University's own secure communications software for Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 on Intel and compatible PC platforms, supporting both serial connections (dialed or direct) and network connections (SSH, Telnet, FTP, and Rlogin), and offering terminal emulation, file transfer, and international character-set translation, plus the ability to automate any procedures that can be done by hand using its built-in scripting language, which is compatible with that of C-Kermit and MS-DOS Kermit. The major new features of version 2.0 are its GUI features, SSH client, and FTP client,

You can use Kermit 95 to access shell (text-based) accounts such as those on our Cunix servers for email (with Pine, MM), text editing (with EMACS, Pico, VI, EDT, Xedit), programming (in C, C++, Java, Perl, LISP, Fortran, shell, Kermit, or other languages), typesetting (with TeX, LaTeX, Scribe, Troff), data analysis (with SAS, SPSS, Minitab, S-Plus, Stata), or any other text-based activity. Kermit 95 can access these and other resources via:

• SSH from your dorm room or office to the Cunix or departmental servers.
• Ditto from outside, but over a Dialup Networking or DSL connection.
• Dialing out to external text-based shell accounts or services if you have a modem and an analog phone line.

While accessing these hosts and services, K95 automatically highlights URLs so you can conveniently Ctrl-Click them to activate them in your Web browser.

Kermit 95 is a product of Columbia University's Kermit Project. Of course all students, faculty, and staff of Columbia University are licensed to use it. This web page allows you to download Kermit 95 to any computer on the Columbia network, including the Morningside Campus, the Health Sciences Campus, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Barnard College, and Teachers College.

For file transfer, Kermit 95 works in conjunction with C-Kermit, which is available on our Unix servers (Cunix) as "kermit", and should also be available on most departmental Unix and VMS systems (and if not, may be downloaded from the Kermit website and installed).

The Kermit 95 software that you download from this page is preregistered and preconfigured for Columbia University. You may not furnish copies of it to people who are not students, faculty, or staff of Columbia, TC, or Barnard, nor may you place it on any server that is publicly accessible from outside Columbia, or redistribute in any other fashion to non-Columbia entities.

[ READ THE K95 TUTORIAL ]

Documentation

Kermit 95 documentation consists of:

• The Kermit 95 online manual . . . Once you have installed Kermit 95, you can access the Kermit 95 manual from its desktop shortcut, from the K95 Help menu, or by typing "manual" at the K-95> prompt.

• The book Using C-Kermit (Second Edition).
• The C-Kermit 7.0 Manual Supplement
• The C-Kermit 8.0 Manual Supplement

You can also find the supplements in the DOCS subdirectory of the directory where the K95 executable is. And of course there is lots more information on the website; follow the links from the main Kermit 95 page.

If you have problems or questions . . .

Send email to:

• kermit-support@columbia.edu

Also see:

• The Kermit 95 FAQ
• The Kermit Project Home Page
• The Kermit 95 Home Page

Explanation of Cunix Setup

Since Kermit 95 2.1.3 was released in 2003, Columbia University has:

1. Discontinued Telnet access to the central servers, clear-text (insecure) Telnet as well as Telnet secured by Kerberos IV, Kerberos V, or SSL (all of these are supported by Kermit 95).
2. Discontinued FTP access to the central servers, except for clear-text anonymous FTP (Kermit 95 includes an FTP client that supports Kerberos as well as SSL security, but of course it can do insecure clear-text FTP too).
3. Discontinued direct dialup access to the central servers. The only dialup access allowed now is via PPP ("dialup networking"). Previously, K95 could be used to dial directly into shell sessions on the Cunix or other hosts, so that central services could be accessed from terminals or from older personal computers.
4. Discontued numerous familiar applications on Cunix, notably netnews.
5. Retired the academic IBM mainframe, CUVMB, which was accessible by K95 through terminal servers or Unix hosts with tn3270.
6. Retired text-based CLIO, the library information system.
7. Removed support for Kermit 95's default terminal emulation, VT320.
8. Installed new SSH servers that no longer support Kermit 95's default method of SSH compression.

But let no one say that Kermit 95 is not adaptable! To use Kermit 95 on Cunix now, one would have to:

1. Make an SSH connection instead of a Telnet or dialup connection (those dialing from outside would first make a dialup networking connection to Columbia, and then make SSH connections with K95).
2. Tell Kermit 95 to SET SSH COMPRESSION OFF. The new SSH server on Cunix uses a different form of compression than the previous SSH server.
3. Tell Kermit 95 to SET TERMINAL TYPE VT220. Kermit's default terminal type is VT320, which was supported everywhere until a few years ago. If VT220 disappears, then try VT102. If VT102 doesn't work, try VT100.
4. You should also change Kermit 95's character set from LATIN1 to CP1252, to avoid having your session hung when viewing text originating from Microsoft Windows (CLICK HERE for a discussion).

All these adaptations are now done for you in the Cunix.ksc shortcut that you created with the Cunix setup script.

If you are also going to be using the Dialer, you should make sure to uncheck "SSH Compression" in the SSH page for any SSH connections, such as the preconfigured Cunix entry (right click on it, choose SSH, uncheck the SSH Compression box, click OK). However, you should be aware that the Dialer is completely unnecessary. All it does is define connections for Kermit 95, in exactly the same way as the Cunix-setup script does, except in a GUI interface and with a lot of detail that is not important any more in most cases. Anything that the Dialer can do, K95 can do on its own.

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Kermit 95 2.1 Site License / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / 2003-2010 / validate