AWeb Problem Solutions

Additional Info &
Problem Solutions

April 15, 1997

FAQ - AmiTCP, hints for PPP setup.

Problem: how do I setup AmiTCP for a PPP web connection?

This is a sample of PPP setup using the AmiTCP 4.0 demo and Holger Kruse's PPP device after the basic install and some further adjustments.

There are a few corrections that need to be made, most are shown in the PPP docs somewhere about using it with AmiTCP, but try the following.

NOTE: comments in parenthesis below should not be included.

In your "AmiTCP:db/interfaces" file, insert the following line after the "Serial Line IP" comment line:

ppp0 DEV=DEVS:networks/ppp.device UNIT=0 IPTYPE=33 NOARP P2P

In your "AmiTCP:bin/startnet" script it should look something like this:

.key dparm
; startnet log in
echo
echo login: userid   (userid=your AmiTCP logon ID)
AmiTCP:bin/login -f userid   (userid=your AmiTCP logon ID)
AmiTCP:bin/umask 022
AmiTCP:AmiTCP
WaitForPort AMITCP
AmiTCP:bin/online devs:Networks/ppp.device 0
; Configure loop-back device
AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig lo0 localhost
; Configure ppp0
AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig ppp0 $ppp0iplocal $ppp0ipremote
; Add route to this host
AmiTCP:bin/route add $ppp0iplocal localhost
AmiTCP:bin/route add default $ppp0ipremote
; Add route to the default gateway
AmiTCP:bin/route add default 0.0.0.0
setenv HOSTNAME `AmiTCP:bin/hostname`
Assign TCP: Exists > NIL:
IF Warn
  Mount TCP: from AmiTCP:devs/Inet-Mountlist
EndIf

The 0.0.0.0 parameter above is for dynamic IP address, if your ISP requires fixed addresses, replace this with the gateway address assigned to you.

In your "AmiTCP:bin/stopnet" script it should look something like this:

.Key dparm
; $Id: stopnet,v 3.1 1994/05/27 07:08:39 jraja Exp $

rx "address AMITCP; KILL" ; Send "KILL" to AmiTCP

If {FLUSH}
   Wait 2 secs
   If `rx "Say Show(ports, AMITCP)"` EQ 0
      Avail >NIL: FLUSH
   EndIf
EndIf
AmiTCP:bin/offline ppp.device 0

In "ENV:" and "ENVARC:SANA2/ppp0.config" it should look something like this:

serial.device 0 57600 0.0.0.0 7WIRE CD EXERCISE=60 MTU=1500 SHARED DIALSCRIPT=s:yourscript.dial ATH

The 0.0.0.0 parameter above is for dynamic IP address, if your ISP requires fixed addresses, replace this with the localhost address assigned to you.

The "s:yourscript.dial" will be something like this:

ECHO ON
TIMEOUT 2000
REDIAL "BUSY"
SEND "ATDTnnnnnnn"  (ISP's phone #)
WAIT "CONNECT"
WAIT "ogin"
SEND "yourID"       (ISP's login ID)
WAIT "assword"
SEND "yourpassword" (ISP's login password)
WAIT "MTU"

You may not need the MTU parameter in the dialscript. This will work if your ISP supports dynamic packet size selected by the server, in which case, set MTU=0 in the ppp0.config file shown above.

The nameserver IP address(s) and domain name provided by your ISP should also appear in your "AmiTCP:db/resolv.conf" file similar to the following:

; Name servers
NAMESERVER 198.161.84.2
NAMESERVER 198.161.84.3
; Domain names
DOMAIN worldgate.com

FAQ - Cache / Cookies / Authorizations

Problem: some images do not display or page reloads are incomplete, and/or Authorizations don't work attempting to login to a protected site.

If you have set the cache to "T:" or "Ram:T" in cache settings, this can cause some strange results. AWeb uses a "Disk" based caching system with v2.1, and uses the "Ram:T" directory to temporarily store images/pages viewed in the current session for quick re-display. You can not mix these two together without causing problems.

Create a "Cache" directory in the AWeb-II drawer if it was not done during the install, and set the path name in cache settings to "AWeb-II:Cache" or "PROGDIR:Cache" and reboot before running AWeb again.

If hard drive space is limited, you can set the amount of space allowed in the Cache settings window and enter URL's of sites not to cache in the list provided there. You can also use the cache menu to flush the disk cache or the cache browser to delete specific entries at any time. Running FixCache from the menu occasionally will help keep things cleaned up as well.

Problem: attempting to access a certain URL (web site) causes a lockup or possibly even a crash.

A few web pages now appear to be using some type of cookie that AWeb does not like. After rebooting, run the "Fixcache" routine from the cache menu and turn "Use cookies" off in the "Network settings/Options" window before attempting to access that web page again.

Problem: certain sites require authorizations or logins, but will not let you in after the first successful access, and may cause a crash.

Assuming you have a directory called "Cache" in the AWeb-II drawer and the path in cache settings set to "PROGDIR:Cache/", "AWeb-II:Cache", or some other location on your hard drive, you may have invalid/damaged files in cache or an incompatible cookie/authorization file. Netscape server software now appears to be using some cookie files that contain encrypted passwords which are not acceptable by AWeb.

First, reboot to clear file locks and delete the contents of the cache directory from a shell or dir utility without using AWeb. Start AWeb and run "Fixcache" from the menu, then check with the cache browser to be sure that no entries appear in the window. If it is not empty, repeat this process and check again.

Then, in the cache settings window, enter this site in the list of ones not to cache (ie. www.nytimes.com). Otherwise you will wind up with a lot of pages in there if you visit the site often, and it will avoid saving some of their authorization files that seem to be troublesome.

When you next login, do not allow it to save both the ID & Password on your machine, there is something about their cookie files that AWeb does not like. Also, do not save the authorization in AWeb, although this may work, but caused us trouble getting back in originally. That will mean you have to login every time, but at least that seems to work.

If the site is somewhat slow at processing the login, it may return an error on the login, but re-displaying the main page and then clicking on the map again got us into the system.

NOTE: a crash caused by a datatype problem during loading of a page from the cache may cause problems similar to the above. If running the "Fixcache" routine from the menu does not solve the problem, you may need to clear the cache completely using the process described above.

FAQ - ClassAct

Problem: error message about a .gadget or .bitmap file, or ClassAct functions such as the Settings screen not working correctly.

During the install of AWeb, our installer won't over-write a ClassAct file if you have a higher version number file. We've found quite a few files that have a higher version number, but which are older than the ones we use. We don't know if these were beta versions, hacked versions, or whatever, but some of them don't work with AWeb.

We recommend you install the ones that came with AWeb, as we know those work properly.

Here's how to install the ClassAct files manually, forcing an overwrite.

Unpack the update archive or the ClassAct.lha file from disk #2.
Open a shell
CD to the directory that you unpacked the archive into.
Type the following commands:
```
    copy all classes/#? sys:classes
```
If you have a 68020 or higher processor, type the following:
```
    copy classes/gadgets/layout.gadget.020 sys:classes/gadgets/layout.gadget
```
NOTE: do not install the 020 version of this file on a 68000 system, this will cause AWeb to crash on startup.
Type the following:
```
    delete sys:classes/gadgets/layout.gadget.020
```
Then do a reboot and test out AWeb.

NOTE: if an older ClassAct gadget is in a different location in your path, (such as in "Libs:" or "Sys:Classes"), then it may be used instead of the correct ones (in "Sys:Classes/Gadgets"). If you still experience problems, check "Libs:" and "Sys:Classes" for .gadget files.

If there are files in these directories that are also in the "Sys:Classes/Gadgets" directory, delete them so the correct gadgets in "Sys:Classes/Gadgets" are used.

Also, insure that your "S:Startup-Sequence" file contains the following statement, usually found with the other system assigns near the top of the file:

    ASSIGN >NIL: LIBS: SYS:Classes ADD

If that is missing, you will likely get an error message stating that "window.class" is missing or not found, and AWeb will not run.

FAQ - Datatypes

Problem: I installed a new datatype(s) and now images do not display!

If you have installed new datatypes, there may be a conflict between old datatypes and new ones. The install for many of the new ones does not check to see if you have existing datatypes of the same type installed, and as with the Immortals, "There can be only One"!

Run MultiView from the workbench to see if it will display images of the type causing problems, to check this out. Verify the datatypes installed as follows:

The "xxxx.datatype" files go in the "Sys:Classes/Datatypes" directory. There can be more than one of these of the same type, as long as they have different names. (ie. JPEG.datatype, JFIF.datatype, and the akJFIF.datatype are all JPEG datatypes)
The "xxxx" and "xxxx.info" files go in the "Sys:Devs/DataTypes" drawer. There can be only one of these for each image type in this drawer at the same time. Existing/old ones should be deleted or moved to the "Sys:Storage/DataTypes" drawer when new ones are installed. The Default Tool in the "xxxx.icon" must have "AddDataTypes" in it to activate the datatype at bootup. Use the Information item in the Icons menu to check this and note that there can be only one of these for each image type.
Some datatypes also have a Prefs program and icon that is installed in the "Sys:Prefs" drawer. Some of these (such as the JFIF datatype) may require configuration before they will work correctly, but most do not. See the docs for the datatype and AWeb's docs for info on this.
Certain datatypes may also require a temporary "work" directory to use when decoding. This may be on disk or in ram, check the docs to see.

Several other items which may cause problems are:

The Startup-Sequence should contain the following statement, usually found just before the section which runs the IPrefs program.
```
    C:AddDataTypes REFRESH QUIET
```
If these are new datatypes other than IFF/ILBM, JPEG, or GIF, you may need to add MIME type entries for them in the "Browser settings/Viewers" window in AWeb. There is another FAQ for mime types.
If you are using Cybergraphics software and the v43 24bit datatype, the previous versions of this datatype had an expiry date. There is a separate FAQ for this problem.
Needless to say, image loading must be turned on in AWeb, and enough chip ram must be available for decoding and display of them. Pages and images previously viewed in the current session are kept in ram as well as the disk cache for rapid re-display, and automatically flushed only when chip ram gets below a certain point, depending on your parameters in the "Network settings/Cache" window. In certain cases, if the new pages memory requirements exceed the available free ram, it may be necessary to flush non-displayed images from memory using the Cache menu, to free more ram, then reload the page.
Some older datatypes do not handle certain types of images, such as progressive display or transparent backgrounds properly, and may fail to display the image and/or produce an error message or even a crash. This can be tested by saving the image and attempting to display it with MultView from the workbench. Get the updates from our web site.
Datatypes can not currently display animated gifs or display images progressively, therefore these can not be viewed as such with AWeb, but the newer datatypes will generally show the last complete frame.
Problems with image color quality are addressed in another FAQ.
If you are using the standard WB3.x picuture.datatype, you may also want to update that file with the v42.1 file found in the "ams.lha" datatypes archive available from Aminet or our AWeb home page.
NOTE: there are some other versions of the picture.datatype besides the ones noted above, which were provided with other software. These may not work correctly under all circumstances, and should be replaced with v42.1, or v43 if you are using Cybergraphics. One such example came with software for the Merlin graphics board and will cause a crash on exit from AWeb.

FAQ - Fonts

Problem: fonts display boxes in some characters, there aren't any spaces between characters, or text of the fonts overlaps.

If text "runs together" it could be a problem with your font definition (.font) files. This could also explain the blank spaces being black blocks.

The easiest way to fix this is to delete the .font file for the font that gives you problems, then run FixFonts

For example, if "Times" was giving you these problems, you could type the following from a shell:

    delete fonts:times.font
    fixfonts

NOTE: do not delete the "Times" subdirectory in Fonts, or you will loose the fonts themselves, only the "times.font" file in the "Fonts" directory.

Problem: fonts are blocky. AWeb didn't do this with version 2.0

The fonts preferences have changed significantly between version 2.0 and 2.1, mainly to add support for the Internet Explorer <font> tag. Because specifying each font and size for each tag would result in an extremely large number of fonts you have to set up, there's a system for specifying a point size for each <size> size, and also specifying a font <size> and + and - point size for each font "style" For some combinations, you may not have the exact size installed on your system, so it has to scale an existing font.

These fonts preferences are in the browser settings "Fonts" and "Styles" file folder tabs.

Since the "Styles" by default only have point size modifications for the "normal" fonts, you only need to do this for "normal" fonts (although you can change this too).

For example, the "normal" font is times/13, which is provided. This is set in the "Fonts" file folder tab, under "Normal Fonts"

If a web page called for "small" on this, it would subtract 3 from the size, thus asking for times/10. This is set in the "Styles" file folder tab. Most people don't have Times/10, thus your Amiga has to scale down another times font, which looks ugly.

Workbench usually comes with sizes 11,13,15,18,24 point sizes in both times and courier bitmap fonts, AWeb adds sizes 30 & 36. If you have some other software such as Word Processors or DTP programs that come with bitmap fonts, you may be able to find more sizes. For instance, ProPage came with 7,9,10,12,14 point times and 10,12,14 point courier bitmap sizes that can be added to your normal Fonts directory.

There's a few other ways to get around this:

You can use Compugraphic fonts for all "normal" fonts, then generating any size will give you a nice looking font. However, this may take some time each time you start AWeb to generate those fonts, particularly on a slower system. To speed things up (at the expense of disk space), you can use the "Intellifont" program to generate all combinations of font sizes that you need.
For the default "style" settings, and assuming you change the fonts to CGtimes but leave the point sizes the same, you need the following CGtimes point sizes:
Normal Fonts required:
```
CGtimes 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,19,21,22,24,25,27,33,34,36,37,39
```
Fixed Width Fonts required:
```
courier 9,11,13,15,18,24,36
```
It will improve the look of the fixed width fonts if you use a CG font for Courier from a Word Processor/DTP program, or a PD font collection.

You can tweak the "fonts" and "styles" settings so that most fonts you use are available as a disk font. In the example above, the default sized text being shrunk down. By default, text is times/13.

Most users have times 11,13,15,18,24,30,and 36 on their systems. Thus with your style modifications, you want to set the sizes to use these sizes. The styles with modifications (and their effects on a times/13 font) are:

big=+3          times/16  Not present
small=-3        times/10  Not present
sub/sup=-2      times/11  OK
strong=+1       times/14  Not present

To counter this with a default sized font you may want to change them as follows:

big=+2          times/15  OK
small=-2        times/11  OK
sub/sup=-2      times/11  OK
Strong=+0 or +2 times/13 or times/15 OK

Of course this will also change font sizes for the other <font> sizes, so there's a tradeoff. Most pages use the default font size though.

With the above settings, here's a quick table of size vs style used

                           NORMAL
Style      1       2       3  v    4       5       6       7
Normal     9 no    11 OK   13 OK   15 OK   18 OK   24 OK   CGTimes/36 OK
Big(+2)    11 OK   13 OK   15 OK   17 no   20 no   26 no   CGTimes/38 OK
Small(-2)  7 no    9 no    11 OK   13 OK   16 no   22 no   CGTimes/34 OK
Strong (same as big or normal)

With the default, it was:

                           NORMAL
Style      1       2       3  v    4       5       6       7
Normal     9 no    11 OK   13 OK   15 OK   18 OK   24 OK   CGTimes/36 OK
Big(+3)    12 no   14 no   16 no   18 OK   21 no   27 no   CGTimes/39 OK
Small(-3)  6 no    8 no    10 no   12 no   15 OK   21 no   CGTimes/33 OK
Sub/Sup(-2)7 no    9 no    11 OK   13 OK   16 no   22 no   CGTimes/34 OK

You can just ignore the + and - style tags, and set them all to +0. This won't let you see <small> or <big> text smaller or bigger, so it will behave much like AWeb 2.0 does, and you won't have to worry about odd sized text.
You can leave the style settings alone, and change the font sizes for normal and fixed width fonts to 11,13,15,18,24,30,36 using all bitmap fonts, thus making 15 the normal size font. This will provide good results for overall quality and maximum speed. It works well on larger screens, but some text and headings will appear rather large on smaller screen sizes.
You can pick a compromise for normal and fixed width font sizes using bitmap fonts for (normal) and smaller sizes and CG fonts for the larger sizes for better quality. Use "Intellifont" to create any missing sizes in the CG fonts to speed up intitial program loading so they do not have to be scaled every time you start AWeb.

As with most things that are configurable and affect the graphical display, some experimentation may be necessary to find the best setup for your particular system.

FAQ - Image colors

Problem: why do AWeb's picture colors look off, compared to viewing the same picture with a picture viewer?

With a picture viewer, you have the full array of colors to display them with - it's the only picture using them so it can use all the colors and change them at its whim. Because a web page typically has many pictures on it, all the pictures will have to share colors.

With multiple pictures, you have to have some way to "share" the colors between all the pictures. With a screen which has a fixed number of colors, AWeb has two methods to do this.

"Load Spread Palette=Off"
The first and probably easiest (but not necessarily the best) way is to allocate the colors first-come, first-serve. The first picture you use (say a 256 color picture) will come in, and take its 256 colors. Say it's a picture of a plane in the sky, so there's around 100 shades of blue, 100 shades of greys and blacks, and maybe some white and red for detailing.
Then the next picture you load is a 256 color picture of someone's face. All 256 colors are already taken by the plane, so it has to use the nearest colors. Sky pictures don't have lots of flesh tones, so most of the face will be the same red used for detailing, or maybe some of the greys will be the closest.
This is of course worst case, but hopefully you get the idea. The first picture will look great, after that they use the remaining colors, and when they're all gone, you have to use the colors from the previous pictures.
"Load Spread Palette=Colors" (the default setting)
This method will allocate a spread range of colors, and all pictures will use these colors. There will always be a wide range of colors so that any color in the picture will be close to what is available. This does mean that you don't have a wide variety of shades in any specific color.
In the two examples above, a sky picture will not have access to all 100 shades of blue, as there may only be say 20 shades of blue in the spread palette, so you may see "bands" of blues because of the limited range. The "portrait" alone may also not look as good as on its own screen, again because there may be only 20 flesh tones. However, on the same screen together, they'll both still be acceptable, and for this matter, no matter how many pictures you display, and whatever order they are displayed, you'll be consistant.
You can try these two different methods by changing the "Load spread palette" item. This is in the "Settings/Program Settings" menu item, under the "Screen" file folder tab. You have to be using AWeb on its own public screen.

Other Suggestions:

To help insure that a good selection of colors are available and that the minimum number of "pens" are pre-allocated to the palette, you can select colors for AWeb's palette that are "pure" or close to the pure basic RGB and intermediate values in "Program settings/Palette". Also, use some of the same values in "Browser settings/Colors" for link colors, and select "Use screen and background pens".

On ECS machines using a 16 color screen, you may get a better quality display of images if you select "greyscale" instead of colors in the "Load spread palette" option in "Program settings/Screen".

If you are still using the V40.4 or lower picture.datatype file in "Classes/DataTypes", and you are not using a graphics card, you should update it to the v42.1 picture.datatype file found in the "ams.lha" datatypes archive found on our AWeb page or on Aminet. This will provide considerably better color quality on some GIF images and possibly some other types as well.

On 256 or less color screens using the akJFIF datatype, if some JPEG images appear to have pixel artifacts or speckles, this may improve or be eliminated by turning dithering off in the akJFIF Prefs.

If you have a graphics board with 16 and 24 bit graphics modes, you can get a much better display, because you are no longer limited to the number of colors. Essentially each pixel can have its own color, and thus you don't need to share colors. With AWeb, you can do this if you have a Cybergraphics supported graphics board and the V43 24 bit picture datatype. There is a separate FAQ for this.

FAQ - Installation

Problem: installing AWeb-II or the v2.1 upgrade to AWeb-II 2.0.

Unfortunately our instructions for installing the v2.1 upgrade may not have been too clear. A couple of notes about our Installer scripts:

In all cases, use the Installer script to install AWeb, do not do it manually. You must run the script from its Workbench icon, not from a shell or CLI, otherwise the results will be un-predictable and will probably fail.

For the upgrade, you should unpack the archive according to the instructions on our web page.

After clicking on the upgrade's "Install" icon, you will see a requester "Please insert volume "AWebII_Install" in any drive".

At this point, insert the AWeb Disk 1 in a floppy drive. Later in the install, it will ask for "HTMLHeaven_Install", which is AWeb Disk 2.

The installation should proceed fine if you follow these instructions.

If you still have problems with the installation, we recommend that you re-install the original AWeb-II 2.0 from the floppy disks, then install the upgrade.

Problem: the "FixFonts" and/or "AddDataTypes" operations run by the install script fails.

These utilities are part of the normal Workbench, and should work if they are in their correct locations. However, on a few systems there seems to be interference due to some other installed software.

The FixFonts utility can be run from Workbench by clicking on the icon which should be found in the "System" drawer.

The AddDatatypes command can be issued from a shell or should automatically be run if the system is rebooted.

If the installation hangs or aborts at these points, the Fonts or Datatypes have already been put in place, so you can run the install again and skip those steps to complete the remaining processes if necessary.

Problem: after trying a demo version of AWeb, I installed the AWeb-II package and now some things don't work right.

If the demo is still installed, and/or you installed AWeb-II in a new location, there may be duplicate assigns in your "User-Startup" file for both versions. Check the file and insure that only one "AWeb-II:" assign is present, and it points to the correct path location. Also check any assigns for plugins such as FTPMount for the same thing, and make sure they are correct.

FAQ - MimeTypes

Problem: how do I set Mime Types for additional functions?

The following is not a complete list of mime types, but contains those most common or likely to be of some use on the Amiga at present.


Notes Mime/Type                   Extensions
----- --------------------------- --------------------------------
      APPLICATION/OCTET-STREAM    bin dms lha lzh lzx exe class
      APPLICATION/PDF             pdf
(3)   APPLICATION/POSTSCRIPT      ai eps ps
      APPLICATION/X-LATEX         latex
      APPLICATION/X-TEX           tex
      APPLICATION/X-TEXINFO       texinfo texi
(3)   APPLICATION/X-TROFF-MAN     man
      APPLICATION/ZIP             zip
(1*)  AUDIO/BASIC                 au snd
(3)   AUDIO/MPEG                  mpga mp2
(1*)  AUDIO/X-8SVX                8svx svx
(2)   AUDIO/X-AIFF                aif aiff aifc
(3)   AUDIO/X-MIDI                mid midi
(3)   AUDIO/X-MOD                 mod
(1*)  AUDIO/X-WAV                 wav
(2/3) AUDIO/*                     (none, or any of the above externals)
(1#)  IMAGE/GIF                   gif
(1#)  IMAGE/JPEG                  jpeg jpg jpe jfif
(1#)  IMAGE/PNG                   png
(1#)  IMAGE/TIFF                  tiff tif
(1#)  IMAGE/X-IFF                 iff ilbm ham ham8
      IMAGE/X-PORTABLE-ANYMAP     pnm
      IMAGE/X-PORTABLE-BITMAP     pbm
      IMAGE/X-PORTABLE-GRAYMAP    pgm
      IMAGE/X-PORTABLE-PIXMAP     ppm
      IMAGE/X-RGB                 rgb
(2)   IMAGE/X-XBITMAP             xbm
      IMAGE/X-XPIXMAP             xpm
      IMAGE/X-XWINDOWDUMP         xwd
(2/3) IMAGE/*                     bmp pcx (or any of the externals)
(1)   TEXT/HTML                   html htm
(1)   TEXT/PLAIN                  txt
      TEXT/RICHTEXT               rtx
(2)   TEXT/X-AG                   guide
      TEXT/X-SGML                 sgml sgm
(2/3) TEXT/*                      (none or any of the above externals)
(3)   VIDEO/MPEG                  mpeg mpg mpe mp3
(3)   VIDEO/QUICKTIME             qt mov
(3)   VIDEO/X-ANIM                ani
(3)   VIDEO/X-MSVIDEO             avi
      VIDEO/X-SGI-MOVIE           movie
      --------------------------- --------------------------------

NOTES:

(1)
Internal action in the browser window is supported with the appropriate datatype installed.

* - These audio types are only supported directly (1) when they are used as a background sound <BGSOUND>, and there is a datatype installed. The same would be true for the other AUDIO types if there was a datatype for them.

# - These (and other) images are displayed directly when embedded within a document, and there is a datatype for it.

When displayed separately (used as target of a hyperlink) all images need an external viewer (but this can be set once at the IMAGE/* level). See notes 2 & 3 below.

(2)
For mime types not supported internally by the browser, but which have datatypes available, you should add the following entries in "Browser settings/Viewers", in addition to the above:
Command: Sys:Utilities/MultiView Arguments: %f pubscreen %n

(3)
For others not supported by datatypes, use the appropriate pathname to the external program or player to be used. Arguments may not be required, or might take some experimentation to determine workable settings.
eg. Command: Sys:Utilities/Play16 Arguments >NIL: %f

We have notated the mime types in the above list that we are aware of having datatypes or external players/viewers available. A search of Aminet using the type (eg. MPEG) or the file extension should produce results.

Some of those not noted (eg. archivers) for which external programs are available, can have output routed to them using either a shell or ARexx script in place of the player example in note (3) above.

FAQ - Printing

Problem: print function will show the status bar quickly then return without printing.

AWeb currently attempts to print graphically using the same screen depth you have selected. If you are using a 16 or 24-bit screen with the Cybergraphics software, then the Amiga printer drivers are unable to handle the 16 or 24 bit deep bitmap graphics, and will not print anything. If you wish to use the graphical print function, change your screen mode to an 8-bit (256 color) screen before running the print option.

Problem: how do I print the Postscript docs found on the AWeb home page?

Assuming you have a postscript printer, just open a shell and enter:

copy awebdoc_xxxx.ps to PAR:

or, if you have a serial printer:

copy awebdoc_xxxx.ps to SER:

Alternately, you can copy the files to an MSDOS floppy using CrossDOS (with no translation), and take them in to any copy shop or service bureau that has a postscript laser printer with a MAC or PC hooked to it, and do a similar thing.

For this, you may have to rename the file(s) to conform to the 8/3 limit, such as "awebdoc1.ps", etc. Then use a command from a DOS prompt to the printer device on that machine, usually as follows:

copy awebdoc1.ps to LPT1

Problem: graphic print output quality of web pages is poor.

AWeb does a graphic dump of the rendered page from the windows buffer, so your output quality will depend on both the pages image and screen resolutions, as well as the settings in your PrinterGFX prefs. Playing with the various settings in prefs can take quite a bit of testing to get the best results with your setup.

Try the following for a start in your PrinterGFX prefs:

    Dithering:  Halftone
    Scaling:    Fraction
    Image:      Positive
    Aspect:     Horizontal
    Shade:      GreyScale1
    Threshold:  5
    Density:    7
    Smoothing:  On
    Centering:  On
    Limits:     Ignore

These settings should automatically scale the page image down to fit the paper size if required, assuming your Printer prefs are also set right.

In the AWeb Print parameters window that appears when you select print, leave scaling alone and centering off, unless your printer driver does not handle this properly with the above settings. Leave Formfeed on so printed pages will be ejected when the web page is longer than one output page. Print Backgrounds should be off to make text more readable.

That produces the best results on my HP4M with the HP_LaserJet driver at 300dpi. Going to 600dpi didn't seem to make any noticeable difference, but that may vary depending on which printer and driver you use. Not all drivers support the full range of density settings, so you may have to experiment with that a little. As usual, your mileage may vary!

NOTE: significantly better results can be obtained with many laser and inkjet printers by using one of the replacement printer driver packages such as PrintStudio, TurboPrint, or EnPrint.

FAQ - Proxies

Problem: I can't access the proxy server I'm trying to use!

Use the following form for setting up the proxy server in AWeb.

Under "Network settings/Proxy", enter:

http://yourproxyservername:8080

Note: there is no space between the proxy server name/address and the port number, this is the most common mistake.

Do the same thing for each type of proxy, replacing the "http" with the appropriate prefix. (ie. ftp, gopher, telnet)

That should solve the problem.

FAQ - Telnet

Problem: how do I install & setup Telnet!

If you have AmiTCP, you can set up AWeb to use the Napsaterm or Telnet programs supplied with it.

Telnet is easier to set up, although Napsaterm is a bit nicer.

To do this, select the "Settings/Network Settings..." menu item, then the "Programs" file folder tab. Set the "Type" gadget to "telnet:"

To use telnet, enter the following:

    Command:    AmiTCP:bin/telnet
    Arguments:  %h

This is a basic telnet program, and will open a shell window on your Workbench screen when activated. For a fancier Telnet, you can use Napsaterm, but you may need to setup a prefs file for Napsaterm in order to get it working right.

To use Napsaterm, enter the following:

    Command:    AmiTCP:bin/Napsaterm
    Arguments:  %h

You may have to modify the prefs for NapsaTerm to have it open its window on the AWeb screen and work properly. These prefs are in the file "AmiTCP:db/napsaprefs";

In addition to the default options, I have the following:

    napsaterm.device: telnet
    napsaterm.pubscreenname: AWeb

This last line is to allow Napsaterm to open it's screen on AWeb's screen. If you leave it out, it will open on Workbench.

For Miami or TermiteTCP, the AmTelnet program available from Aminet will work with both these stacks.

You may also want to check out the Telser.device package that can be used with any normal terminal program like NComm or Term.

FAQ - TermiteTCP

Problem: FTP, Mail, or News does not work, and you have TermiteTCP!

TermiteTCP does not support all standard AmiTCP functions, thus some programs may not work properly with TermiteTCP. You should check to see if updates are available yet to correct some of these.

AWeb's ARexx plugins for news and mail require the TCP: handler, which was not present in TermiteTCP initially.

The FTPMount program, used by AWeb for FTP access, also uses some functions that are not supported by TermiteTCP.

For mailto, you can use the SMTPPost program, available on Aminet, which does work with TermiteTCP and the AWeb mailto program.

Search for "comm/tcp/IU_14_amitcp.lha" on the wustl site, the file does not seem to be on all mirrors. Also on Aminet-14 CD.

To install SMTPPost, do as follows:

AWeb Settings Menu - "Network settings/Programs/mailto", should have the following:

    Command:     sys:rexxc/rx
    Arguments:   AWeb-II:plugins/awebmail/awebmailsend.awebrx %e %n

Put SMTPPost somewhere in your command path. The "C:" directory works nicely.
AWeb ARexx Menu - select AWebMail Configuration. Use the Quick Config option and select SMTPPOST.
Add an assign for "INET:" to someplace where your mail logs will get written. This can be a permanent or temporary location like ram.
```
    assign INET: ram:
```
Put the assign in your "S:user-startup" so it always gets done on each boot up.
Build a simple text file "S:UUconfig" similar to below. (If you already have an "S:UUconfig", add the following lines if they are not there already.)
```
    SMTPSmarterHost    mail.my.host
    SMTPMailDir        ram:
    SMTPSpoolDir       ram:
    NodeName           BudLightBeer
```
Use any path you like instead of "ram:" for SMTPMailDir and SMTPSpoolDir. SMTPSmarterHost is the name of your mail host. NodeName can be set to almost anything I think...
After sending mail, check the logs in "INET:" to see if any errors have occurred. This is a minimal implementation of SMTPPost, read the doc's for a proper and complete installation.

Or, alternatively, you can use a program such as Voodoo, with the built-in mail script. Or, finally, you can use an external mailer like Thor or YAM with the appropriate third party mailto script, also available on Aminet.

For FTP, there aren't any options for using FTP within AWeb. You can manually go to FTP sites with TermiteTCP's "TermiteFTP" program.

For News, we have no options from within AWeb, as of yet. You can use an external mailer such as Thor or Grn for reading news.

Problem: how do I get the TCP autostart/stop function of AWeb to work?

Set the TermiteTCP tooltype AUTOCONNECT=TRUE

Write a short cli script called start-termitetcp.

    c:run >nil: path:TermiteTCP
    c:wait 45

AWeb Settings - "Network settings/Programs/start tcp", enter the following:
```
    command:     c:execute
    arguments:   path:start-termitetcp
```
NOTE: "path:" above indicates the file pathname. (ie. "Work:Termite/")

Why does this work? TermiteTCP never returns, so AWeb will hang without the run command. Run returns too quickly and thus AWeb can fail at net access until TermiteTCP gets up and connected. The 45 second wait cuts it pretty close on my system, so wait 60 might be better advice in case the host is slow to respond.

We can find no way to shut Termite down with out using it's GUI.

FAQ - v43 24bit Picture Datatype

Problem: in-line images are no longer displayed in AWeb

The V43 (24-bit) picture datatype commonly used by people with graphics boards is beta software. The previous version, 43.753, has built into it an expiry date after which point it will fail to display any images. As of November 16 1996, this version has expired.

If your AWeb now fails to display in-line images, and Multiview also fails to display these images, and you use the V43 (24-bit) picture.datatype, this is likely the cause of your problem.

The new V43 datatype should be available from ftp.phase5.de, and should also be available from your nearest Aminet mirror site. The version number of this one is 43.755, and supposedly does not have an expiry date.

If you are unable to obtain the new datatype in a timely manner, you can temporarily set back your system date to some date before November 16 1996 to get it to work again.

A more extreme measure is to return to the normal V40 picture datatype as supplied on your Workbench disks, and install the zgif datatype (version 39.18) for GIF pictures, and either the akJFIF datatype or JFIF datatype for JPeg pictures, which are available from our web site at: http://www.amitrix.com/aweb.html or from Aminet.

Problem: transparent GIFs do not display transparently

The problem may be the akGIF datatype or the ZGIF datatype. Some versions just won't do transparent images or don't work with the v43 24bit picture.datatype. Use the GIF dataytype that comes with the v43 datatype software (and of course install that). In later versions it is now separate because of the GIF copyright issue. It can be found at: ftp.phase5.de or www.best.com/~vgr/cybergfx

On a CV64, use Cybergraphics 2.20+ with the latest 43.757 version of the 24bit Datatypes. With only the akJFIF one replacing the tower JFIF one that comes with the 24bit set, everything should work.

See the datatypes FAQ for further information.