Additional Info & Problem Solutions April 15, 1997

• FAQ - AmiTCP, hints for PPP setup
• FAQ - Cache, Cookies, & Authorizations
• FAQ - ClassAct
• FAQ - Datatypes
• FAQ - Fonts
• FAQ - Image Colors
• FAQ - Installation
• FAQ - MimeTypes
• FAQ - Printing
• FAQ - Proxies
• FAQ - Telnet
• FAQ - TermiteTCP
• FAQ - v43 24bit Picture Datatype

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 authorizat, 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.