This is the final release of MacPPP 1.0, a LAP (mdev) driver for MacTCP. The current version does not support Appletalk over PPP. This driver is available via anonymous ftp on merit.edu in the /pub/ppp directory.
Installation
The driver requires System 6.0.5 or higher. It consists of a System Extension (PPP) and a control panel (Config PPP). For System 7 machines, these should go in the Extensions and Control Panels folders, respectively. For System 6 machines, they need to be put in the System Folder.
The control panel will create a PPP Preferences file in the Preferences Folder (System Folder on System 6). This file is required for the PPP LAP driver to bring up the link. Once you have installed the extension and the control panel, you should reboot your machine.
(Note: the PPP LAP requires MacTCP 1.1 or higher. MacTCP 1.1 and 1.1.1 both have problems with slow links. In particular, they do not adapt the timeouts on retrys and resets very well for slow data rates. This causes problems when using large windows on a TCP session. Most notably, you may experience problems when using Xferit. Fetch and the NCSA Telnet 2.5 FTP client/server seem to work okay.)
Configuration
First, configure MacTCP for server addressing (don't use dynamic or static) using the MacTCP control panel. If you need to statically assign an IP address, you may do so with the IPCP dialog of the Config PPP control panel. Be aware that PPP will not come up if the other end is not willing to negotiate the address you have selected. In general, it is better to let the other end provide the
IP addresses (by leaving the addresses as 0.0.0.0 in the IPCP dialog).
When you bring up the MacTCP control panel, you should see the PPP icon. Select it. Next, run the Config PPP control panel to configure PPP. The Config PPP control panel allows you to select the line speed, serial port, PPP options, etc.
Control Panel description
PPP State:
This indicates the current state of the driver (more specifically the PPP IP Control Protocol). 'Open' indicates that PPP is ready for IP traffic. 'Down' indicates that it is some state other than open.
PPP Event:
These buttons allow you to send Open and Close events to the MacTCP 'transition proc' routine and will open and close the PPP session. The events can only be sent after the PPP driver has successfully opened. To open the PPP driver for the first time, you much launch a MacTCP application (e.g. NCSA Telnet, etc.).
If for some reason the open should fail, the Open/Close buttons will again go to the de-highlighted state and you must again launch a MacTCP application to start up PPP.
Port:
Allows you to select between the modem and printer ports.
Baud:
Select the baud rate for the port.
Phone type:
Select according to your type of phone service, Tone or Pulse.
CTS flow control:
This check box enables output flow control via the CTS (clear to send) dataset signal. Your modem is responsible for providing this signal. Input flow control (via RTS) is not currently supported. Also, XON/XOFF flow control is not supported. You should be sure that your modem is not using XON/XOFF flow control (either on input or output). You should use the Modem Init string to disable it if it is enabled by default.
Teminal Window:
The terminal window check box indicates that a terminal window should be brought up after the modem has connected and any dialog scripts have successfully completed. Using the terminal window, you may manually type any commands needed to put the other end into PPP mode. Once this is done, click the 'OK' button to start PPP negotiation. The terminal emulator is rather basic at this point (no cursor or scroll bars).
Connect Config:
The Connect Config button puts up a dialog that lets you configure a modem init command, phone number, and a sequence of up 7 dialog strings to establish the connection. All of these fields are optional. If the phone number field is not set (either because you are not using a modem, or wish to issue the dial command yourself), the modem init command will not be sent. If the phone number field is set, the string 'AT E0V1' will be sent first. This disables echoing and puts the modem in verbose response mode. An 'OK' response is expected from the modem. Next, the modem init string (if set) will be sent to the modem. Again, an 'OK' response is expected. Finally, the phone number is dialed. The driver will wait up to 90 seconds for a response before timing out. If a 'CONNECT' response is received, the driver will proceed to the next phase. If a 'BUSY' response is received, the driver will attempt to redial.
The modem init command will be sent to the modem before the phone number is dialed. The init command is issued as a Hayes 'AT' command (note: the 'AT' is assumed should not be included in the init string). After an 'OK' response is received, the phone number will be dialed. You may include any characters in the phone number that your modem will accept (e.g. a ',' for a pause between numbers).
The OUT/WAIT buttons in front of the 7 dialog strings indicate whether the string should be sent out, or is expected to be received from the other end. Control characters can be entered using the ^ (caret) convention. ( e.g. a carriage return would be '^m', etc.). The <CR> check boxes indicates that carriage return should be appended to the end of the dialog string (note: placing a '^m' at the end of the string would be equivalent).
Statistics:
The Statistics button brings up a dialog with a set of counters. Clicking on the Update button will show the current value of the counters. The current state of all supported PPP options are
listed as well. These options are documented in the PPP RFCs (RFC1331, etc).
LCP and IPCP options:
The LCP and IPCP options buttons allow you to configure the options that PPP negotiates. The defaults should work in most cases and I wouldn't recommend changing these unless you are familiar with the PPP RFC's. The default id item in the LCP options dialog is useful if you are dialing into a server which uses the PAP protocol for authentication (such as Merit term servers).
Bringing up the link
To bring up the link for the first time, simply start any application which uses MacTCP. Thereafter, you may open and close the link using the buttons in the control panel.
Example configuration
To connect to the Ann Arbor Merit dial-ins at 9600 bps, you would set the phone number to 747-3400 and use the following dialog script (where OUT:/WAIT: indicates the radio button selected and <CR> indicate that the <CR> box is checked).
