3. Compatibility Notes: FreePPP, Open Transport/PPP, SimplePPP
4. Shareware Notice
5. Contact Information
1. What PPPop does
PPPop is a Macintosh PPP operator application. It is useful to those who use PPP protocol software to connect to the Internet. PPPop puts a little button window on your screen. Clicking the button opens or closes a PPP link.
An arrow on the button shows the current state of PPP: up or down.
In addition to the "Big Button" shown above PPPop also offers you a choice of two other button sizes: "Small Button" and "Tiny Button":
Requirements
Hardware
Any Macintosh computer or compatible with a 68020 or later CPU and a screen capable of color or gray scale display. PPPop can run in a 250K partition but does better in 350K, the default size.
Software
System 7.1 or later. PPPop is compatible with MacOS 8.0.
Sound Manager 3.0 or later is recommended. If you have MacOS 7.5 or later Sound Manager 3.0 is already installed.
Network
MacTCP or Open Transport plus a PPP driver. PPPop has been tested and works with the following PPP drivers:
• MacPPP 2.0.1 • FreePPP 1.0.5
• MacPPP 2.5.1 - 2.5.2 • FreePPP 2.5rf - v3
• SimplePPP 1.4.5 • FreePPP 2.6 - 2.6.1b6
• OT/PPP 1.0 - 1.0.1
PPPop may work with other variants of these drivers. PPPop does not work with InterSLIP, Sonic PPP, NTS PPP, Sagem PPP, or FreePPP versions 2.5.1 through 2.5.5.
Recommended additional Software
Internet Config 1.3 or later.
More Features
Timer
Displays a separate dragable window with the current session time, cumulative time or daily time:
You can set a time limit for any of these. You can set the display font and style.
Application Launcher
Set up your Internet applications, URLs, and scripts to be launched via menu, keyboard command, or automatically when a link opens. (To launch URLs you need to have Internet Config installed.)
The Launcher can also kill applications before closing a link, or run applications and scripts right after closing a link.
Session Log
Writes connection times to a tab-delimited text file for easy import into a spreadsheet program.
Server Selection
You can choose any of your PPP configurations directly from a menu within PPPop - no need to open the PPP control panel.
AppleScript Support
Use AppleScript scripts to open and close a link, select a server, or configure PPPop.
IP Address Display
The Timer window can also display your Mac's current IP address:
You can even Copy, and Paste it.
Sounds
PPPop will play your choice of sound files when a link opens or closes, or when a timer limit is exceeded.
Quick Tour
Use the space bar to toggle between times in the Timer window: session time is in "00:00:00" format (hh:mm:ss), cumulative time is in "000:00" format (hhh:mm), and daily time is in "00:00" format (hh:mm).
Use "Timer Setup..." in the "Timer" menu to have PPPop automatically reset cumulative time on a specific day of the month.
In the "Timer" menu you can also select the window's font, size and style.
To display your IP address, select "Time Display" from the "Timer" menu, or press "i" on the keyboard. (This feature is currently not available with Simple PPP.)
Important: PPPop does not keep time when it is not running! If you open a link from within another application while PPPop is not running, PPPop will neither time nor log the session.
To add applications or URLs to PPPop's "Launcher" menu open "Launcher Setup..." and click "New". In the Launcher Item Editor select the application or URL which you want to launch. And, if you wish, assign a keyboard shortcut.
Just for fun, PPPop will play sounds when a connection opens or closes, or when a time limit is exceeded.
Those sounds are initially read from three individual sound files that come with PPPop: "PPPop - Going Up", "PPPop - Going Down", and "PPPop - Warning". If you want to use different sounds (and who doesn't?) open "Sound Setup..." from the "Special" menu and set each sound to another System 7 sound file. You can even set individual playback volumes for each sound, or if you really like it quiet, turn each sound off. If you trash a selected sound file, PPPop will play a little default noise instead.
Full Documentation and Help
For quick help use balloon help! It is available for all menu items and dialogs.
Also, check out the Help menu.
For full documentation of all of PPPop's features look in the included "PPPop 1.6 Reference". This file is an eDOC™ self reading document. Once you open it, press the space bar to display a table of contents. To search for a specific item press Command-F.
Full documentation is also available online in html format to be viewed with your web browser at:
<http://users.deltanet.com/~friefeld/>.
There you will find (among other things):
• the online reference
• bug reports
• posting of version updates
• an updated FAQ (frequently asked questions)
• announcements
• a link to Kagi's online registration system
• a download link for the html documentation itself, should you wish to view it offline
2. What is new in version 1.6.1
FAT version
• PPPop is distributed as a FAT application, rather than as two separate applications.
Sound folder added
• Default sounds are now in a "Sounds" folder. A little bit neater.
Bug fixes
• Server menu did not select the correct server with MacPPP and older versions of FrePPP.
• On smaller screens, the Help window title bar could have gotten hidden behind the menu bar.
What is new in version 1.6
Help Menu
The System Help menu has some new selections in PPPop:
• "PPPop Help...": displays a quick reference with keyboard shortcuts and some ease of use tips.
If you have "Internet Config" installed you can also select:
• "Open PPPop Web Page...": uses your web browser to connect to PPPop's web page.
• "Email PPPop Author...": opens your email program with a blank message addressed to me.
• "Register PPPop Online...": uses your web browser to connect to Kagi's online registration page.
New Launcher Menu Options
• "Launch from PPPop Only": the Launcher will only operate when PPPop is used to open a connection. If another application opens the connection, PPPop does not start your "auto-launch" applications.
• "Disable Auto Launching": the Launcher will not operate even when PPPop is used to open a connection. You can still manually launch applications from the Launcher menu.
New Keyboard Actions
• If you checked the option "Open Link on Startup", you can temporarily disable it by starting PPPop with the Shift key held down.
• Command-Enter opens the Launcher Setup.
• Command key equivalents for opening PPP, TCP/IP, and Internet Config: Command-1, Command-2 and Command-3.
Tiny Button
• Several users requested an even smaller button. A new 16x16 pixel button is now available, a quarter the size of the original button.
Other New Features
• For OpenTransport/PPP users: when "Show OT/PPP Connection Dialogs" in the "Special" menu is unchecked (recommended!), PPPop's button displays a dialing indicator while a connection is being established. Clicking on the button cancels the connection.
• PPPop will now remember the button position when you change screen resolutions. Requires Display Manager, which is part of MacOS 7.5 and later.
• You can now double-click a PPPop Prefs file while the program is running to change to different settings. This makes it easier to use different timers and helper application preferences when you change accounts.
Bug Fixes and Internal Changes
• OT/PPP performance enhanced.
• AppleScript "server" property did not work with OT/PPP.
• OT/PPP: Japanese versions will automatically adjust to either US System with JLK installed or to Japanese System. Previously, a patch was required.
• PPPop would sometimes crash when a link was open via OT/PPP for many hours.
• The Server menu is now sorted alphabetically.
• Sounds finish playing when you close a link and quit PPPop. (Cutting off the sound crashed some systems.)
• Session log times now add up correctly. Previously, there were discrepancies between open and close times vs. session times due to lags in opening and closing a link.
Note that PPP drivers all behave differently in determining when to signal that the link is up or down. On opening, PPPop starts timing when the modem has connected and the PPP protocol has started. On closing, PPP is closed and then the modem hangs up. There could be several seconds difference between modem time and ISP time.
• PPPop keeps the preferences file closed except when absolutely necessary. This seems the best way of avoiding corruption of the prefs file.
• IP address display now works with MacPPP.
• Changed AppleScript dictionary "time display" to "display time", as the documentation said.
• In Launcher Setup, double-clicking a list item when the cursor is a check mark will no longer check the item and then open the cell for editing.
3. Compatibility Notes
PPPop and FreePPP
The FreePPP 2.5 documentation says not to use PPPop with it. PPPop will, in fact, operate FreePPP 2.5 with no problems. Perhaps the warning was meant for future versions of FreePPP.
FreePPP 2.5.1 through FreePPP 2.5.5 are proprietary versions. PPPop does not work with them.
FreePPP 2.6 is significantly different from earlier versions. Steve Dagley has made a programmer's interface available which enables third party utilities, such as PPPop, to work with them.
The "File" menu item "Config PPP..." will open FreePPP Setup when FreePPP is installed.
PPPop and Open Transport / PPP
The OT/PPP programmer's interface does not include two features needed by PPPop:
a) There is no Apple-approved way to determine which PPP driver is active (i.e. selected in the TCP/IP control panel) when you have more than one PPP driver installed. PPPop uses an unsupported method to determine this. If the method fails and your PPP driver is not recognized by PPPop, the solution is to have only one PPP driver installed.
b) There is no Apple-approved way to get a list of server configurations from the PPP control panel. PPPop accomplishes this by reading and writing to the file "Remote Access Connections" (in the folder System:Preferences:Remote Access), which is maintained by PPP. Back up this file before using PPPop. When further developer informations are released by Apple, PPPop will be adapted to use the documented method.
The PPP control panel has a "verbose" option which does not seem to do anything. It should theoretically eliminate all dialogs unless an error condition occurs. However, PPPop can do exactly that for you: just uncheck "Show OT/PPP Connect Dialog" in the Special menu. Unless you are consistently having trouble with PPP, I recommend this setting. Things go much faster, especially disconnecting.
PPPop and Simple PPP 1.4.5
John Nagle has discontinued support for his PPP driver and has made the source code public. PPPop works with the last alpha version of Simple PPP. You should however take the following steps to use PPPop with Simple PPP:
1. After you have installed Simple PPP and rebooted, start the Simple PPP application.
Set up each of your server configurations.
2. You must now connect once with each configuration using the Simple PPP application.
If you don't, you will not be able to automatically open a connection later.
Once you see the smiley face dialog for each configuration, everything is OK.
3. With the Simple PPP application still running, start PPPop.
You may now close Simple PPP, because PPPop is all set for use.
PPPop's Server menu is not available while the Simple PPP application is running.
Simple PPP has no connection dialog. To cancel a dialup, click PPPop's button. This is equivalent to pressing the STOP button in the Simple PPP application.
4. Shareware Notice
PPPop is Shareware US$15. (Cheap!) It is fully functional as distributed. When you register, you will receive a password to disable the shareware notice which automatically appears at startup. Version 1.6.1 is a free update for all previously registered PPPop users.
Why pay? I can't make you pay, but if you use the program and you like it – think of it as a tip for good service.
You can register by:
• Mailing the fee to me in an envelope, or
• Running the "Register PPPop" application included with this release and following the instructions, or
• Connecting to <http://order.kagi.com/?RF>.
Please take a look at the file "How To Register" for some simple details.
Single-user license: US$15.
Universities or companies site license: US$200
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology is exempt.)
World-wide license: US$2000
ISP license: by arrangement
Anti-litigation Statement
PPPop is distributed because it may be useful. It is not warranted to do anything, nor to be free of bugs. If PPPop causes you grave physical, financial, or emotional harm - you have my sympathy. Beyond that, the author disclaims any liability for any kind of damages whatsoever resulting from the use of this program.
Do not use the program if you do not agree to these conditions!
Guy Brand has made a French localization of PPPop. Merci beaucoup!
Haruka Ishi has made a Japanese localization. Arigato!
June Hao Hou has made a Traditional Chinese localization.
The graphical design of PPPop and its documentation is mostly the work of Andreas Bauer. I think he has a great eye, and he is a very sharp alpha tester. If you want his help on your project, contact him at ac_bauer@ping.at.
