How to use Arachne with PPP or SLIP

The easiest way to use Arachne with PPP connection is to configure Arachne using Arachne PPP Wizard.

Arachne uses DOS packet driver interface to enable TCP/IP connectivity. This technology is not very simple to understand, but it's the only standard DOS offers just know. The packet driver is resident program (TSR), similar to utilities like mouse driver or VESA driver. TCP/IP applications access packet driver using software interrupt - usually it is 0x60 (60H). The packet driver for ethernet card (LAN) is small freeware program (named like ODIPKT.COM, or so). If you are using dial-up connection, you need TSR program to "emulate" ehternet card packet driver.

There are following known ways to dial Internet from DOS:

DOSPPPD - port of Unix PPP daemon to DOS enviroment. Bet choice, included in distribution package
Klos PPP - shareware PPP dialer from Klos Technologies. Arachne can auto-configure itself to support it, but due to it's license, it cannot be distributed together with Arachne.
EtherPPP - This was original freeware packet driver distributed with Arachne, but it is no longer directly supported or included in distribution package.
UMSLIP - SLIP driver from Univesity of Minesota. Reported to work with Arachne. Not included in distribution package.
SLIPPER, CSLIPPER - SLIP (=Single Line Internet Protocol) and CSLIP (=compressed SLIP) programs. CSLIPPER.EXE is included in distribution package.

DOSPPPD

DOSPPPD is a single program - PPPD.EXE. Arachne offers loading DOSPPPD if ARACHNE.CFG file contains line Connection @PPPD.EXE.

DOSPPPD is port of Unix PPP daemon to DOS enviroment. It's probably the best PPP solution available in DOS. It consumes less memory than EtherPPP or KlosPPP. Author of DOS port, Toni Lopez, permitted me to include this dialer to Arachne package.

If you don't want to use Arachne built-in configurator, you can study DOSPPPD documentation, which was created by merging files README.TXT and PPPD.MAN from DOSPPPD package. You don't have to care about connection, because Arachne uses it's own dialer - MINITERM.EXE, configured in ARACHNE.CFG. IP address is passed by option IP_Address PPP.

If you are not advanced DOS user, I suggest using graphical PPP setup. Just fill in the correct values, click Ok, save and than restart Arachne. Arachne will create configuration file PPPDRC.CFG for DOSPPPD automaticaly.

EtherPPP

EtherPPP is a single program - PPP.EXE. Arachne will load EtherPPP if ARACHNE.CFG file contains line Connection @PPP.EXE parameters>PPP.LOG.

You have to study EtherPPP documentation and manually create file CONFIG.PPP, needed by EtherPPP. You don't have to care about DIAL.PPP, as you can use MINITERM dialer, shiped with Arachne.

Klos PPP

Klos PPP is shareware PPP dialer, distributed by Klos technologies. Klos PPP can be loaded to high memory (in case that you modify ARACHNE.BAT; you must know how to work with high memory area). The Klos PPP dialer comes with utility that updates WATTCP.CFG and since pre-release 1.0 beta 8, Arachne automaticaly loads KlosPPP if it is installed, and calls the utility to modify WATTCP.CFG after connecting, so your ARACHNE.CFG can look simply like:

Connection @PPPMENU.EXE
Hangup @PPPMENU.EXE
DialPage file:DIALINIT.HTM
IP_Address WATTCP
TCP_Config WATTCP.CFG

You must get uncrippled self-extracting archive pppshare.exe, available at http://www.klos.com. The license agreement doesn't allow us to include this archive directly to Arachne package. Place the pppshare.exe to Arachne directory and go to the Klos PPP setup page to install and configure it.

Klos PPP offers program PPPMENU.EXE as interface to PPP dialer. After connecting with PPPMENU.EXE, you must select "Exit PPP connect" menu option to return to Arachne.

UMSLIP, SLIPPER.EXE, CSLIPPER.EXE:

SLIP is historical dial-up protocol, which was replaced by PPP.

You can call any of these packet drivers as external dialer or you can dial with them first and then use Arachne exactly the same way as on Local Network. Freeware SLIP programs can be found on many anonymous FTP sites. CSLIPPER.EXE is included in Arachne distribution package.

I have recieved e-mail, that UMSLIP correctly emulates BOOTP.

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