Help Contents
TelStar – Table of Contents

Help Topics

TelStar Features

Ordering TelStar

Technical Support

Installation of TelStar

The Demo Version

Registration of TelStar software

Setting up Parameters

Running the Settings Program

Description of Settings

AutoConnect

AutoClose

Default Host

Hosts File

Monitor I/O

Record Events

SuppressBanner

Custom Colors

Term Type Customizations

Creating the HOSTS file

Using TelStar

Running the Program

Command-line Parameters

Connect Dialog Box

Environment Variables

Copy & Paste

Technical Notes

Terminal Emulations

Error Messages


Ordering TelStar

For technical support, comments, requests or questions, you may contact us at contact@gicken.com or visit our web page at http://www.gicken.com

For your convenience we have contracted NorthStar Solutions to process orders. You can place an order through their web page, by email, by fax, phone, or mail. You can pay with your Visa, MasterCard, or Discover Card (or by check or money order). Please be sure to give the proper Order Code when placing your order

The Order Code for TelStar is 2318

The package cost, with available quantity discounts is as follows:

Quantity	Price

Individual Licenses:	$30.00	each

10-License Pack	$275.00

25-License Pack	$625.00

50-License Pack	$1,125.00

100-License Pack	$1,875.00

All prices are US$. All payments must be made in US$.

INTERNET ORDERS

Visit NorthStar Solutions at http://www.nstarsolutions.com and fill out their online order form—fast, easy, and secure!

E-MAILED ORDERS

CompuServe: starmail

America Online: starmail

Internet: starmail@nstarsolutions.com

PHONED ORDERS

Calls taken 10am – 8pm, EST, Monday – Friday.

1-800-699-6395 (Within the U.S. only)

1-803-699-6395 (Outside the U.S.)

FAXED ORDERS

Available 24 hours.

1-803-699-5465

MAILED ORDERS

You may register with a check or money order, drawn on a U.S. bank. Make the check payable to

NorthStar Solutions

P.O. Box 25262
Columbia, SC  29224
U.S.A.

Please provide (or be prepared to provide) the following information:

•	The name of the program you are registering and the Order Code.

•	Individual or Company Name

•	Your mailing address.

•	Your Visa, MasterCard, or Discover card Number and its expiration date

•	Your e-mail address.

Upon receipt of payment, NorthStar Solutions will forward the information to Gicken Systems. We will email (or snail-mail if necessary) your Registration and activation key(s) to you within 24 hours.


Running TelStar as a Demo
Running The DEMO Version of TelStar

Without a Registration key, TelStar runs in demonstration mode. In this mode, the program displays a nagware banner every so often. The installation will also time out after 30 days.


Entering the Registration Key
Running the REGISTER Program

In order to use TelStar (other than as a demo) you have to enter the registration key and activation key that you were given when you purchased your license. The information should be entered exactly (including same case).

TelStar will not operate with an invalid Registration or activation key. The software checks for duplicate licenses on the network, and will shut down both offending instances.


TelStar Features

•	Double-width and Double-Height attributes are supported – And actually displayed!

•	BOLD attribute is actually BOLD

•	UNDERLINE attribute is actually underlined

•	Blink attribute is supported – and actually displayed. Slow and fast blink are available in term types that offer the feature.

•	Italics are supported and displayed.

•	Dim attribute is supported – although we use a color midway between foreground and background to emulate dim.

•	Screen is resizable – fonts and all – not just a reduced viewport.

•	TelStar sets environment variables on the host to indicate the name of the user on the PC and the name of the PC

•	TelStar is designed for business environments. The program can be set up to automatically connect to a specified host, or to only allow connection to hosts defined in the hosts file, or to allow unrestricted connections.

•	Colors can be individually customized.

•	TelStar actually passes print jobs through unchanged to the aux printer (which is the Windows default printer). Most terminal emulators continue to intercept the terminal control codes, even with aux print on.

•	Terminal windows can be dynamically resized to 24,25,42, or 43 lines by 80 or 132 columns. And TelStar supports and displays a label line (in 24 and 42-line modes)


Installation of TelStar

TelStar has no particular directory path requirements. The files can be installed in the directory of your choice, subject only to the following limitations:

•	The executable and all support files must all be in the same directory, except possibly the HOSTS file (see note #2).

•	If an absolute path is specified for the HOSTS file using the SETTINGS program, there must actually be a HOSTS file at that location. Otherwise, the HOSTS file is optional.


Setting up Parameters for Telstar
Setting Up Parameters

After TelStar is installed, the registry settings must be defined using the SETTINGS program.


Running the SETTINGS Program

SETTINGS.EXE is used to define the registry settings used by TelStar.


Description of Parameter Settings

This section describes the Parameter settings used by TelStar.


AutoConnect Parameter

The AutoConnect parameter determines whether or not TelStar will display the Connect screen and give the user a chance to select which host to connect to. If AutoConnect is set, TelStar will automatically connect to the DefaultHost.


AutoClose Parameter

When AutoClose is set, TelStar will exit when a connection is lost with the host. Otherwise, TelStar remains active and the user may initiate a new connection by selecting CONNECT from the menu, or by pressing any key to continue.


DefaultHost Parameter

This parameter specifies the default host name to connect to. If AutoConnect is off, the default host will be the selected line in the connect dialog; if AutoConnect is on, the default host will be connected to automatically.


HostFile Parameter

This parameter specifies either an absolute or relative pathname for a file which contains names of hosts to connect to. A line in a HOSTS file may contain a host name or a host name and TCP address. If the former, the TCP address is resolved through the operating system services; if the latter, the TCP address is used; in this case, the name is only for documentation.


Monitor I/O Parameter

This parameter causes TelStar to record all network I/O in a file named  “recordXXXX.txt” in the working directory. This function is useful for tracing and debugging terminal display activity.


Record Events Parameter

This parameter causes TelStar to record internal execution checkpoints into a file named “recordXXXX.txt” in the working directory. This option is useful for debugging problems with TelStar. Most of the messages will be quite cryptic, so the main reason for recording events would be to send the results to Gicken Systems to describe a bug.


Suppress Banner Parameter

This parameter suppresses the opening banner. This is only effective with registered programs, and is ignored in the demo version.


HOSTS File Format
HOSTS file

The HOSTS file is, by default, located in the installation directory. You may specify a full pathname for HOSTS in the SETTINGS program.

Lines in HOSTS may be:

•	A blank line

•	A line beginning with a ‘#’, which becomes a comment

•	A line consisting of only a host name. The host name is then resolved using the network subsystem.

•	A line consisting of a host name and TCP address. In this case, the host name is used only as commentary, and the connection attempt is made using the TCP address.


Setting Custom Colors

Pressing the “Colors” button on the SETTINGS window will call up the Colors Selection window. This window allows you to set the actual colors displayed by the values 0-16 used by most terminals to specify colors. In addition, there are two color types called “Default Foreground” and “Default Background”. These are the colors displayed when TelStar is initially started up, and whenever the terminal parameters are reset (this is terminal-dependant). If you don’t care to have separate defaults for these values, simply set them to be identical to any two in the 0-16 range.

Colors can be individually selected from either of two sources: either system colors or custom colors. Custom colors are set to a specific RGB value, and will never change, regardless of what you do to your desktop.

System colors are taken from the settings in Control Panel/Display/Appearance. These colors will automatically change if you modify your desktop theme.


Term-Type customizations
Term Type Customizations

Some terminal emualtions allow customized settings that are not generally available or relevant. In these cases, a Custom Settings window is available. If no window is available, the “Term Cust” button is grayed out.

ANSI

The ANSI term type has a Custom Settings window with one setting available:

Ignore Colorset

The control sequences “ESC [ = # F” and “ESC [ = # G” are used in some implementations to set foreground and background colors. However, in some environments, they have been found to produce truly ugly effects on the screen. This option can be used to tell the ANSI term emulation to ignore these particular sequences.


Running TelStar

TelStar may be run from a command-line (using the RUN option on the START menu), or from a shortcut, with zero or more parameters.


Command-Line Parameters

TelStar can be run with the following command-line parameters. Any parameters used will override the registry settings. Settings that allow a Y/N parameter option will default to Y if neither is supplied. No space is allowed between the parameter and the parameters options. Note that TelStar supports only ‘-‘ (dash or minus) as parameter indicators, and not ‘/’.

-A{Y|N}	Sets or unsets the AutoConnect parameter.
-C{Y|N}	Sets or unsets the AutoClose parameter.
-D xxxx	Specifies a DefaultHost for the connect dialog (if AutoConnect is off), or to connect to automatically (if AutoConnect is on).
-H xxxx	Specifies a HostFile as a source for the selections in the connect dialog.
-M{Y|N}	Specifies that the Monitor I/O setting be turned on or off.
-R{Y|N}	Turns Event Recording on or off
-S{Y|N}	Turns SuppressBanner on or off
-T termtype	You can override the term type on an individual basis. As of this version the only options for termtype are ansi and vt100.
-Vr,c{,Y|N}	This option allows you to specify the initial screen rows, columns, and optionally whether or not a label line will show. For instance, for vt100, a recommended setting might be “–V24,80,N”

Hint: To set up several shortcuts on your desktop that automatically connect to specified servers, you would set the shortcuts to:

Telstar.exe   –AY   -Dhostx

Where ‘hostx’ is different for each shortcut.

To specify different term types and/or window sizes as well, use the –T and –V options.


Connection Dialog

This is the Connect dialog that appears before TelStar attempts to connect to a host (unless the AutoConnect option is turned on). You can select a host from the list box, or enter a host or TCP address in the “Specify Host” edit box (Unless the AllowOther option is turned off).


Copy and Paste

TelStar allows copying and pasting of text, but with some procedural limitations. The normal shortcut keys (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V) can’t be used, as they may be intended as normal telnet keyboard input.

Copying can be done using the mouse to mark a rectangular area on the window. Because cutting doesn’t make sense in the context of this program, copying to the clipboard is the only reasonable option; accordingly, the copy happens immediately as the left mouse button is released.

Pasting is accomplished with the pulldown menu item EDIT/PASTE. The contents of the clipboard (if text) are simply sent through the telnet connection as keyboard input.


Technical Support

Bugs, requests, suggestions can be sent to us at contact@gicken.com

News and updates are available from our website at http://www.gicken.com

Whether or not you are a registered user, we appreciate your feedback on

•	Terminal types that you’d like supported

•	Control sequences that you’d like supported

•	Features you’d like added

•	Things you don’t like (If you decided not to buy, this is especially important)

•	Deficiencies, mistakes, bugs, etc.

•	Suggestions for improvement.

We are always working on improving our product. Decisions about which terminal types to implement are based on user feedback. If you want to see a terminal type supported, or want to see a feature added, for crying out loud tell us! (What are we, mind readers?)


Setting Environment Variables on the HOST System
Environment Variables

TelStar sets the following environment variables on the host system:

TERM

This is pretty standard for telnet programs. TelStar sets the TERM variable to the name of the terminal emulation selected.

PCNAME

The environment variable PCNAME is set to the value of the PC Name (Control Panel / Network / Identification Tab)

PCUSER

The environment variable PCUSER is set to the username that you used to log into your PC.


TERMINAL EMULATIONS

TelStar terminal emulations are completely contained in DLLs, which are located in the working directory. The SETTINGS program will automatically scan for all emulation DLLs when it is executed.

Term Types supported:

ANSI

VT100


ANSI Term Emulation
ANSI Terminal Emulation

The following terminal control sequences are recognized by the ANSI emulation

CONTROL SEQ.	DESCRIPTION	COMMENTS
^G	Bell
^H	Backspace
^I	Tab
^J	Line Feed
^L	Clear screen & home cursor
^M	Carriage Return
^N	Select secondary character set	Same as \E[11m
^O	Select primary character set
^R	Turn off aux print
^T	Turn on aux print	Printing goes to the default windows printer
\E1	Set tab at cursor position	This seems to  be a defacto standard
\E2	Clear tab at cursor position	Ditto
\E7	Save cursor position
\E8	Restore saved cursor position
\EQ#S#S	Program function keys	See note 1
\E[#@	Insert character(s)	See note 2
\E[#A	Move up row(s)	See note 2
\E[#B	Move down row(s)	See note 2
\E[#C	Move right col(s)	See note 2
\E[=#;#C	Set cursor visibility	Can’t find any docs on this. Implemented as starting and ending scan line.
\E[#D	Move left col(s)	See note 2
\E[#;#H	Move cursor to row,col
\E[#J	Erase in display	See note 3
\E[#K	Erase in line	See note 4
\E[#L	Insert line(s)	See note 2
\E[#M	Delete line(s)	See note 2
\E[#m	Visual Attribute(s)	See note 5
\E[#P	Delete char(s)	See note 2
\E[#S	Scroll window down. Don’t move cursor	See note 2
\E[s	Save cursor position
\E[u	Restore cursor position
\E[=#E	Set bold (0) or blink (1) background	This is a workaround for an EGA/DOS limitation. No longer applies (both bold and blink are always available). Ignored
\E[=#F	Set foreground color (0-15)	See note 6
\E[=#G	Set background color (0-15)	See note 6
\E[?7h	Automargins on	Allows cursor to wraparound from right edge to left edge
\E[?7l	Automargins off	Prevents cursor from wrapping around from right edge to left. Usually used to display a char at bottom right of screen without causing a scroll.

The following sequences are sent by keys in ANSI terminal emulation:

KEY	UNSHIFTED	SHIFTED	CONTROL
UP ARROW	\E[A
DOWN ARROW	\E[B
RIGHT ARROW	\E[C
LEFT ARROW	\E[D
PGUP	\E[I
PGDN	\E[G
HOME	\E[H
END	\E[F
INS	\E[L
DEL	<del>
F1	\E[M	\E[Y
F2	\E[N	\E[Z
F3	\E[O	\E[a
F4	\E[P	\E[b
…
F12	\E[X	\E[j

NOTES

1	\EQ#1S#2S

S is any arbitrary separator character. It must be the same char in both position, and it obviously must not be present in either of the # parameters.

#1 is the code that defines the function key.

#2 is the character sequence to program the key to emit

2	# is optional, defaults to 1.

3	When # is:

0	Erase from cursor to End of Screen (EOS) (default).

1	Erase from Beginning of Screen (BOS) to cursor

2	Erase entire screen.

4	When # is:

0	Erase from cursor to End of Line (EOL) (default).

1	Erase from Beginning of Line (BOL) to cursor.

2	Erase entire line (not the same as deleting the line!)

5	Multiple settings can be effected at once by separating the values with semicolons; i.e. this code “\E[0;6;4;31;42m” will reset all attributes (0), turn on rapid blink (6), turn on underline (4), set foreground color to red (31), and set background color to green (42).

The attributes are:

0	Reset all attributes

1	Bold

2	Dim

3	Italics

4	Underline

5	Blink

6	Rapid blink

7	Reverse

8	Invisible

9	Undefined or unknown

10	Primary font (multinational)

11	First alternate font. Implemented as monitor mode font

12	Second alternate font. Implemented as PCTERM font.

13	Double-height font – top half

14	Double-height font – bottom half

15	Double-width font.

3#	Where # is (0-7), sets the foreground to the low-intensity colors (See note 6)

3#	Where # is (8-15), implements the high-intensity colors (see note 6). This is a custom kludge, since the ansi standard doesn’t seem to allow for the possibility.

4#	Where # is (0-7), sets the background to the low-intensity colors (See note 6)

4#	Where # is (8-15), implements the high-intensity colors (see note 6). This is also a custom kludge.

6	Color Definitions:

Low Intensity	High Intensity

Black	0	8

Red	1	9

Green	2	10

Yellow	3	11

Blue	4	12

Magenta	5	13

Cyan	6	14

White	7	15


VT100 Term Emulation
VT100 Terminal Emulation

This following terminal control sequences are recognized by the VT100 emulation:

CONTROL SEQ	DESCRIPTION	COMMENTS
^G	Bell
^H	Backspace
^I	Tab
^J	Line Feed
^L	Clear screen & home cursor
^M	Carriage return
^N	Select secondary character set
^O	Select primary character set
^R	Turn off aux print
^T	Turn on aux print	Printing goes to the default windows printer
\E1	Set tab at cursor position
\E2	Clear tab at cursor position
\E7	Save cursor position, display attributes
\E8	Restore saved cursor position and display attributes
\EH	Set tab at cursor position
\EM	Cursor up – reverse scroll if necessary
\EQ#S#S	Program function keys	See note 1 in ANSI emulation
\E[>#D#D	Program special text area
\E[#@	Insert char(s)
\E[#A	Move up row(s)
\E[#B	Move down row(s)
\E[#C	Move right col(s)
\E[=#;#C	Set cursor size
\E[#D	Move left col(s)
\E[=#E	Set or clear bold/blink attributes
\E[=#F	Set foreground color
\E[=#G	Set background color
\E[#;#H	Set cursor position
\E[?3h	Set 132 cols
\E[?7h	Turn on automargin	Cursor wraps to next line automatically
\E[3h	Turn on monitor mode
\E[40h	turn label line off
\E[41h	Set 42 or 43 lines	(depending on label line state)
\E[4i	Turn off aux print
\E[5i	Turn on aux print
\E[0J	clear cursor to EOS
\E[1J	clear BOS to cursor
\E[2J	clear screen
\E[0K	clear cursor to EOL
\E[1K	clear BOL to cursor
\E[2K	clear entire line
\E[#L	insert line(s)
\E[?3l	set 80 columns
\E[?7l	Turn off automargin	cursor sticks at right edge of line
\E[3l	monitor mode off
\E[40l	turn on label line
\E[41l	Set 24 or 25 lines	(depending on label line state)
\E[#M	delete line(s)
\E[#m	sets various visual attributes
\E[#P	delete char(s)
\E[#;#r	Set scrolling region
\E[#S	scroll screen. Don’t move cursor
\E[s	Save cursor position
\E[u	Restore cursor position

The following sequences are sent by keys in VT100 terminal emulation:

KEY	UNSHIFTED	SHIFTED	CONTROL
UP ARROW	\E[A
DOWN ARROW	\E[B
RIGHT ARROW	\E[C
LEFT ARROW	\E[D
PGUP	\E[T
PGDN	\E[S
HOME	\E[H
END	\E[F
INS	\E[L
DEL	<del>
F1	^A@^M	^A<space>^M
F2	^AA^M	^Aa^M
F3	^AB^M	^Ab^M
F4	^AC^M	^Ac^M
…
F12	^AK^M	^Ak^M


TelStar Errors
TELSTAR ERROR MESSAGES

System Errors

Describes a class of errors usually caused by insufficient system resources or some other kind of error at the operating system level. These error messages are displayed when a function fails that normally should be expected to succeed, and where that failure makes it impossible to continue.

S1	Network initialization failed

S2	Couldn't register Window Class

S3	Couldn't create Main Window

S4	Can't Create a TIMER object

S5	Connection attempt failed!

S6	Couldn't get Printer list

S7	StartDoc failed

S8	Startpage failed

S9	Unable to register window class for banner

S10	Unable to create banner window

S11	Socket connection attempt failed

S12	Network error: Bind failed

S13	Couldn't establish connection attempt

S14	Network error: setsockopt failed!

S15	Network error: WSAAsyncSelect failed

S16	Network failure: couldn't open socket

S17	Network error -  can't capture port

S18	Network failure: WSAerror

S19	Network error: WSAAsyncSelect failed

S20	Out of memory on FontTable allocation

S21	Out of memory on AttrTable allocation

S22	Network error: Send attempt failed

Fatal Errors

These types of errors are usually caused by user error. Sorry, but it happens.

F1	Initialization failed. Run SETTINGS

F2	Invalid command line parameters

F3	Couldn't add fonts for size X * Y

F4	Can’t load term dll xxxx

F5	Invalid Registration key

F6	Can't find font files!

Logic Errors

These errors are internal programming logic errors. TelStar has encountered unanticipated data.

L1	Unhandled window option X

L2	Unhandled WUM_USER window message: WUM_USER+X

L3	Telnet handshake - Unknown state X

L4	Unhandled switch statement X in ErrorCall