Turnbull China Bikeride/Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 2.iso/STUTTGART/NEWSOFT/AUGUST/FREEDIAL/Install

Text File | 1996-02-20 | 9KB | 168 lines

How to Install a complete Internet software setup?
==================================================

If you know your way aroud RISC OS internet software or already have a
working setup, you don't need to read this.

Don't let this longish text discourage you from installing the software. You
don't need to edit complicated command or parameter files, it is pretty much a
case of unpacking the software, selecting a minimal configuration from a
frontend and run. I've tried to explain it very detailed in this text which
makes it rather long.


Installing Internet software
----------------------------
For a better understanding of all the software you need I'll try to explain
the main components of internet software first.

The interesting parts are internet applications like Webbrowsers, e-mail
Usenet news, or telnet applications. This software expects to find a working
on-line connection to the internet. I will not further discuss these
applications, since a variety of them are available and often supplied with
enough documentation to install them.

The connection between the internet and your applications is handled by a
TCP/IP protocol stack. TCP/IP is the transmission protocol which computers use
to communicate on an internet network. Acorn has defined an Application
Programming Interface for RISC OS internet applications. Acorn Internet,
FreeNet and ANT internet all use this API and software for any of these should
be compatible with any of the others. The TCP/IP protocol stack accepts
commands from the internet applications and translates this into TCP/IP data
traffic.

The TCP/IP stack needs a means of transport for the data. A driver will send
and receive the TCP/IP data traffic to and from specific hardware. Since you
are using FreeDial, you will be using a modem for an online connection and
you need a serial port driver to talk to it. Two protocols for serial port
connections are common, the Serial Line Internet Protocol: SLIP and the
Point to Point Protocol: PPP. Both of these have several options for further
variation. Your provider can tell you which of these driver protocols you
need for a connection. There is not much difference between them. The main
advantage of PPP is that you don't have to enter the LocalIP and RemoteIP
addresses as PPP will detect this itself.

To make it worse, there are two protocols for the connection of a TCP/IP stack
and a hardware driver. Acorn has defined the Device Control Interface: DCI for
this. Acorn now uses version 4 of the DCI protocol for its stack and drivers.
When FreeNet development started, the DCI4 specification was not available and
the older DCI2 version was used. The DCI2 and DCI4 protocols are not
compatible, so different drivers are required for the Acorn and FreeNet stack
while the same applications can be used with both. FreeNet will probably be
updated to DCI4 in the future.

Summarizing: There is a range of available internet applications which works
with Acorn standard Internet protocol implementations like Acorn Internet and
FreeNet.
The TCP/IP stack implements the gateway between the applications and the
communication hardware.
Two hardware driver protocols exist DCI2 and DCI4. You need one for your
hardware: the serial port, which implements the protocol to talk to the TCP/IP
stack, either DCI2 or DCI4 and a protocol to talk to the other end of the
hardware connection, SLIP or PPP.

This overview details the now latest versions of free available internet
software:

TCP/IP stacks:     Author:        Device Control Interface:
FreeNet 1.01       T.Huges        DCI2
Internet 4.07      Acorn          DCI4

Hardware drivers:  Author:        Device Control Interface:
SLIPdriver 1.00    T.Huges        DCI2
SLIPdriver 2.00    T.Huges        DCI4
PPPdriver 1.00     S.Monesi       DCI2 1)
PPPdriver 2.00     S.Monesi       DCI4 1)

1) The PPP drivers are shareware and you must register if you plan to use them.

The next paragraphs describe how you can install FreeDial with either Acorn
Internet or FreeNet for a working internet setup. You will need other software
to do anything useful with this setup. ArcWeb is probably a good application
to start with as it is easy to set up, and browsing the web can be great fun.
There are many other applications for ftp, telnet, e-mail, usenet news, IRC,
... The Hensa archive and the FreeNet development archive are good places to
get more applications from. Install just one of either FreeNet or Acorn
Internet, FreeDial will get confused when it finds both on your system! You
can safely switch later on though by swapping the FreeDial directory from
the !FreeUser.Files to or from the !Internet.Files directory.


Installing FreeDial with Acorn Internet
---------------------------------------
You need the Internet application and modules as supplied by Acorn. They can
be found on ftp://ftp.acorn.co.uk/pub/riscos/releases/networking/DCI4
as the files:
internet.arc - the !Internet application
System.arc   - the support modules

Furthermore you need drivers. You can use either SLIPdriver 2.00 or PPPdriver
2.00. Both can be found on
ftp://ftp.dsse.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pub/Acorn/freenet in
t.hughes/slipdriver2.00.arc and s.monesi/pppdriver2.00.arc

You also need a nameresolver module. You can use the InetDB module from
FreeNet.

Place the !Internet application in a directory. You don't need to configure
any of the files as described in its Docs, FreeDial will handle the
configuration. Upgrade your !System application with the Network modules
from the System.arc archive as described in its support documentation. Copy
the InetDB module from FreeNet in the !System.Modules.Network directory.
Open the !Internet directory and create a 'Drivers' directory in it. Copy
the SLIPdriver and/or PPPdriver in the !Internet.Drivers directory. Copy the
resconf file from FreeNet's !FreeUser.Files in the !Internet.Files
directory. Now close !Internet and run it. Nothing will happen, but this
will tell the Filer where the new location of !Internet is (after copying
from the archive). Copy !FreeDial in the same directory as !Internet. Run
the !AInstall file from the FreeDial archive, this will install the FreeDial
configuration in !Internet. Install any other Internet software you want to
use in the directory.

Run FreeDial. Select 'TCP/IP setup' and you should be able to select AcornDCI4
as your Internet software. Go back to 'Provider setup' and enter all the
details for your provider. When FreeDial already has a configuration for your
provider, you can simply select it and add your login details. Otherwise
select 'Add new' in the provider menu and enter all the details. Select a
modem driver in the 'Modem setup', HayesTone should work with most modems.
Select your serial port details. You must now select a login script in the
'TCP/IP setup'. If you have selected one of the available Providers, just
select a script for your driver, eg. SLIP, PPP, or PPP_PAP if your provider
supports the Password Authentication Protocol. If you entered a new provider,
you must also make a login script. This is a simple command file which will
handle the login procedure for your provider, since the login is often
different for different drivers (eg, sending slip or ppp command), this script
should also start the driver. When adding a script, an example SLIP script is
given which will be easy to modify for your provider. When all configuration
is complete, click Save to set this as the default setup and try it by
clicking Dial. Any problems will now probably be in the script file, click
Save Log from the dial window to see what happened and use it to debug the
script.

Once FreeDial completes successfully with the message 'Connected' in the
status diplay, you are online and you can run internet applications.


Installing FreeDial with FreeNet
--------------------------------
Installing FreeNet is easier as FreeNet is supplied with the required serial
hardware drivers and nameresolver module. You need just the FreeNet archive
which can be found in:
ftp://ftp.dsse.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pub/Acorn/freenet/t.huges/freenet1.01.arc

First make a directory in which you want to install your internet software.
Open the FreeNet archive and copy the !FreeNet and !FreeUser directories in
it. You don't need to configure !FreeNet as described in its documents,
FreeDial will handle this. Run the !FreeNet and !FreeUser applications so the
Filer knows the new locations of these. Now copy the !FreeDial application
from the archive in the same directory. Run !FNInstall from the archive, this
installs the FreeDial configuration in the !FreeUser application.

Now run FreeDial. Select 'TCP/IP setup' and you should be able to select
FreeNet as your Internet software. Enter the other setup details as described
for installing Acorn Internet.


Gert-Jan de Vos, [e-mail]