back2roots/padua/padua.7z/padua/text/AmiTCP.faq

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From: [e-mail] (Mike Meyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.networking,comp.sys.amiga.datacomm,comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: AmiTCP/IP Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.networking
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 94 01:10:02 PST
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Summary: This post contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions
        (and their answers) about AmiTCP/IP. It should be read by anyone
        who wishes to post about or use AmiTCP/IP.
Xref: cs.tu-berlin.de comp.sys.amiga.networking:2940 comp.sys.amiga.datacomm:30513 comp.sys.amiga.applications:32355 comp.answers:8658 news.answers:33077

Archive-name: amiga/AmiTCP-faq
Posting-Frequency: semimonthly
Last-modified: 1994/11/7
Version: 2.06


AmiTCP/IP Frequently asked Questions and their Answers.
=======================================================

This Document is the AmiTCP/IP Frequently Asked Questions and their
answers (I hope ;-).  I decided to create this after I got my Amiga
connected through AmiTCP/IP, and I found the same questions being
asked again and again, I also found myself to be answering some of
them also :-)

This FAQ will be posted by myself every semimonthly: news.answers,
comp.answers, comp.sys.amiga.datacomm, comp.sys.amiga.applications and
comp.sys.amiga.networking newsgroups.

If you have any suggestions, queries or corrections please email me at

              [e-mail]

and I will do my best to answer it.  I hope this document is helpful
to new people and experienced people alike and answers some queries
that they may have.

If you want to flame me, mail to nobody@localhost.

This FAQ is not a guide to TCP/IP, for that look for TCP/IP books in
your bookstore or search the Internet for Information, which is where
most of the information came to create this document.  It is also not
a guide to the internet

I have explained briefly some of the Internet protocols but they are
very basic explanation and I have only included them because they bear
some relevance to AmiTCP/IP.

Mail all spelling errors to [e-mail] :-)

AmiTCP/IP is forewith refered to as AmiTCP.

"SLIP/PPP or other dialup protocol" will commonly be referred to as
"dialup" through out.

Legal Mumbo Jumbo.
------------------

This document is copyright Neil J. McRae and Mike W. Meyer.
Permission is granted for this to be freely distributed UNALTERED, as
long as all credits are left intact.  If you plan to use this file, or
any part of it, in a publication you MUST contact me first and ask my
permission.  Any part of this document may be quoted on USENET.

Permission is given for this document to be posted to USENET and to be
uploaded to any anonymous FTP servers.

Disclaimer.
-----------

If you screw up it`s your fault and not mine.  This information is
provided as is and any damage occuring to you or your equipment is
your own fault.  Neil J. McRae and Mike W. Meyer disclaims any
liability of any kind of damage that may occur from use of the
information within this FAQ.

Neil J. McRae and Mike W. Meyer also disclaims any liability as to the
information's accuracy.  While much effort has gone into providing
accurate data, there is no guarantee that I have succeeded.

Acknowledgments.
-----------------

Neil J. MCrae deserves much credit for creating and maintaining
version 1 of this document.

Just  a few thanks to a few people who helped me in some way while creating
this document.

I`d like to thank the <[e-mail]> who are:

    Pekka Pessi                  <[e-mail]>
    Jarno Rajahalme          <[e-mail]>
    Markus Peuhkuri          <[e-mail]>
    Tomi Ollila                  <[e-mail]>


Thanks for doing this guys! Keep up the good work on AmiTCP.

And thanks also to:

        Oliver Smith                      <[e-mail]>
        Michael B. Smith             <[e-mail]>
        Jake Dias                       <[e-mail]>
        James R Grinter            <[e-mail]>
        Graham Walter          <[e-mail]>
        Wyrd Synapse             <[e-mail]>
        Leslie Orchard         <[e-mail]>
        Dan Murrell Jnr.               <[e-mail]>
        Matthew Zeier          <[e-mail]>
        Douglas Scott             <[e-mail]>
        Demon Internet                  <[e-mail]>
        Holger Kruse                      <[e-mail]>


All  the regulars on #amiga & #GB and all the posters of FAQ`s that made me
get off my backside and do this :-)

        ----------------------------------------

Frequently asked Questions.
===========================

Index of questions answered.
----------------------------

 1> What is AmiTCP?

 2> What is TCP/IP?

 3> What is the Internet?

 4> Where can I get AmiTCP?

 5> Where is the AmiTCP Documentation?

 6> Where is the list of AmiTCP applications?

 7> What is the latest version of AmiTCP?

 8> How do I contact the AmiTCP author`s?

 9> I think I found a bug in AmiTCP what should I do?

 10> Is there an AmiTCP mailing list?

 11> Where are the archives of the AmiTCP Mailing List?

 12> What do I need to be able to use AmiTCP?

 13> Are there any alternatives to AmiTCP?

 14> What is SANA-II?
  b> What does Resource Allocation Failure mean?

 15> What is C/SLIP?

 15> What is the problem with SLIP and the A2232 baord?

 16> What is PPP?

 17> What is Ethernet?

 18> What is an RFC?

 19> What is NFS?

 20> I get a message could not open serial device unit 0 when I run
     AmiTCP after I connect to my SLIP server.  I tried quitting Term
     but my connection to my server is terminated.
     a) Why is this?,
     b) How can I fix it?  and
     c) How do I stay online?

 21> Can I use AmiTCP with a dynamic IP address?

 22> I have connected to my host fine but I cannot connect to any
     hosts outside my University or Network.  How can I fix this?

 23> What mail and news clients can I use with AmiTCP?

 24> Is there an IRC client for AmiTCP?

 25> What is NapsaTerm used for?

 26> Is there a telnet daemon?

 27> Do I need MultiUser?

 28> How can I see whats happening with my network connection?

 29> AmigaELM uses the HOSTNAME but AmiTCP seems to want the fully
     qualified domain name, How can I resolve this problem?

 30> What is a Domain Name Server? And How do I get one?

 31> What is are "Domain Names to Search"?

 32> What is Mosaic?

 33> Can I setup a WWW Server with AmiTCP?

 34> I've heard Mosaic is only for version 3.0 Amigas.  Why? and is
     there an alternative for version 2.x Amigas?

 35> I only log on for a few seconds to see if I've got mail waiting.
     Would AmiTCP be overkill for those situations?

 36> I thought Emacs was just a text editor.  I've seen it mentioned
     in a few posts.  What is it used for?

 37> My internet provider does offer SLIP accounts for a small extra
     charge.  If I change my account to a SLIP account, can I still
     access it the "old" way, in case I just want to quickly check my
     mail or something?

 38> If I'm using AmiTCP, is my mail and downloaded files being stored
     on my local hard drive?

 39> Am I correct in stating that I can be connected to several
     different computers using several different applications?

 40> What is the waitforport command in bin/startnet doing?

 41> How do I set up other hosts to reach the internet via my SLIP line?

 42> Where can I find more programs for use with AmiTCP?

 43> What should I do if I have a question that is not answered here?

 44> What other references might be useful?

----------------------------------------------------------------------


1> What is AmiTCP?


AmiTCP is a set of programs that enables the Amiga to connect to a
TCP/IP network.  AmiTCP lets the user use commands such as ftp, telnet
from your Amiga.  AmiTCP also lets remote users connect to your
machine from other TCP/IP hosts.  AmiTCP is a TCP/IP protocol stack
for implementing basic Internet protocols on top of any SANA-II
network device driver, such as one for SLIP or Ethernet. AmiTCP can be
configured to let other users connect and login or transfer files form
your computer.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


2> What is TCP/IP?


TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
 TCP/IP  is  a  protocol  that  allows  any  system  on  a  network to talk
"directly"  to any other, by passing packets of information back and forth.
TCP/IP  (and its later relative OSI) is usually used over networks built on
top  of  Ethernet,  Token-Ring,  Starlan and other LANS.  The Internet uses
TCP/IP.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


3> What is the Internet?


An "internet" is a network comprised of computers that talk to each
other using TCP/IP.

The "Internet" is a vast network of hundreds of thousands of machines
using TCP/IP to communicate.

The Internet grew out of a US government funded project in
inter-computer communications that grew into an enormous network of
systems.  One of the principle characteristics of this network is that
machines are addressed by domain names which identify the destination,
rather than addresses that are constructed out of the route from
machine-to-machine-to-machine.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


4> Where can I get AmiTCP?


AmiTCP is available from several places:
Any Aminet mirror :- ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.luth.se
And from: ftp.demon.co.uk, ftp.funet.fi via Anonymous FTP.

    Aminet:comm/net/AmiTCP-bin-22.lha
    Aminet:comm/net/AmiTCP-22to23.lha this patches the above file.

    ftp.demon.co.uk:pub/amiga/amitcp/AmiTCP-bin-22.lha
    ftp.demon.co.uk:pub/amiga/amitcp/AmiTCP-22to23.lha

    ftp.funet.fi:pub/amiga/net

It is also available on Fred Fish Disks:


The home site for AmiTCP is kampi.hut.fi:AmiTCP/ and this is where the
current version is available from.



----------------------------------------------------------------------


5> Where is the AmiTCP Documentation?


The  documentation  is  available  in  several formats from kampi.hut.fi via
anonymous FTP.

                           kampi.hut.fi:AmiTCP/

AmiTCP-dvA-20.lha  DVI A4 page size
AmiTCP-dvL-20.lha  DVI US Letter page size
AmiTCP-psA-20.lha  Postscript A4 Page Size (recommended =>300 DPI printers)
AmiTCP-psL-20.lha  Postscript US Letter Page Size (again =>300 DPI printers)
AmiTCP-txt-20.lha  Docs in ASCII text format


----------------------------------------------------------------------


6> Where is the list of AmiTCP applications?


These are available from gopher:

   <gopher://gopher.tky.hut.fi/00/.publish/puhuri/AmiTCP/NetAppList.txt>

and World Wide Web:

      <http://www.hut.fi/~puhuri/Amiga/NetAppList.html>

Updates to this list should be mailed to:

                         <[e-mail]>


----------------------------------------------------------------------


7> What is the latest version of AmiTCP?


The latest release version of AmiTCP is version 2.3.

AmiTCP 2.3 is distributed as a binary patch package to version 2.2 of
AmiTCP.

Please note that you should not use any beta version of AmiTCP unless,
of course you are a beta tester.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


8> How do I contact the AmiTCP author`s?


The AmiTCP author`s can be Contacted via email at:-
[e-mail] Please only contact the group on AmiTCP matters,
if you have a problem with a client or a server with AmiTCP contact
the author of that program.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


9> I think I found a bug in AmiTCP what should I do?

Check it in the newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.networking before taking it
to the authors; make sure they spend their time working on our beloved
AmiTCP, rather than repeatedly answering the same questions by mail.

Then once you are SURE that it is a bug and you can reproduce it
several times mail [e-mail] giving as much information
regarding your hardware and software setup as possible, with an
accurate description of the bug and the steps needed to take show the
bug`s performance ;-)


----------------------------------------------------------------------


10> Is there an AmiTCP mailing list?


Yes, it is meant for developers of software for AmiTCP.  Please
consult the file AmiTCP:README.FIRST. ;-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------


11> Where are the archives of the AmiTCP Mailing List?
(thanks Markus :)

These are available in two places from gopher the URL is:

        <gopher://gopher.tky.hut.fi/11/.publish/puhuri/AmiTCP/list>

and also via Anonymous FTP at:

                 kampi.hut.fi:AmiTCP/amitcp-listYYYY-MM.gz

Where YYYY-MM is the year and month.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


12> What do I need to be able to use AmiTCP?


You need the following Hardware:
                       ---------

An Amiga running AmigaOS 2 or greater, recommended are hard disk and
2MB of ram.  And some for of Connection to a Network, e.g.  a Modem
for a Serial connection or an Ethernet card for an Ethernet
connection.  See the FAQ What is Ethernet?  for information about
Ethernet cards.


You need the following Software:
                       ---------

AmiTCP-bin-22.lha use the installer script to install this, and then
extract the files from AmiTCP-22to23.lha and copy them over the old
versions of the files.  See above for information on how to obtain
these files.

You also need a SANA-II Network driver. A SLIP and CSLIP driver is
included. See below for more information on SANA-II

You need the following Information:
                       ------------

NOTE: This information should be sought from your network provider or
your System/Network Administrator.


1) An IP address allocated for you Amiga.
     for example  my IP address is 158.152.25.117

2) Destination IP address - only applies if you are using a "point
   to point" protocol such as most dialup protocols.
   Usually this is the address of the equipment you connect to.


3) Netmask for you network, usually this only applies for a network such as
   an ethernet or if you are connected to several networks.
   If you are connected via a single dialup connection, e.g. using SLIP or
   PPP,  you  should  use  a netmask of 255.255.255.254.

Note: If you only have the one connection, like most of us, netmasks
      are purely irrelevant.

4) A name for your Amiga i.e a nodename- my hostname is domino,
   (which  is  taken  from the Excellent Genesis track Called Domino on The
   Invisible Touch Album :)

5) Your domain name - this is usually your providers network name,
   e.g. mine is demon.co.uk, yours may be netcom.net or bbcnc.org.uk

6) The _numeric_ address of a Domain Name Server; eg my nameserver is
   158.152.1.65 this is used to lookup text addresses (e.g.
   domino.demon.co.uk) into dotted-decimal IP addresses (e.g.
   158.152.25.117).  If you don't have access to a name server, you will
   have to use dotted-decimal (or "numeric") IP addresses to connect to
   other hosts, or add regularly used addresses to your AmiTCP:db/hosts
   file.  If you have access to a Unix machine, you can copy their file
   "/etc/hosts".  You are _highly_ recommended to use a nameserver if you
   have access to one, as this saves disk space, and will save you many
   bundles of hair when your favourite host changes it's _numeric_ IP
   address.  (thanks Oliver)

7) Default Gateway Address - if you have ethernet, this should be the
   address of your router (the machine with connections to the outside
   world) - if you are using a dialup protocol, this should be the
   same as your destination address. If TCP/IP doesn't have specific
   information on where to send data, it will send it to the default
   gateway, e.g. if your sending mail to your Auntie in New Zealand,
   mail will pass trough this address :-)


----------------------------------------------------------------------


13> Are there any alternatives to AmiTCP?


The only other freely available TCP/IP stack is AmigaNOS.  There is
also AS225r2 but as I write this is only available to registered
Commodore Developers.

There is also AS225r1, which was sold together with the Commodore
Arnet and Ethernet board.  Unlike AS225r2 it is available to the
general public -- if you manage to get a Commodore Arcnet/Ethernet
board.  This is not SANA2 compatible and does not drive SLIP or PPP.

Other networking like programs include DNET and AmigaUnixWindows,
these and AmigaNOS are available on Aminet.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


14> What is SANA-II?


SANA-II is the software interface between AmiTCP and your network
interface.  There are SANA-II drivers for SLIP.  CSLIP, the A2060 card
and the A2065 card and PPP that are freely available.  If you are
purchasing a card to connect your Amiga to a network, e.g.  Ethernet,
make sure that the card has a a SANA-II driver if you are planning to
use AmiTCP, with the card.

The SANA-II is the standard Amiga network device driver specification
released by Commodore-Amiga.  The SANA-II specification is available
on the Aminet, fish disks and other forums.
(Thanks Jarno)


----------------------------------------------------------------------


14b> What does Resource Allocation failure mean?
(Thanks Oliver)

This means your particular SANA2 Driver (RHCSlip, GWCSlip, Slip, PPP)
cannot fire itself up; this can often be due to an error in your
configuration file (usually in (env|envarc):sana2 ...  slip0.config or
ppp0.config or similar) or may be that some resource on which the
driver relies (e.g.  serial.device) is missing, wrongly configured or
not working.  With GWCSlip this is usually because you've omitted
something like the "DialScript=AmiTCP:DB/DialScript" parameter.



----------------------------------------------------------------------


15> What is C/SLIP?


SLIP is Serial Line Internet Protocol

SLIP is used, most commonly, for connecting a computer to a TCP/IP
network using a modem. SLIP lets IP packets be sent up and down a
serial line.

CSLIP is an extension of the SLIP protocol, which reduces the typical
TCP/IP packet-overhead of 40-bytes per packet to 3 or 5 bytes by
"remembering" a number of active connections and (a) not resending
unused fields (b) only sending changes to the headers.  Since a
compression algorithm is not used, it does not impair any compression
added by your modem, and thus presents a significant improvement in
packet throughput!  CSLIP gives much better response in interactive
applications such as Telnet.  (Thanks Oliver and Markus)

If your providers don't have slip, or if you are your provider, and
you don't have slip, it is publically available.  Ask you System
Administrator for more information.

Existing AmiTCP CSLIP drivers will only use CSLIP if it is available
on the remote end, otherwise they will gracefully degrade to using
ordinary SLIP.

For a detailed description of SLIP and CSLIP consult a book on TCP/IP
protocols.  There is a SLIP faq available in comp.protocols.tcp-ip
newsgroup.

SLIP is described in RFC 1055
CSLIP is described in RFC 1055 & 1144

15b) What is the problem with SLIP and the A2232 baord?

The problem is with EOFMODE.  The A2232 does not handle this feature
properly.  The rhcslip.device V38.8 or 38.9 works also with A2232.
Availible from Aminet.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


16> What is PPP?


Point to Point Protocol is another way of connecting to your network.
It is a more robust protocol than SLIP, and addresses many of SLIP`s
weaknesses.  However it is much more difficult than SLIP to implement
but the advantage over SLIP make it the serial protocol of the future.
(this is my opinion ;-)

Again for a detailed description of PPP consult a book on TCP/IP or
get the PPP faq available via anonymous FTP from

RTFM.MIT.EDU:/usenet/comp.protocols.ppp/*

PPP is described in RFCs 1332, 1333, 1334, 1376, 1377, 1552, 1570,
1598, 1619,1638 and 1663 phew!

As the FAQ was prepared a PPP SANA-II driver was uploaded to Aminet:

                Aminet:comm/net/PPP1_0.lha

This is a non registered version. A shareware version with many more
features is also on Aminet but requires a key file which you must pay
the author $15. I personally plan to register. Consult the
documentation for more details on this.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


17> What is Ethernet?
(thanks to http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/ :)

A coaxial cable local area network first described by Metcalfe & Boggs
of Xerox PARC in 1976.  Specified by DEC, INTEL & XEROX (DIX), Now
recognised as the industry standard.  Data is broken into packets.
Packets are transmitted using the CSMA/CD algorithm until they arrive
at the destination without colliding with any other.  The first
contention slot after a transmission is reserved for an acknowledge
packet.  A node is either transmitting or receiving at any instant.
Bandwidth ~10Mbit/s.  Disk-Ethernet-Disk transfer rate with TCP/IP is
typically 30 kbyte/s.  The cable is a 50 ohm coaxial cable with
multiple shielding.

EtherNet is described in lots of RFCs.  Read the index if you're that
keen to find out.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


18> What is an RFC?


RFC are documents that are used to define the Internet standards.
RFC stands for  Request For Comments.
De facto: Requirement For Conformance. (thanks Michael)

RFC`s are available from many FTP sites including ftp.wustl.edu,
ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.demon.co.uk.  rs.internic.net is the
"official" place in the United States.  ftp.uu.net is the best
connected place to get them in the USA.

The file "rfc-index.txt" which should be available on every RFC
repository, contains an index of all published RFC's


---------------------------------------------------------------------


19> What is NFS?
(From the Sun NFS documentation:)

NFS is a network file system developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.  The
Sun Network Filesystem (NFS) protocol provides transparent remote
access to shared filesystems over local area networks.  The NFS
protocol is designed to be machine, operating system, network
architecture, and transport protocol independent.

Again for a detailed description of NFS consult a TCP/IP book.

There is an AmiTCP NFS client in development but it is not completed
yet.  Please do not post about this, the author will announce when it
is ready.

There is however an Amiga to Amiga NetFS implemetation that is
included with AmiTCP.  This is NOT NFS but lets the Amiga share other
Amiga's Disk Drives.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


20> I get a message could not open serial device unit 0 when I run
    AmiTCP after I connect to my SLIP server.  I tried quitting Term
    but my connection to my server is terminated.

a) Why is this?, b) How can I fix it? and c) How do I stay online?

a)
There are many reasons for this problem.  The most common is that the
serial device in use by another program, for example your comms
package.  (Term, Terminus etc).  If you are using a terminal package
to dial into your TCP/IP server this will give this error.  And your
modem is not set to ignore DTR, so when you quit term the modem hangs
up the phone, thus ending your Connection.

b)
There are many solutions to avoid this problem.  I am going to suggest
2.  The first is to use the Dial in arexx script that in on Aminet,
this automates the entire connection process, Arexx is used to dial up
your Server enter your account details and startup AmiTCP when it has
connected and logged in.  The script is very flexible and also handles
Dynamic IP assign, you may need to modify the script depending on your
setup, however this is a very straightforward process.

The script is available from Aminet:

                     Aminet:comm/net/amitcp_dial10.lha

Also there is another dialer program caller dialer.  This program acts
as a go between serial.device and your PPP/SLIP driver.  This program
dials up your hosts and logs the user in and then puts the SANA driver
online.  This is available from Demon:

               ftp.demon.co.uk:pub/amiga/amitcp/dialer_1.lha

I`m currently using this and I find it excellent.

I similar type program is gwcslip. Which is by Graham Walter. This is
a CSLIP SANA driver which dials into your host. It works very similar
to the above program.

This program is available from Demon:

              ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/amiga/amitcp/gwslip#?.lha

Look for the revision number which is part of the filename.

c)
The other is to set you modem to ignore DTR.  Start your terminal
program, Dial into your server, login in as normal, issue what
commands you need to start up your TCP/IP connection (e.g.
sliplogin).  When you have started up your serving program QUIT your
terminal program leaving the call running and THEN start AmiTCP by
executing AmiTCP:bin/startnet

NOTE: You MUST ensure that the BAUD RATE your terminal program is
using is the SAME AS the BAUD RATE YOU have configured your
SLIP/CSLIP/PPP driver to use.

PLEASE, remember to set your baud rate to the configuration file of
the SANA-II device driver you are using. See the documentation inluded
with your SANA-II driver for more information on this file.



----------------------------------------------------------------------


21> Can I use AmiTCP with a dynamic IP address?


Yes.  You can use the Arexx script on Aminet or follow the above steps
but before you start AmiTCP you must change your startnet script to
you assigned IP number.  This goes for any other dynamic addresses
such as your hostname etc.


Also the PPP driver on Aminet has special options for connecting to
dialup hosts. Consult the excellent documentation within the archive.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


22> I  have  connected  to  my host fine but I cannot connect to any hosts
    outside my University or Network.  How can I fix this?


This is a routing problem, you must add a route to your default
gateway using the command:

         AmiTCP:bin/route add default your.default.gateways.number

158.152.6.65 is my default gateway.  Ask your system administrator for
this number.  This command should be already in your startnet script
if you have followed the Install procedure correctly.

This could also be because of a firewall, too.  That is, the IP
traffic from your hosts is not passed to the Internet. Your Network
provider will be able to give you more information on this.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


23> What mail and news clients can I use with AmiTCP?


There is only one complete Mail and News package called INetUtils by
Michael B.  Smith, I use these and I recommend them to all.  These
utilities work as drop in commands for AUUCP and let you use UUCP
compatible newsreaders, such as TIN, and UUCP compatible mail readers,
such as AmigaELM.  The faq was posted to USENET using TIN with
InetUtils.  Please note however that the mail programs contain some
bugs, and mail loss has been reported :(

GRn is also available for AMITCP which allows direct connection with
your news server.

AmiPOP by Scott Ellis is also included with InetUtils for users who
can connect to POP mail servers.

All the above mentioned programs are available on Aminet:

    Aminet:comm/news/
    Aminet:comm/mail/
    Aminet:comm/net/

Also Gnus can be used with GNU Emacs (albeit a tad slow) works fine
for reading news, For mail with emacs you still require an external
transport unit such as InetUtils.  Gnus was one of the first
applications used to test AmiTCP.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


24> Is there an IRC client for AmiTCP?


There is one written Emacs LISP. Which requires Emacs.  This is
available from kampi.hut.fi, however, there are some funtions that
cause normal irc client to display error messages, so if people moan
at you you know why :-) :-) Emacs is available on Aminet.

The Grapevine Amiga IRC works with AmiTCP. It has a nice graphic
interface and DCC su. The latest version is available on the support
site, helser56.res.iastate.edu. on AmiNet, but the support site is
always current.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


25> What is NapsaTerm used for?


Napsaterm is an rlogin program which can emulate a VT terminal.  It
lets you login to a host that uses the rlogin protocol, Napsaterm 38.b
now also is now a telnet client, Consult the docs for more
information.

NB: If you wish to specify a port number for telnet, use the -s
command; e.g.
   1.> telnet auntie.bbcnc.org.uk 9999
  is replaced with
   1.> napsaterm -d TELNET -s 9999 auntie.bbcnc.org.uk

----------------------------------------------------------------------


26> Is there a telnet daemon?


Tnserv on Aminet, however it is an active daemon and also does not use
the AmiTCP passwd file for password information.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


27> Do I need MultiUser?


If you plan to use a FTP server and want more than anonymous ftp then
you will have to install Multiuser at some point.  MultiUser is very
handy if you plan to have you machine on the net all the time.
MultiUser is on Aminet.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


28> How can I see whats happening with my network connection?


The command AmiTCP:bin/netstat will show you all the active
connections to your machine and where they are from, and which port
they are connected to.  For example if you had a connection to port 25
it would mean that your Amiga was getting new mail.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


29> AmigaELM uses the HOSTNAME but AmiTCP seems to want the fully
    qualified domain name, How can I resolve this problem?
(Thanks to Jarno and Michael)

"You could probably use the variable to "name only", since AmiTCP/IP
itself does not use the variable at all.  Some application programs
(e-mail programs, etc) might have problems, though.  The current
standard on the various Unix versions is that the HOSTNAME includes
the fully qualified host name (i.e..  with the domain).

"The next release (3.0) of the AmiTCP/IP fixes this by implementing
the gethostname() function differently (the name is taken from the
name server/host database instead of the HOSTNAME variable if
possible).


----------------------------------------------------------------------


30> What is a Domain Name Server? And How do I get one?


A Domain Name Server put simply is a massive address book of the
internet, It enables the user to use hostnames while not having them
in their Amitcp:db/hosts file.

A named implementation is on ftp.demon.co.uk, however as someone who
has setup his own nameserver, I would recommend that you use someone
elses :-) DNS is quite a complex system and unless you are running a
massive network you don`t really need your own.


For more information on DNS again consult a TCP/IP book.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


31> What is/are "Domain Names to Search"?
(thanks Jarno :)

"The "Domain names to search" are the domain names which are appended
to a given host name on the search.  If you have a name "foo" and the
domain names to search are "bar.edu" and "zip.zop" then the
"foo.bar.edu" is tried first, and if that fails, the "foo.zip.zop" is
tried next.  It the name to search includes the domain part, it is
searched as it is."


----------------------------------------------------------------------


32> What is Mosaic?


Mosaic is a client for the World Wide Web.  The World Wide Web is a
new application on the Internet which allows pictures, sounds,
animations to be viewed from anywhere on the Internet. Amiga Mosaic in
on Aminet.

                   Aminet:comm/net/Mosaic1.2.1_AmiTCP.lha

Mosaic can also be used to access FTP servers from a GUI front end,
and to access Gopher and many other services.  The next release of
Mosaic will even allow you to connect to telnet services listed on WWW
pages.

If you have GNU Emacs working with TCP, you can also use the emacs-w3
client as a world wide web server. It is a text only client, using a
fixed width font. However, it does support forms.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


33> Can I set up a World Wide Web Server with AmiTCP?

Yes an _excellent_ http daemon (httpd) exists ported by Graham Walter,
It has been included with AMosaic.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


34> I've heard Mosaic is only for version 3.0 Amigas.  Why?  and is
    there an alternative for version 2.x Amigas?


This is no longer true. Mosaic version 1.2 works with 2.x Amigas,
though not very well. Since there are no datatypes, you lose inlined
images. Version 1.2.1 was an emergency bug fix, and is reported to
fail miserably under WB 2.x.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


35> I only log on for a few seconds to see if I've got mail waiting.
    Would AmiTCP be overkill for those situations?


In this case yes connecting via AmiTCP would be a bit of an overkill.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


36> I thought Emacs was just a text editor.  I've seen it mentioned in
    a few posts.  What is it used for?


Emacs is the GOD of all editors :-).  It has it`s own programming
language that lets the user run programs on it.  Emacs has gopher, IRC
and WWW programs that can be used with AmiTCP.  And also Gnus for news
reading.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


37> My internet provider does offer SLIP accounts for a small extra
    charge. If I change my account to a SLIP account, can I still
    access it the "old" way, in case I just want to quickly check my
    mail or something?


The only people who can answer that are your Network providers.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


38> If I'm using AmiTCP, is my mail and downloaded files being stored
    on my local hard drive?


Yes if you use FTP from your Amiga then the files are transferred
DIRECTLY to your Amiga`s hard disk drive. No more ZMODEM!!! The same
goes for mail, news etc.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


39> Am I correct in stating that I can be connected to several
    different computers using several different applications?
    (thanks Markus :-)


Yes, this is correct, however, the more connections you have the more
bandwidth is required/used on your link.  For example you could be
using FTP, while on IRC.  OR you could be viewing Mosaic pages while
reading news.

However, if there is no traffic on some connections (= are idle), they
do not use bandwidth at all.  So it is the same if you have ten or one
terminal sessions open if you are just using one (at the time).


----------------------------------------------------------------------


40> What is the waitforport command in bin/startnet doing?


The purpose of the WaitForPort command in the bin/startnet is to
prevent execution of the fortcoming commands before AmiTCP has fully
initialized itself. WaitForPort is part of the Rexx package that was
bundled with AmigaDOS 2.0 and later, and can be found in sys:rexxc.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


41> How do I set up other hosts to reach the internet via my SLIP line?

Before you do anything else, get IP address(es) for the other hosts
from your service provider. Your service providre has to arrange to
send packets for those IP addresses to your Amiga, so that it can
forward them to the appropriate hosts. Unless your provider is
forwarding those packets to your Amiga, nothing else will work, so
don't even try. Note that your provider is not obligated to provide
this service to you, unless you have a contract that says they are.
Some providers will refuse to do so.

Next, install TCP/IP on your other hosts. The default gateway address
should be the IP address of the gateway Amiga (the one that is
connected to the external SLIP line). For a SLIP connection, the
destination IP address should also be the gateway Amiga.

Finally, configure the gateway Amiga. For SLIP interfaces, you can use
the same IP address for each line, with the destination address being
the address of the host on the other end of the line. Presumably,
you're going to use the same SLIP driver, so configure the second
interface similar to the first, changing only the device name and unit
number. You may want to turn off carrier detect. Copy the ifconfig
line in amitcp:bin/startnet, changing the destination IP address and
SLIP device and unit to the values for the SLIP connection you are
adding.  Last - but not least - edit amitcp:db/amitcp.config to set
gateway=YES instead of NO.

Assuming that everything was done properly - by both you and your
network provider - you should be able to reboot the gateway and
internal machines, and have everything work. Testing should proceed
along the same lines as setting up an initial SLIP line: make sure
your machines can talk to each other, then try talking to the first
external destination, then try reaching the internet at large.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


42> Where can I find more programs for use with AmiTCP?


Aminet is always the place to look, usually in the comm directory,
Also look in ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/amitcp/ this site dedicated to the
Internet.

And look in the applications list available via gopher:

   <gopher://gopher.tky.hut.fi/00/.publish/puhuri/AmiTCP/NetAppList.txt>

and On the World Wide Web:

          <http://www.tky.hut.fi/~puhuri/Amiga/NetAppList.html>


----------------------------------------------------------------------


43> What should I do if I have a question that is not answered here?


Your best option is to post to USENET in the comp.sys.amiga.networking
newsgroup.  Include as much information as possible, what system your
running, what version of AmiTCP your running, What the problem is.
The more info you give the better the chance you have of your question
being answered.  Alternatively mail me <[e-mail]> or
the [e-mail] and we will try to answer your questions.


This is of course after you have read all the AmiTCP Documentation and
any additional documentation that comes with the software that you use
:-)


----------------------------------------------------------------------


44> What other references might be useful?


[Authors note: I'm including both commercial and non-commercial
references, along with how to find either them or more information.
This is not an endorsement, merely a pointer to more information.]

"Connect Your Amiga! A Guide to the Internet, LANs, BBSs and Online
Services," by Dale L. Larson. ISBN 1-885876-02-5, US$24.95. For more info:
    Intangible Assets Manufacturing
    828 Ormond Avenue
    Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2604
    USA
    VOICE: [phone]
    FAX:   [phone]
    EMAIL: [e-mail]
    WWW: http://www.iam.com/iam


If you're interested in using The Internet Adapter (tm) (normally just
TIA), you might want to get a copy of the TIA FAQ from:
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/envoy/TIA


----------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Mike W.Meyer <[e-mail]>
AmiTCP FAQ Administrator and contributor.

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           |           [e-mail]             |
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