OS/2 Shareware BBS: 35 Internet/35-Internet.zip/howslp.zip/SLIPCSN.TXT

Text File | 1995-03-15 | 17KB | 368 lines

How to make an "Other Provider" connection using the OS/2 WARP
Internet Access Kit:

This note is a summary of my experience in establishing an "Other
Provider" SLIP connection using the OS/2 WARP Internet Access Kit.  It
contains the results of enough research so that I got the connection
reliably working with Colorado Supernet (with a lot of thanks to Jim
Romary at CSN).  Other providers should be similar.  However, it has
been my experience that there are a lot of understaffed providers
attempting to support Internet connections without properly trained
staff, so there is a real risk that you will know more than the
provider's staff.

Recommendation: if you are not using Ray Gwinn's SIO communications
drivers, stop now and download them from Compuserv.  (Try OS2BVEN or
OS2USER. As of this writing the latest version was SIO145.ZIP, but
Ray does an excellent support job and regularly enhances his code.
Please be a good global network citizen and send Ray the very few
dollars he asks for a license.  He has done a lot to stabilize OS/2
communications.  As a bonus, you will end up with VMODEM, which
allows you to connect to a rapidly expanding list of Bulletin Boards
using the Internet connection you are about to establish.)

In order to make the IAK "Other Provider" connection work you must
have a SLIP connection account established with the provider.  This is
not the same as a regular dialin connection, so you must explicitly
request a SLIP (or PPP, see below) connection.  You will need several
other pieces of information, so read this whole document before
talking to your provider.

There seem to be two kinds of SLIP connections: static and dynamic.
The difference is whether you are assigned the same IP address
everytime you connect.  If you have your own domain name, then you
probably have a static SLIP connection.  (If you use PPP, then this
distinction is irrelevant.)  If you have a static connection, then you
will need to know your assigned IP address.

If you provider supports a PPP connection, then you may want to use
that rather than SLIP.  However, you will first need to download the
PPP Beta support code (using "Retrieve Updates" from the IAK panel),
which requires you to already have an Internet connection.  If you
already have one, then why are you engaging in all this effort to
establish another?  There are simpler forms of torture.

You will need to know your assigned Internet address, the phone number
of the provider, the login sequence (see below), the address of a
nameserver, and how to login to the POP Mail server.  The paragraphs
below take you through each field on the setup screens.  [Items marked
with an * below are required information that you should get from your
provider before attempting configuration.  Otherwise, you will call
them several times during this process and they real get real
annoyed.  You will get real irritated when they can't answer your
questions, so get all the questions out of the way before you start.]

Configuring the WARP "Other Providers" screens:

Open the Internet window and select "Dial Other Internet Providers."
You will see a connection screen (IBM Dial-Up for TCP/IP).  Select
"Add Entry" and a 4-page dialog will open up.


               Configuration Dialog Page 1 (Login Info):

Name:  Enter a name for this script.  This name appears on the
connection screen as the name of this provider and has no other known
purpose.

Description:  Enter whatever you want.  Doesn't seem to affect
anything.  I put in the same thing I entered in the Name field.

*Login ID: You need to put your SLIP Login ID in the field.  Get this
from your provider.  It may be the same as the username part of your
Internet address, but it is often different.

*Password:  Put your SLIP password here.  Get this from your provider.

*Phone Number:  Enter the number the provider gave you for access.
You do not need to put a "9," in front of it if you need to access an
outside line.  There is a place to do that on the main Dial-Up screen.
Note that a static SLIP account may be bound to a specific telephone
number.

*Login Sequence:  This is where all the fun begins.  If you do this
right and your provider has reasonably normal equipment, then you do
NOT have to fool around with a REXX command file.

The lines in this field are alternately sent by the connection program
or it waits for the specified text before proceeding to send the
following line.  There is, however, no way to get the script to wait
first; this program expects to be the first to send.  You need to know
what the "annex" you are connecting to expects.  The easiest way to
find this out is to dial in using a Terminal emulator, login, and
record each line of the dialog.  Otherwise, ask your provider to
supply documentation of the sequence.  (When we've all figured out how
to do this most providers will finally develop a document telling you
how to do what you now already know how to do.  Do your friends a
favor.  When you get this working, write a note like this -- feel
free to plagarize this one -- and send it to the provider so that
they can handle the next request.)

[For more information on the script, click your mouse in the "Login
Sequence" field and then click Help.  The explanation is a little
terse, but it's all there.]

There seem to be two popular connection scripts.  Depending on the
device you are calling, you will either need to start with a carriage
return (to wake the box up) or to immediately send your login id.

If your provider is expecting a carriage return, then use a script
like this (this script works with Colorado Supernet):

     \r
     name:
     [LOGINID]
     word:
     [PASSWORD]
     nnex:
     slip
     address\sis\s[$IPDEST]\sYour\saddress\sis\[$IPADDR]

The first line of this script sends a carriage return.  Then it waits
for the string "name:" to appear.  This is typically a prompt such as
"Username:", but it may come as "username:".  In order to avoid the
case sensitivity of this script, just use the last few characters,
which are enough to insure that you got the right prompt.

The third line, [LOGINID], send the login ID you entered in the
appropriate field above.  The script then waits for "word:" (from
"Password:") and sends the password you entered above.The script now
waits for the "Annex:"  prompt, and sends the command to start SLIP.
(Put "PPP" here if you are making a PPP connection.)

Finally, the last line of this script is parsing the addresses that
the connection sends back.  NOTE: If you have a static IP address,
then omit this line.  Also omit the last line if you are using a PPP
connection.  (The "\s" in the script is a white space character.)

The other script form looks something like this:

     [LOGINID]
     word:
     [PASSWORD]
     >
     SLIP
     IP\saddress\sis\s[$IPADDR]

This seems to be the common form with most Cisco routers, so ask your
provider what kind of an annex they are using.  This form is used when
the connection is not expecting a carriage return to initiate the
conversation.

You are probably done with the Login Sequence field, so make sure you
have checked either SLIP or PPP and set the Inactivity Timeout to
whatever you prefer.  (It defaults to 15 minutes.)

Now turn the page.


               Configuration Dialog Page 2 (Connect Info):

*Your IP Address: you need to enter this if you have a static SLIP
address.  Get it from your provider.  Otherwise, leave it blank.

*Destination IP Address:  This address must be provided by your
supplier.  It is the address of the system you are logging in to (the
controller).

*Netmask:  This information must be supplied by your provider.
Typically, it is 255.255.255.0.

MTU Size: This is the size of the packet.  Leave it at the default
1006.  If you later experience a lot of retries, change it down to
something like 512.

*VJ Compression:  Ask you supplier if they support VJ Compression,
which reduces the packet transmission overhead slightly.  If they
don't (or don't know), leave this unchecked for now.  When you have
everything working, come back and check this and see if everything
still works.

*Domain Nameserver: You need to get the address of a nameserver from
your supplier.  This is the machine that is used to resolve any names
you enter, i.e., it translates something of the form
     "[e-mail]"
into an ip address like
     192.94.50.133.

Your Host Name: I'm not sure what this field is actually used for, and
it doesn't seem to matter what you put in here.  I put my username
(all of my Internet address before the @ symbol).

Your Domain Name:  This field is appended to any name you enter, such
as in Ultimail, that doesn't have a domain (the part of the address
with all the periods).  I enter my domain name, "martech.com," and you
will probably want to enter the domain part of your Internet address.

You can now turn the page.  You're half way there, but the hard part
is over.


               Configuration Dialog Page 3 (Server Information):

*News Server:  You need to get this address from your provider.
Actually, you can use any news server that will allow public access.
If you are not going to use the NewsReader, you can omit this field.

*Gopher Server:  If you want one, get this address from your
provider.  This is the address of the "home" machine that Gopher goes
to when it first starts up.

*WWW Server:  You can omit this field, or get an address from your
provider.  You really need to configure the Web Browser with a "home
page," so this entry is pretty useless.  The WARP Web Browser is
already configured to go to an IBM home page.

*POP Mail Server:  Your provider needs to supply the address (or name)
of their POP Mail Server.  If they don't support POP Mail, then you
will not receive any mail!  Get another supplier.  (While you're at
it, ask how long they retain mail you haven't picked up.  This tells
you how often you need to check for mail.  Some of the very
inexpensive providers don't save mail for very long, so beware.  You
get what you pay for.)

Reply Domain:  This sets a return address that appears in the header
of the messages you send with Ultimail.  Put your assigned domain name
here (all the part of your Internet address after the @ symbol).

Reply (Mail) ID:  Put your user name here (the part of your Internet
address before the @ symbol).

*POP Login ID: You need to get this from your provider.  It may be the
same as your SLIP login ID, but it many cases it is different.  This
ID and the password in the next field are used to login to the POP
Mail server.

*POP Password:  You also need to get this from your provider.

You can now turn to the last page.


               Configuration Dialog Page 4 (Modem Info):

Modem Type: Select the modem most like yours from the list.  If
nothing else works, try Hayes Compatible.  It seems to work in most
cases, although it will not activiate MNP5 or V.32.

Com Port:  You know what to do here.  If you don't know what port your
modem is on, then you are probably real confused by this whole effort,
but it's probably COM1.  However, if you have a serial mouse (don't
know what that means, either?  uh oh), then the modem is likely to be
on COM2 because the mouse is probably on COM1.

Speed (Baud):  This defaults to 9600.  If you have high speed ports
(16550 chips), then change this to 38400 or 57600.  (On my machine, a
486/50 running several background tasks, 57600 is too fast and causes
overruns.)  Ask your provider what the highest speed they support is.
If you have a provider supporting 28.8, you may want to invest in a
new modem.  The US Robotics Sportster is being sold at the time of
this writing for about $230.  The higher speed will make Web Browsing
almost pleasant.

Data Bits:  Leave this at 8.

Parity: Leave this at NONE.

Prefix:  If you selected a modem properly, above, then the Prefix and
the modem initialization fields have been filled in.  You shouldn't
need to change these, unless your modem wasn't in the list.  Even
then, try the "Hayes Compatible" setting before monkeying with these
fields.

On this same screen you can also disable the call-waiting beep, if you
need to.  Leave Mode set to "Dial."

If you've follwed these instructions, you are now done and ready for
the final exam.  Click in the upper left corner of the "Modify
Entries" panel and close it.  You wil lbe asked if you want to save
your changes.  After all this effort, of course you do.

You are now back to the "IBM DialUp for TCP/IP" screen, where you
started.  You have added an entry in the list box in the middle of the
screen.  If the entry you created is not highlighted, click on it with
the mouse.  (You can change any of the entries in it by selecting
"Modify Entry" when it is highlighted.)

If you need to, check the "Line Out" box to get a '9' prefix on the
telephone number you entered earlier.

Now, cross your fingers and click on Dial.

In the Status box you should see the script execute.  A whole lot of
messages will go by.  The one that says something about "slattach" is
the actual script.  If something goes wrong, scroll back to that line
and inspect it to be sure it looks "right."

If everything works you should finally see a line that says:

     [MON] SLIP Driver Running.  Exit with Ctrl-C or ...

If you got this far, congratulations; you are now a full-fledged
TCP/IP guru, entitled to all the benefits bestowed upon you by the
loyal order of Unix bigots.  If you thought this was messy, wait until
you try to configure Ultimail.

To see if everything is working, open an OS/2 window and PING
yourself:

     PING      (your Internet address)

You should see a series of messages about how long it takes for the
ping message to make the round trip to the connection host and back to
you.

Next, start Ultimail and refresh your in-basket.  (Just click on the
in-basket icon in the Ultimail folder.)  After Ultimail starts, which
takes forever, you should see a dialog as it attempts to connect to
the POP Mail server and retrieve any mail waiting for you.  Watch to
make sure this works correctly.  You will probably also want to send
yourself a message, just to make sure it goes out and back.  Beware
that Ultimail queues the message and it takes a while for it to be
sent.  So, don't write a message and immediately disconnect.  Wait for
the confirmation that the message was sent.  Then, re-open the
in-basket and choose "Refresh" from the File menu.

If it didn't work...

Take a look at the Status box (you can scroll it backwards to see what
went by).  Did you get a connection?  (Maybe you didn't dial the
correct number or the modems didn't connect.  In the "Current
Connection" dialog near the top of the panel you should see the
CONNECT message returned by the modem.  In some cases the script
doesn't see this response from the modem and hangs.  Hang up and try
again.)

Did the login work?  (Follow the dialog sequence and make sure that
the two machines were on the same wavelength.  This is the place where
you are most likely to have trouble, so make sure that your script
correlates to what the annex connection is expecting.)

Check your CONFIG.SYS file to make sure there is an entry like

     SET ETC=C:\TCPIP\ETC

If you are using any DOS TCP/IP connections, then you also need a
similar line in AUTOEXEC.BAT:

     SET ETC=C:\TCPIP\DOS\ETC

If you get messages about "Unknown Hosts," check for a RESOLV file in
the ETC directory.  It should have at least two lines in it, one that
lists a domain and the other that lists a nameserver, e.g,

     domain martech.com
     nameserver 123.123.123.123

If you got this far, then you probably have a Web Browser working.  If
you want more information on TCP/IP and the WARP IAK configuration,
open a document at http:/pclt.cis.yale.edu and follow the hyperlinks
to OS/2 WARP instructions, very competently written and illustrated by
H. Gilbert and an excellent example of the type of resource that
the Internet can provide.

Best of luck SLIP sliding away...

Roger Loeb
[e-mail]
March 15, 1995