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PHONHOME 1.06 INDEX 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 INSTALLATION 3.0 HOW DOES IT WORK? 4.0 DIALER CHOICES 5.0 HOST 5.1 User Telnet Servers 5.2 General information about Host 5.3 Host Heartbeat 5.4 Host Reconnect on Disconnect 6.0 REMOTE 6.1 User Telnet Clients 6.2 General Information about Remote 6.3 Remote Alarm 7.0 QUICK TEST 8.0 SCHEDULING PROGRAM START-UPS AND KILLS 8.1 Start-ups 8.2 Kills 8.3 FTPs 9.0 FAXVIEW 9.1 Retrieving and viewing faxes 9.2 Sending faxes from the Host using Remote 10.0 MODEMS 11.0 CALENDER 12.0 DISCLAIMER 13.0 BUGS AND SUGGESTIONS 1.0 INTRODUCTION Phonhome provides the means to simply link with another (your home) computer through the Internet thereby avoiding long distance charges. You only need one Internet ID/PASSWORD and a national/international provider with a local Internet access telephone number at the remote site. Such providers include AOL, Compuserve, IBM, MSN and many others. You DO NOT need a permanent IP address or web site. Phonhome dynamically seeks the IP Address of your home-base computer when it connects to the Internet, and using your preferred Telnet, FTP or other remote control program, links your remote computer to this IP Address. ******************************************* Your internet provider must allow multiple sign-ons. Until recently ibm.net allowed multiple sign-ons on all services. However recent changes in policy have removed the capability of multiple sign-on from all but the simplest (cheapest) package. This is not a problem and in a way has been helpful. Local providers are usually cheaper than ibm.net, and Phonhome allows the Host computer to sign-on with a local service, and allows the Remote to use ibm.net or any other world wide service on their $5:00 a month package. That is, you can use two providers. Just enter the information in the Dialer 'Use alternative Host POP server to obtain IP address' box in the Configure drop down menu. Of course you can merely use the basic $5.00 a month plan provided by IBM if you prefer. ******************************************** Depending upon which Telnet program you use, you can manipulate your home computer in Presentation Manager if desired. You can retrieve faxes from your home computer, or any other files or messages. With the start/kill capability you can kill your home computer's fax or any other program, sign-on to the Internet, run phonhome and retrieve your faxes, send faxes from your home computer or do whatever you need to do. The home system will then sign off and Phonhome will then restart your home computer fax if it is on the same line, or any other program. You must have the 'OS2 Internet' software installed. If it is installed, there will be a TCPIP directory on your hard drive. If preferred, you can use an FTP program or other software to give voice communication, You can run them together, or individually. Phonhome has been tested and configured for Warp 3 and 4 but should work on 2.x, although the IBM Telnet and Ftp servers and clients may not be included. 2.0 INSTALLATION Phonhome can be installed from its own directory or from a floppy drive. The installation program will install an icon on the desktop. To install from its own directory unzip the files into a directory of choice (default is C:\PHONHOME), and at the C:\PHONHOME> prompt type INSTALL. To install from a floppy, at the A:> prompt type INSTALL. Phonhome requires the runtime library file VROBJ.DLL and it is in the phome105.zip file. If you already have VROBJ.DLL installed, you do not need this file. VROBJ.DLL can remain in the Phonhome directory or can be moved to a directory listed in the LIBPATH list defined in the configuration file config.sys. To minimize CPU time, Phonhome only status checks every 20 seconds. Between these checks there is no demand on the CPU. If you are watching, this delay can sometimes give the impression of being slow to respond to changes. Just remember, we are saving resources! In 'Settings' there is a preferences file which can remove some of the pop-up boxes for the experienced user. Note: A 'System Proportional Italic' font is used in phonhome to distinguish inputted data. In one test computer at 1024x768 there were slight imperfections in the appearance of the font. I have stuck with the italic font, but please let me know if there are other systems with this problem, and I will change the font back to a normal font. The 'Settings' and 'Dialer' in the 'Configure' drop-down menu must be completed before the program can be used. The 'Host set-up' & 'Remote set-up' must also be completed. 3.0 HOW DOES IT WORK Phonhome provides your dynamic Internet Host Address, assigned to you when your home-base computer signs on to the Internet, to your remote computer. Your remote computer then uses this address to connect to your home computer. In the 'Host Set-up' drop-down menu you can schedule the host to connect to the Internet on virtually any time schedule desired. When the scheduled time arrives, Phonhome runs the dialer and connects to the Internet. Upon confirmation through the 'heartbeat' feature, Phonhome reads the Host Address of the connection, creates a small E-mail and sends the address to your mail box, then starts your Telnet server. At the Remote end when you click on ' Connect to Host ', Phonhome checks your mail box and looks for the specific Host Address E-mails. It collects those files and extracts the address from the most current file. Phonhome then uses this address in your preferred Telnet Client and connects the Remote computer to the home-base computer. The 'Remote Sign-on Box' displays the most recent Host Address used. This is useful if you have permanent host address, or for some reason your remote drops and you want to reconnect. Phonhome deletes only the files with the Host Address. NOTE: Your E-mailer will down load and clean these Host Address files. Check your mail after you make your Phonhome host connection. If you forget - no real worry, Phonhome gives you the opportunity to enter the Host Address, which you would then need to retrieve from your E-mailer manually, during the sign-on procedure. There is a log file called WARPLOG which will confirm whether your E-mail connections are okay. If this file gets large - delete it! 4.0 DIALERS You can choose a dialer from the drop down list in the 'Dialer' menu under 'Configuration'. You must have the dialer you choose installed on your system. The first time you choose a dialer other than the OS2 dialers, you get the opportunity to enter (and must enter) the directory where the dialer program is installed. If parameters are required you need to enter the command line parameters at this time. For example, when you choose "ILink/2 Dialer" or "Injoy Dialer", in addition to the directory where, ILink/2 or Injoy is installed, you need to enter the "Name" of the entry as shown in the ILink/2 or Injoy window as the parameter. Clicking the right mouse button on the entry allows you to modify it at any time. When you click on "IBM SLIPPM Dialer", you only get the opportunity to add the 'Name' parameter. You do not need to enter in the directory box and it is disabled. If you are using the 'IBM Dialer', you must open 'Settings', then click 'Program' and under 'Parameters:' enter your account name, userID and password, leaving a single space between each. For example, in Canada enter: cainet userID password Under 'Timeouts', set the idle time to be greater than you set in the Phonhome 'Set-up Host' menu and do not enable the call duration box. Do this for any alternative dialer you use. Alternatively, you can use any 'user entered' dialer that allows command line execution. Start pop-up and wait boxes are a NO NO. Phonhome uses every entry field (other than the 'user dialer'). Make sure you enter all the appropriate addresses. If you enable the 'user dialer' box, ONLY the command line parameter entry field will be added to the dialer. The userID and password entries will be ignored, and if needed, must be entered in the command line parameter box. Unfortunately the Phonhome 'Start Minimized' dialer setting is often overruled by the dialer program itself. So set the required condition in the dialer program settings. As discussed above, your internet provider must allow multiple sign-ons. Alternatively, you can use two providers. Just enter the information in the Dialer 'Use alternative Host POP server to obtain IP address' box in the Configure drop down menu. 5.0 HOST Phonhome allows any Telnet server to be used as a Host for the Remote call. There is a drop down schedule of pre-programmed Telnet servers and an alternative user means of entering any other Telnet server. The only requirement is that the server allow command line execution. Of cause, the Host server must be installed on your computer. For OS/2 Version 3 & 4, Phonhome gives you informational boxes on the built-in Telnet programs. The installation program copied a file ACCECALL.ZRX to the ZOC\SCRIPT directory, if the program was able to find an installed version of ZOC. This is the file that makes ZOC start in the receive-call mode. You need to enter the version number for ZOC as this gives Phonhome the information needed to turn-off the pop-up boxes. If you use OS2YOU and/or PM2YOU (Presentation Manager) for remote control, the host has been configured for Telnet use, and you must save your OS2YOU configuration setup to OS2YOU_I.CFG (os2you_i.cfg). You need to use a compatible terminal program such as Terminal/2. Unfortunately Terminal/2 does not seem to have command line capability to dial the Host Address. Consequently the Terminal/2 program has not been included in the pre-configured Clients. For Terminal/2 you need to manually put the displayed Host Address in a 'Dial Entry' after the program is executed. 5.1 User Telnet Servers When the user Telnet Host box is enabled you must complete at least the first two entry fields in this group. 'Window (Fullscreen) Cmd. exe Shell and kill on exit' is shown as the shell in which to run the program, as it is likely that this shell setting will insure the program terminates properly. Use the 'Run Now' and 'Terminate Now', along with the 'Continue' without connecting to debug your choice. Use the 'Run without using Start' as a last resort, as even though such programs are run in a separate thread, they still monopolize the system. 5.2 General Information about Host Avoid killing and starting programs Phonhome is using while it is connecting to the Internet, otherwise you may get residual boxes. (Normally you are not there to do anything.) If the connection fails, Phonhome will time out and KILL the dialer and the Telnet server, then dial again, so let it time out (usually 30 - 45 seconds). Phonhome has a 'start-again' feature in addition to its multiple connect attempts feature. If the connection is broken and the duration time limit has not expired, the Host will reconnect. If you click on 'Host connect now' in the 'Host' menu or 'Connect to Host' in the 'Remote' menu while the Internet is up, the 'Disconnect' and 'Exit' commands do not terminate the Internet connection. The call duration time limit is overcome by the idle time disconnect. Consequently if you set the call duration to 10 or 15 minutes to allow the remote time to log on, as long as the remote is active within the idle time limit, the connection will be maintained. Once connected the Host will try up to 10 times to connect to the SMTP server to send the Host Address. If it does not connect within that number, it assumes the SMTP server is down and terminates that scheduled connection. To increase reliability there is a bit of redundancy which slows the program a little. Phonehome does a 'kill-clean' before it runs a Dialer, Telnet or FTP session. It also pauses 5 seconds between start-ups so that it does not get its PID numbers tangled up. The 'Foreground/Background' and 'Minimize/Maximize' buttons may not always work as expected. The program itself may overrule, even though the window it started in behaved properly. Also you may need to start 'Fullscreen' sessions in the 'Background' if the intention is to remove the session from view. What ever you do - TEST it! NOTE: In OS2 Warp 4, when you run TelnetD or FtpD without the Internet up (to test it), when the application finds it cannot bind the connection, it bombs to a CMD.EXE shell. It still shows if your entries are working as you can see the programs before they pop back to a CMD.EXE shell. OS2 version 3 and below do not bomb you out if there is no Internet connection. If you set the idle disconnect time to be more than the duration time, the idletime will be set equal to the call duration time. 5.3 Host Heartbeat Often you seem to be connected and nothing happens. That's because you are not connected properly. The Heartbeat feature is to get around this problem. Under the heartbeat, on a separate thread, the Host asks: 'who am I '. If it does not receive its Host Address back as an answer, the Host terminates the connection and establishes the connection again. If you disable the heartbeat feature, the default is every 30 seconds. 5.4 Host Re-connect on Disconnect Within the duration time limit, the Host will reconnect if the connection is broken. The 're-connect on disconnect' feature must be enabled. 6.0 REMOTE Phonhome allows any Telnet client to call the host, however server and client must be compatible. There is a drop-down menu of pre-programmed Telnet clients, and an alternative user means of entering any other Telnet client. The only requirement is that the user entered Telnet client allow command line execution. The time programming only sets a reminding schedule which should be set the same as you have set in the Host scheduling. Do not change the laptop time when travelling and this feature tells you when to sign on. For Warp 4, the installation program copies files WSFORM.WS, and WSREMOTE.WS to your TCPIP\PCOMOS2 directory. If you need to change the settings for the PCOM OS2 Telnet 3270 session save the new settings to WSFORM.WS in order that Phonhome has access to the new settings. NOTE: For the IBM Telnet Clients the password as defined in the CONFIG.SYS file SET TELNET.PASSWORD.ID=pwd68923 is not the same as PWD68923. When using the Telnet programs, you must enter the password with case as shown in the CONFIG.SYS 6.1 User Remote Clients When the user Telnet Client box is enabled you must complete at least the first two entry fields in the enclosed group. 'Window (Fullscreen) Cmd. exe Shell and kill on exit' is shown as the shell in which to run the program, as it is likely that this shell setting will insure the program terminates properly. Use the 'Run Now' and 'Terminate Now', along with the 'Continue' without connecting to debug your choice. Use the 'Run without using Start' as a last resort, as even though such programs are run in a separate thread, they still monopolize the system. 6.2 General Information about Remote Avoid killing and starting programs Phonhome is using while it is connecting to the Internet. Otherwise you may get residual boxes. If the dial fails Phonhome will time out, kill the dialer, and if the 're-connect on disconnect' is enabled, it will attempt to re-connect. If you click on 'Host connect now' in the 'Host' menu or 'Connect to Host' in the 'Remote' menu while the Internet is up, the 'Disconnect' and 'Exit' commands do not terminate the Internet connection. It can take several minutes for the Host Address to be moved from your SMTP server to your POP mail box. This is particularly true at the peak hours. If the 'Remote' is not able to find the Host, it may be because the Host Address is not yet in your outgoing mailbox. Recall also that it often takes time and may not be successful the first time when accessing your E-mail, although you will get a notice of any difficulty. Unfortunately this mostly depends on your provider's reliability. If the Host Address you retrieve is more than 10 minutes old you get a pop up box to allow you to 'Cancel' and wait. It is wise to wait until you have a current address because someone may have been assigned your old address by your provider and the ping to that address will show it is active and the Telnet programs will start (but cannot connect), and that is a nuisance. If you do not succeed in a reasonable time, click on 'Connect to Host' in the 'Remote' drop-down menu and try again. To increase reliability there is a bit of redundancy which slows the program response a little. Phonehome does a 'kill-clean' before it runs a Dialer, Telnet or FTP session. It also pauses 5 seconds between start-ups so that it does not get its PID numbers tangled up. 6.3 Remote Alarm If Phonhome is active and you have enabled the alarm feature, Phonhome will notify the remote with a musical message box about pending Host connection times. The Remote does not automatically connect, it just gives you the alarm when to connect, that is if you set it up to notify you when the host is connected. 7.0 QUICK TEST Due to the capabilities of OS2, you can check your system without ever needing a Remote. Follow both procedures: Host first, followed by Remote, and you should be connected to your own computer through the Internet on separate threads. Both Telnet and FTP connect this way. In fact you can down load your Faxworks FAX.LOG and a file fax file to the PHONHOME\DOWNLOAD directory and use Faxview to look at them just as if you were truly remote. NOTE: 1. It can take several minutes for the mail you sent with the Host Address to get transferred by your server to your outgoing mailbox. 2. The response is slow as both Host and Remote are competing for the Internet connectionon the same telephone line and there is limited 'baud' available. 3. Do not use ZOC for this test as both server and client have the same executable zoc.exe and the Phonhome Remote clean-up program finds the Host ZOC and cleans it before running the Remote ZOC. Use the OS2 Telnet and TelnetD for the test. 8.0 SCHEDULING PROGRAM START-UPS AND KILLS Start-ups can be scheduled to start prior to connection to the Internet and/or the Telnet server, after connection and after termination of the connection. The kill programs can be scheduled prior to connection and upon termination of the connection. 8.1 Start-ups Click on 'Start-ups' in the 'Host' drop down menu. There are hints shown at the bottom of most windows to assist in entering data. You can start an FTPD program and set it to terminate at the end of the Internet connection. There is virtually no limitation on how you can set-up the start-ups. For OS2 programs, It is best to start with the 'Default' setting and to test your choice by clicking on 'Run now' and then 'Terminate now' if you are using this feature. It is unlikely that incorrect set-up of a program will crash the program, but in some cases the program may not run as scheduled. It is wise to test the start-up by clicking the 'Run Now' button before saving it to the container list. DO NOT run Dos and Windows programs with the 'Default' setting. Although they may generally run, phonhome does not keep track of the session PID number and can not terminate it. The file extension must be included in order for the search check to work properly although the 'Terminate when connection terminated' will still work properly. For 'Dos Window' and 'Dos Fullscreen' applications (including WinOS2 applications started in Dos), the 'Terminate when connection terminated' option, keeps track of the start-up PID number and uses that to terminate the program. If several programs are started at the exact same time, phonhome could grab the wrong PID number, so beware. Windows programs may only run in full screen and are tricky. Success in making windows programs run depends on the video resolution and other factors. Also, you should enter the directory that is the working directory for the program you are running. For example enter: Entry Title: Windows Eudora Program path & file name: eudora.exe Parameters: Directory: c:\eudora to run Eudora. The 'Run in a WinOS2 Window session' only runs if the video resolution is 640x480. Terminating of windows programs is not supported, other than you can terminate a windows program YOU start through Dos. NOTE: If you start a Dos (WinOS2) and something odd happens the clean-up program can not remove it. I strongly suggest you place a shadow of the Phonhome icon in the 'Startups' folder in the OS/2 System folder on the Desktop and add: SET RESTARTOBJECTS=STARTUPFOLDERSONLY to your CONFIG.SYS right above the line: SET AUTOSTART=PROGRAMS,TASKLIST,FOLDERS,CONNECTIONS,LAUNCHPAD In an unexpected power crash, the Dos and Winos2 programs will not resart and this will help. Hints: 1. If you intend to start-up a 'Run in a WinOS2 Fullscreen session' while you have a 'Dos Fullscreen' session active, the Dos session should be started in the background or questionable results may occur. 2. OS2 Windows do not start in the 'Background'. Use the 'Min' box and start minimized. 3. Fullscreen programs do not start minimized. Use the 'Background' box and start in the background. 8.2 Kills The 'Kills' use a program called 'go' written by Carston Wimmer, and further information about this program can be found in the file go.doc. The 'Program started in an OS2 Window' check box is to be used for programs started in an OS2 Window or started with a .cmd batch file. For example, Maximus could be started with a batch file 'max.cmd'. In this case the executable to be entered would be the Maximus 'maxp.exe' file and the 'Program started in an OS2 Window' box should be checked in order that the OS2 window is closed at the termination of (maxp.exe) Maximus. The 'Fullscreen (Window) Cmd.exe Shell & kill on exit' does not use the /C of START which is not too reliable. Rather the program 'kills' the shell after the program is found and killed. 8.3 FTPs To make it a little simpler than having to enter FTPs in the program start-ups section, there is a pre-configured 'Setup FTP Host' menu and 'Setup FTP Client' menu. This allows the Host Address to be automatically added to the program when it is executed. Those programs that accept command line parameters such as FTPPM, VxFTP and Simple FTP will sign on automatically, as they have been configured to add the usedID and password to the sign on process. Neologic FTP is an excellent program, and although it will connect automatically, it does not sign on with command line 'userID Password Name'. If you are using "IBM FTPD" do not forget to modify your TRUSERS file in the \TCPIP\ETC directory (Warp 3) or \MPTN\ETC directory (Warp 4). If you do not wish to edit the file directly, you can add your userID and password by: Warp 3: Open Folder: Internet Connection for OS/2 TCP/IP TCP/IP Configuration Click on the tab 'Security' and add your password in the box & userid in the entry field Warp 4: Open Folder: Programs TCP/IP Internet (LAN) TCP/IP Configuration (LAN) Click on the tab 'Security' and add your password in the box & userid in the entry field Make sure the FTP transfer mode is set to 'Binary'. When the user FTP Client box is enabled you must complete at least the first two entry fields in the enclosed group. 'Window (Fullscreen) Cmd. exe Shell and kill on exit' is shown as the shell in which to run the program, as it is likely that this shell setting will insure the program terminates properly. Use the 'Run Now' and 'Terminate Now', along with the 'Continue' without connecting to debug your choice. Use the 'Run without using Start' as a last resort, as even though such programs are run in a separate thread, they still monopolize the system. FTP compatabilities are a bit tricky. The following combinations seem to function properly: IBM FTPD IBM FTP, IBM FTPPM, Neologic FTP Neologic FTP All PenFTPD All Neologic FTP signs on automatically but needs to have the userID and password added manually. VxFTP works with IBM FTPD but does not seem to be able to handle multiple drives. The non IBM apps seem more stable and work without problems which seem to occassionally crop up with IBM FTPD, FTP and FTPD, although they work most of the time. 9.0 FAXVIEW 9.1 Retrieving and viewing faxes Faxview is supplied to facilitate viewing of retrieved Faxworks faxes. If you use the default PHONHOME\DOWNLOAD as a local directory to retrieve your recent faxes (and FAX.LOG and FAX.IDX), faxview will allow you to view them without affecting the remote's fax capabilities. You need to add -L[faxworks directory] to the 'Parameters' in the 'Settings' of your remote fax in order that it still operate correctly with its own FAX.LOG. If Faxworks is installed in directory d:, then add -Ld:\faxworks. Leave a space between the -r parameter (receive mode) and this new parameter. NOTE: You must close Faxworks if it is active as Faxview needs to access Faxworks to run it with the down loaded FAX.LOG and faxes. 9.2 Sending faxes from the Host using Remote You can use your remote to prepare faxes and send them to the host in order to send them as local calls. You prepare the fax as you would any in Faxworks using the Delay timing to delay the fax by 30 minutes or as required. Use the ftp program to send the FAX.LOG, FAX.IDX and the faxes you have created, to the FAXWORKS directory in your home computer. It is best to copy the FAX.LOG and FAX.IDX that you have downloaded to the PHONHOME\DOWNLOAD directory of your remote to the FAXWORKS directory before proceeding, in order to get the number sequence correct on your new faxes. Since your new remote faxes could be over writing (a warning is given) new host faxes you have not read, it is better to retrieve your faxes before sending faxes to be sent out by the host. The FAX.LOG file is also overwritten. One way around this is to edit the FAX.IDX file and add 10 or 20 to the number. FAX.IDX keeps track of the next fax number, so adding 20 allows your host fax numbers to be jumped, however you still must retrieve the faxes (FAX.LOG) before sending the new one from the remote. You need to add -L[faxworks directory] to the 'Parameters' in the 'Settings' of your host fax in order that it still operate correctly with its own FAX.LOG. Read the explanation in 9.1 10.0 MODEMS Although you can use one modem and Phonhome can kill your fax program, start your Internet connections as scheduled and re-start the fax program, it is better to use 2 modems (even with one telephone line). Route the line through the fax modem to the high speed modem. Set the fax modem to COM 1 and the high speed modem to COM 2. The fax modem needs only to be a 14400 to match the maximum fax speed. With this setup you do not need to kill the fax when the time arrives and Phonhome signs on to the Internet for a scheduled connection. 11.0 CALENDAR There is a built in 50+ year calendar and access to this feature has been conveniently located in the 'Remote' menu. 12.0 DISCLAIMER The author makes no representations about the accuracy or suitability of this material for any purpose. It is provided "as is", without any express or implied warranties. The author will assume no liability for damages either from the direct use of this product or as a consequence of the use of this product. 13.0 BUGS AND SUGGESTIONS Should an unexpected dump occur, check the Phonhome.err file for an explanation. Please report any bugs (or suggestions) and I will take action on them if possible and practical.