Cream of the Crop 12

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Cream of the Crop 12 / Cream of the Crop 12 (Part II) / Cream of the Crop 12 (Part II).iso / BBS / NXBBS11.ZIP / NXBBS.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1995-12-07 | 50.8 KB | 1,526 lines

NetXpress Internet Access BBS Door Administrator's Manual Copyright (c) 1995 Merlin Systems Inc. All rights reserved. This software product and this manual are copyrighted and all rights are reserved by Merlin Systems Inc. No part of the contents of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Merlin Systems Inc. does not assume any liability arising out of the application or use of any products described herein. Merlin Systems Inc. further reserves the right to make changes in any products described herein without notice. This document is subject to change without notice. NetXpress Internet Access BBS Door, NetXpress Server and NetXpress Mail & News Gateway are copyrighted by Merlin Systems Inc. All other mentioned products are copyrighted by their respective authors. Revision Date: 05/12/95 rev. 1 Merlin Systems Inc. P.O. Box 3043, Station C Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4J3 Canada Phone (613) 749-0888 Fax/BBS (613) 741-7583 info@merlinsys.com http://www.merlinsys.com CONTENTS Preface ................................................................ 1 Welcome to the World of the Internet 1 Conventions 1 Technical Support 2 Installation ........................................................... 3 Configuration .......................................................... 5 Syntax 5 Using Text Windows and your Mouse 5 General Configuration 6 TCP/IP 8 World-Wide-Web 11 Gopher, IRC & WhoIs 12 Telnet 13 Dial-up Door Configuration 13 Security Levels 14 Internet Access BBS Door .............................................. 15 Syntax 15 Functions 16 Internal URLs 18 Form Variables 20 Dial-up IP Door ....................................................... 23 Syntax 23 Operation 24 User Configuration 24 Packet Drivers ........................................................ 25 Packet Driver Software 25 Questions & Answers ................................................... 31 Glossary .............................................................. 33 Appendix .............................................................. 41 HTML 41 Error Messages 41 Display Files Format 42 Acknowledgments 43 Preface Welcome to the World of the Internet =========================================================================== The future is upon us. That mythical information superhighway is now in clear reach. Many estimates are floating around about the InternetÆs population and its increase in size. It is considered safe to say that it currently has around 50 million people and that it is doubling every couple of years. In fact lately, the population acceleration has frightened and overwhelmed many Internet old timers. All figures denote that the Internet has obtained æcritical massÆ to be present for a very long time to come. No longer the realm of universities and big business, the Internet has begun to bring cyberspace to the masses. The Internet with its thousands of protocols, can be managed from well conceived software that takes care of all of the unruly elements of Internet connectivity. There will always be a learning curve due to terminology, but we hope that our software will provide one of the easiest in-roads on to the Internet. Conventions =========================================================================== In this book, the following conventions are used: o Optional variables are placed within square brackets; for example, [ <variable> ] o Mandatory variables are placed within angled brackets; for example, <variable> o Whenever you may use more than one variation, a | character is used to denote the different possible values; for example, put | send | output o Input typed in by you is printed in italic; for example, cd \netxbbs Technical Support =========================================================================== There are a number of places to receive technical support. Phone: 1-613-749-0888 Fax: 1-613-741-7583 BBS: 1-613-741-7583 E-mail: support@merlinsys.com Web: http://www.merlinsys.com FidoNet: Support 1:163/509 Chapter One Installation Installation =========================================================================== If you received a diskette, insert the diskette in one of your disk drives. Then enter INSTALL and press the <Enter> key. Example: If you placed the disk in drive A:, you would type: a: INSTALL ┌─ Install ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ NetXpress Door Directory: C:\NETXBBS │ │ │ │ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │ │ │ F10 - Ok │ │ Esc - Cancel │ │ │ └──────────┘ └──────────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 1-1 Install The NetXpress Door Directory is where you would like to install the software. Press the F10 key to continue. If you received a compressed file containing the software programs, simply uncompress the file(s) into an empty directory. Example: md \netxbbs cd \netxbbs pkunzip NETXBBS After the INSTALL program finishes, you must go into the NXCFG program and alter the default settings, especially your network addresses. Chapter Two Configuration Syntax =========================================================================== The syntax for the Setup program is as follows: NXCFG [configfile] Where [configfile] is the location and name of the configuration file. If you omit the [configfile] parameter, NXCFG will try to open the configuration file NXBBS.CFG in the current directory. Using Text Windows and your Mouse =========================================================================== The NXCFG program uses a text window approach to displaying information for you. The top window is always the current one and only those fields within it are active. NXCFG also allows you to use a mouse or a pointing device to perform functions. All mouse-assessable functions can also be accessed through a keyboard command. To access a certain field or command by using the mouse, simply move the mouse cursor to the area occupied by the field or command and click on the left mouse button. Clicking on the right mouse button will usually get on-line help. General Configuration =========================================================================== ┌ General Configuration ────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ System Directory d:\dev\netsrv\bbs │ │ System Help HTML file:///help.htm │ │ │ │ Date Type MMDDYYYY │ │ Date Delimiter / │ │ │ │ Address Delimiter . │ │ │ │ Use a menu Yes │ │ │ │ SMTP Host mail.uunet.ca │ │ │ │ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ │ │ F1 - Help │ │ Esc - Cancel │ │ F10 - Ok │ │ │ └───────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 2-1 General Configuration System Directory: The directory that includes the executable program and the configuration file. System Help HTML: This is an URL of general help available at the menu. Date Type: The format of the displayed date. This is only used in the FTP client and in IRC for the log file. You have four options: YYYYMMDD (1995-10-23) MMDDYYYY (10-23-1995) YYYYDDMM (1995-23-10) DDMMYYYY (23-10-1995) Date Delimiter: The character that is displayed in-between the date fields. Address Delimiter: The character that replaces the space within user's name when their names get converted into an Internet address. This is only used in the FTP client and in IRC for the log file. Use A Menu: If enabled, a menu will be displayed to the user and they will be allowed to enter commands by typing them in. If disabled, the homepage HTML will be displayed to the user. From this HTML file, you may then add links to all of the functions available. The user may change this option themselfs, but when they first go into the door, they will be given this value. SMTP Host The address of a default SMTP mail host. If blank, then the mail unction will be disabled. TCP/IP =========================================================================== This window allows you to configure your TCP/IP connection parameters. These values are used with the Packet Driver software to connect the NetXpress BBS Door to the Internet. Most, if not all, of these values will come from your service provider This section does not provide any way to configure your Packet Driver. You must have it loaded and configured before running the NetXpress BBS Client software. The Packet Driver software may handle either Ethernet or SLIP classes. Please see the Appendix section on Packet Drivers for more information. For dial-up access, you will need to either have your modem connect and login in to your service provider before you load in your SLIP/PPP packet driver. ┌ TCP/IP Configuration ─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ┌ BOOTP ────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌ Gateways ───────┐ │ │ │ Enable [ ] │ │ 123.123.123.120 │ │ │ │ Server 123.123.123.123 │ │ │ │ │ │ Timeout 5 │ │ │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌ Addresses ────────────────────────────────┐ ├ Name Servers ───┤ │ │ │ IP 321.321.321.321 │ │ 123.123.123.121 │ │ │ │ Net Mask 255.255.254.0 │ │ │ │ │ │ Host Name fred │ │ │ │ │ │ Domain Name foobar.com │ │ │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ │ │ ┌ Transmission Parameters ──────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Max. Segment Size 1400 Name Lookup Timeout 5 │ │ │ │ TCP Connect Timeout 10 Inactivity Timeout 0 │ │ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ │ │ F1 - Help │ │ SLIP │ │ Ethernet │ │ Esc - Cancel │ │ F10 - Ok │ │ │ └───────────┘ └──────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 2-2 TCP/IP Configuration BOOTP Enable: If enabled, NetXpress will use the BOOTP protocol and connect up to the specified server to query the information in the two other windows. This means that your IP address is a temporary address, and that you may not give it out since it will always change. If disabled, then you must fill out the rest of the information in the next two windows, but you do not need to fill out any of the information in the BOOTP window. BOOTP Server: The IP address of a BOOTP server to contact upon startup to query your address information. You must not place a domain address in this field. BOOTP Timeout: The timeout in seconds for a connection to the BOOTP server to fail. IP Address: Your IP address. Net Mask: If you have more than one IP address for your network, then you must set the network mask for your local network. If not (which is usually the case), then just leave this entry blank or enter the default value of 255.255.254.0. This value may never be 255.255.255.255. Host Name: Some applications will wish to know your PC's name, a short textual name. This will be the machine's name and not your domain name. This name may contain only numeric digits and letters, and should be less than 9 characters. Domain Name: Your system's domain address. oth the domain and hostnames will be concatinated into one domain address for this machine. Example: node1.merlinsys.com Where: node1 is the hostname merlinsys.com is the domain name Gateway Address: The address of a local gateway. This value is always supplied by your network service provider and is usually the IP address of the machine that NetXpress will connect up to. Name Servers: The IP addresses of name servers (in order of importance). These name server will resolve domain addresses into IP addresses. Maximum Segment Size: This is the maximum segment size that NetXpress BBS Door can receive over the packet driver. The default value is 1400 for Ethernet. The maximum value should not exceed 4096. TCP Connect Timeout: This allows you to specify a specific amount of seconds that the NetXpress BBS Door will attempt to connect to a remote computer, wait for data from a remote computer, and wait to accomplish other miscellaneous networking tasks. The default is 30 seconds, but may be set longer if you have an especially slow connection. Name Lookup Timeout: The time needed to resolve a domain name into an IP address. Some name servers are very slow (very busy) and thus this value needs to be increased. Inactivity Timeout: The number of seconds of inactivity with a session before it timesout. This value usually will be set to 0 or left blank. World-Wide-Web =========================================================================== ┌ WWW Configuration ────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Home Page file:///homepage.htm │ │ Local Base Dir c:\nxbbs │ │ Mail HTML mail.htm │ │ New User HTML newuser.htm │ │ │ │ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ │ │ F1 - Help │ │ Esc - Cancel │ │ F10 - Ok │ │ │ └───────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 2-3 WWW Configuration Home Page The default HTML file used as the home page. This file is displayed whenever the user does not specify an URL in the menu or whenever the menu is disabled. Local Base Directory: The directory that all WWW local file access will be relative from. Mail HTML: The HTML file used to gather information for a message. If empty, the message function will be disabled. New User HTML: The HTML file displayed to first-time users of the NetXpress BBS Client. Gopher , IRC & WhoIs =========================================================================== All three functions need the two pieces of information, the default server and the default port. Default Server: The address of the default server. This server is used whenever the user does not specify a server to contact. Defaults: Gopher: boombox.micro.umn.edu IRC: irc.bu.edu WhoIs: rs.internic.net You should never have to change the WhoIs default Server, but you should change the IRC server to one that is closer to you. For more information on IRC servers, look in the I.R.C. FAQ. Default Port: The port of the default server. This server is used whenever the user does not specify a port. You should never have to change these values. Defaults: Gopher: 70 IRC: 6667 WhoIs: 43 Telnet =========================================================================== ┌ Telnet Configuration ─────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Terminal Emulation vt100 │ │ │ │ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ │ │ F1 - Help │ │ Esc - Cancel │ │ F10 - Ok │ │ │ └───────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 2-4 Telnet Configuration Terminal Emulation The default terminal emultaion used in Telnet. This should always be vt100, since ANSI is not usually recognized by Telnet servers. Dial-up Door Configuration =========================================================================== ┌ Dial-up IP Configuration ─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Internal BOOTP Server Disabled │ │ │ │ ┌───────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────┐ │ │ │ F1 - Help │ │ Esc - Cancel │ │ F10 - Ok │ │ │ └───────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────┘ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Figure 2-5 Dial-up IP Configuration Internal BOOTP Server When enabled, NXDIP will process all BOOTP requests and reply with its own IP address. You might wish to disable this feature if you have a BOOTP server on your network and wish to use it instead. Security Levels =========================================================================== The security levels settings control whether a user has access to certain functions. If the users has a greater or equal security level than required, then they are allowed to perform that function. If they do not have sufficient security access, then they will be displayed the HTML in the 'No Security HTML' field. If this field is empty, then a 'Not enough security' message is displayed. Chapter Three Internet Access BBS Door Syntax =========================================================================== nxbbs [/G <configfile>] [/I <ip.ad.dre.ss>] [/B <drop-file>] [/Q <comport irq>] [/A <comport address>] [/C <comport>] [/U <baud>] [/H] [/?] [menu commands] /G <configuration_file> Path and a filename to the configuration file to be used. If not specified, then NXBBS.CFG in the current directory will be used. /I <ip.add.re.ss> The IP address to use instead of the one in the configuration file. The IP address may also be defined in an environmental variable named IP. The command line switch takes precedence over the environmental variable. /B <drop-file> Supported drop-files are: DOOR.SYS, DORINFO?.DEF, PCBOARD.SYS, USERS.SYS, CHAIN.TXT, SFDOORS.DAT, XTRN.DAT and CALLINFO.BBS The <drop-file> can also be 'LOCAL' followed, optionally, by a colan and a user name. Example: /B "LOCAL:Joe Smith" You may state more than one drop-file by placing multiple /B commands Menu Commands Anything you can type in at the main menu can be included here. Commands can be partial or they can contain all needed information. Functions =========================================================================== The following is a list and descriptions of all the function in the NetXpress BBS Client: World-Wide-Web The World-Wide-Web protocols allows for the exchange of information in a extremely flexible and unstructured manner. The WWW server is just a file request server, the WWW client has most of the intelligence and makes decisions about how to obtain certain information. The important difference between the older Gopher protocol and the Web protocols are that the Web display formats are unstructured and can look like anything, while Gopher has a rigid menu structure. Also Web browsers possess knowledge of many more methods of accessing data than gopher clients do. The number of access methods available to Web browsers is bound to increase in the future. File Transfer Protocol The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows users to peruse the file system of another system on the Internet. One important fact concerning FTP, is that it tries to look like a file system and thus contains no file descriptions, although there are methods of displaying descriptive text to the user. Telnet Telnet allows people on the Internet to remotely login to another computers on the Internet. It is like using a terminal program with a modem over phone lines. Except that all communication is handled through the TCP/IP protocol over the Internet. Gopher The Internet Gopher protocol offers users the ability to browse through the Internet in a structured menued environment looking at user-friendly menu descriptions instead of service names, hosts and ports. The beauty of Gopher is that a menu entry may point anywhere on the Internet, and thus hoping from one Gopher to another is virtually seamless to the user. It also allows users to retrieve documents without the need to do it themselves interactively. Internet Relay Chat IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat". It was originally written by Jarkko Oikarinen (jto@tolsun.oulu.fi) in 1988. Since starting in Finland, it has been used in over 60 countries around the world. IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people convene on channels (a virtual place, usually with a topic of conversation) to talk in groups, or privately. WhoIs WhoIs is used to look up names of users and corporations in a main database. The default action is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to your target in many fields: handle, name, nicknames, hostname, net address, etc., and finding all record types. WhoIs then shows the results in one of two ways: as a full, detailed display for a single match (with possible subdisplay), or as one- or two-line summaries for multiple matches. Finger Finger is a common Unix facility to examine the user login information on a system. Information retrieved can either be a text file or information about that user on that system. Ping Ping checks is valuable to check to see if a system is running and how long messages take to reach it and come back to your system. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and is defined in RFC821 and has been updated in other various RFCs. It is the standard way of transferring private mail between hosts directly connected to the Internet. The SMTP function will actually send the message right away on to the Internet via the SMTP Host defined below. The message will not be stored anywhere on the local system or on your BBS. The SMTP function cannot access incoming messages, you will need to use an Internet gateway for your BBS. Remote Login Remote Login is very similar to Telnet, except that it automatically logs in the user. ph ph is also known as qi and CSO. It is a phonebook protocol that allows searches to be made on various fields. Gopher uses CSO internally, thus we have made it available as a separate function. CSO will probably be used the least out of all of the functions. Remote Execution (Rexec) Rexec is used to execute programs on another computer. The software must reside on that computer and your login ID must have rights to it. Raw Telnet This is just Telnet without any Telnet control codes. This is a straight TCP/IP connection. Bookmarks A list of the userÆs permanent bookmarks of favorite places. Session History A list of the userÆs session history. Internal URLs =========================================================================== You can include special internal URLs (Universal Resouce Locatiors) in your HTML documents that allow you to retrieve input from the user and then perform a certain function with that input. The following is a list of available URL codes and their associated FORM names: internal:///telnet ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD TERMINAL Terminal defaults to ANSI. The User and Password values are only displayed to the user and are not actually used in the Telnet routines. internal:///rawtcp ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD The User and Password values are only displayed to the user and are not actually used in the Raw Telnet routines. internal:///rlogin ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD TERMINAL Terminal defaults to ANSI. internal:///rexec ADDRESS PORT USER PASSWORD COMMAND internal:///finger ADDRESS PORT USER Port defaults to 79. internal:///whois ADDRESS PORT USER Port defaults to 43. Address defaults to rs.internic.net internal:///ping ADDRESS NUMBER Number defaults to 1. internal:///cso ADDRESS PORT Port defaults to 105. internal:///ftp ADDRESS USER PASSWORD PORT PATH User defaults to anonymous and Password defaults to the userÆs email address. Port defaults to 21. internal:///gopher ADDRESS PORT PATH TYPE Address and Port default to the values from the configuration file. Type defaults to '1' (menu). Path defaults to ôö (nothing). internal:///http URL internal:///irc USER PASSWORD ADDRESS PORT Address and Port default to the defaults from the configuration file. Password is rarely used. internal:///mail USER SUBJECT TEXT internal:///config IRCNAME NOMENU This URL actually causes the information sent back to be saved. Every time the user goes into IRC, their IRC userid is saved. UserÆs can also decide for themselves whether to use the menu or the Home Page. internal:///help Brings up the Help HTML. internal:///bookmarks Brings up the userÆ bookmarks. internal:///history Brings up the userÆs current session visited documents/places. Form Variables =========================================================================== Variables are only used in the "VALUE" parameter of a INPUT FORM object. Example: <INPUT NAME="test" VALUE="#destination#"> #destination# Represents the message destination #gopher_server# Default gopher server #gopher_port# Default gopher port #whois_server# Default whois server #whois_port# Default whois port #irc_server# Default IRC server #irc_port# Default IRC port #homepage# Default Web home page #mail_html# Message HTML #help_html# General Help HTML #user_irc_name# User's IRC name #user_address# User's Internet address #host_address# This host's domain name #new_user_html# New user's HTML Chapter Four Dial-up IP Door Syntax =========================================================================== nxdip <configuration_file> [/B <drop-file>] [/I <ip_address>] [/C <comport>] [/Q <comport irq>] [/A <comport address>] <configuration_file> Path and a filename to the configuration file to be used. If not specified, then NXBBS.CFG in the current directory will be used. /I <ip.add.re.ss> The IP address to use instead of the one in the configuration file. The IP address may also be defined in an environmental variable named IP. The command line switch takes precedence over the environmental variable. Example: SET IP=142.55.23.123 /B <drop-file> Supported drop-files are: DOOR.SYS, DORINFO?.DEF, PCBOARD.SYS, USERS.SYS, CHAIN.TXT, SFDOORS.DAT, XTRN.DAT and CALLINFO.BBS You may state more than one drop-file by placing multiple /B commands Operation =========================================================================== This program is called as a door from the BBS and handles all SLIP and Compressed SLIP encoding and decoding of the communications link. It bridges the gap between the IP packets coming over the modemÆs lines to the packet driver. The user must have configured their IP address correctly on their end and it must be an address that is æownedÆ by you. They can optionally use BOOTP to request their IP address since the SLIP door has an internal BOOTP server that will respond to their BOOTP request. Compressed SLIP (CSLIP) is automatically switched on if any incoming packets are compressed. The software terminates when: o the sysop pressed <Esc> on the local console o the userÆs daily time expired o the carrier is lost A packet driver must be load prior to the execution of NXDIP. User Configuration =========================================================================== The user must have configured their IP address correctly on their end. Their IP address must be one that is 'owned' by you. If they set their IP address to 0.0.0.0, then the internal BOOTP server in NXDIP will take care of their IP Address request and return this node's IP Address. The user's netmask may be anything at all since they are using SLIP. Usually, they can just set it to '255.255.255.0. Chapter Five Packet Drivers Packet Driver Software =========================================================================== Packet Drivers are TSR programs that provide a link between software applications and some type of Internet access hardware. Most of these programs are available free from quite a lot of different sources. These are called the Clarkson packet drivers, and there are different versions of them to suit almost any kind of network card or asynchronous connection. Our BBS and our Web site contain the entire set of freely downloadable packet drivers. Whenever you have more than one machine that is trying to be connected to the Internet, then you require a Router on the network. Our NetXpress Server v2.0 contains a Router plus a multitude of other server functions. When connecting a local network up to the Internet, you will definately require a router since more than one machine will access the Internet. You will also need to configure all of the machines to load a packet driver. But you also will need to load another packet driver for your Router machine. Thus if you connected via PPP over a dial-up connection and you used a Novell network, you would set up each workstation on your netowkr with the Novell ODI packet driver, and then also set up your Router machine to handle a PPP connection. To terminate any packet driver, you may use the TERMIN.COM program. Use the following guide to connect your network up to the Internet. Novell/IPX Networks To connect any machine on your Novell network up to the Internet follow the following instructions. You will require a Router somewhere on your local network. You must change your Novell IPX setup to allow for Novell's ODI specification. The correct sequence to load up drivers is as follows: o Load LSL.COM o Load your network card's driver o Load the IPX ODI driver o Load the ODI Packet Driver Example: LSL NE2000 IPXODI ODIPKT 2 0x60 The second parameter of ODIPKT if called the 'Frame Type'. It represents the position of any of the ETHERNET frame types in the NET.CFG file. IPX compatible Networks On a Novell network or a IPX-compatible network you may use IPXPKT to tunnel IP datagrams within IPX packets. IPXPKT is loaded after your IPX driver is loaded. o Load IPX o Load IPXPKT o Load NET Again, you require a Router on the local network to bridge your local network to the Internet. LANtastic Networks will need to change over to a NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specifiation) driver to use the LANtastic packet driver. NDIS allows the use of multiple network protocols on a single network card. Thus allowing you to run LANtastic's NetBIOS and TCP/IP together. Connection Sequence: o Load PROTMAN.DOS in CONFIG.SYS o Load AEXNDIS.DOS in CONFIG.SYS (or any other NDIS hardware driver) o Load DIS_PKT.DOS in CONFIG.SYS o Load AI-NDIS o Load AILANBIO Sample CONFIG.SYS: DEVICE=C:\NDIS\PROTMAN.DOS /I:C:\NDIS DEVICE=C:\NDIS\AEXNDIS.DOS DEVICE=C:\NDIS\DIS_PKT.DOS Sample AUTOEXEC.BAT: C:\NDIS\AI-NDIS BIND_TO=AEXNDIS_NIF C:\LANTASTI\AILANBIO A sample PROTOCOL.INI file in C:\NDIS [PROTMAN] DRIVERNAME = PROTMAN$ DYNAMIC = YES [AEXNDIS_NIF] DRIVERNAME = AEXNDS$ IOBASE = 0x300 INTERRUPT = 10 [PKTDRV] DRIVERNAME = PKTDRV$ BINDINGS = AEXNDIS_NIF INTVEC = 0x60 NOTE: We have experienced problems running LANtastic 5.0 and NDIS NetBIOS compatible Networks This packet driver may be used on all NetBIOS-compatible networks. This packet driver 'tunnels' IP datagrams within the NetBIOS packet, thus making it slower than the NDIS/ODI solutions. All that is required is to load the NB packet driver: nb {IntVec} {IP Address} Where {IntVec} represents the Interrupt Vector and {IP Address} is the IP Address of this node. This actually may be any unique address since it is only used as a 'hardware address' for this machine. Example: nb 0x60 204.191.36.201 NB needs to be loaded after the NetBIOS drivers are loaded. With LANtastic this means after AILANBIO is loaded. SLIP Dial-up Access Hardware Required: o Modem o Phone Line (Regular Analog) Login Sequence: o Login to your service provider and place yourself in SLIP mode o Load the SLIP/CSLIP Packet Driver (SLIPPER/CSLIPPER) Example: NXDIAL 1 9600 slip.cmd SLIPPER baud=9600 or NXDIAL 1 9600 slip.cmd CSLIPPER baud=9600 Example of SLIP.CMD send ATDT555-1212\r\n expect CONNECT expect ogin: send userid\r\n expect word: send password\r\n expect > send slip\r\n PPP Dial-up Access Hardware Required: o Modem o Phone Line (Regular Analog) Login Sequence: o Login to your service provider and place yourself in PPP mode o Load the PPP Packet Driver (ETHERPPP) Example: NXDIAL 1 9600 ppp.cmd PPP /s 9600 /d none Example of PPP.CMD send ATDT555-1212\r\n expect CONNECT expect ogin: send userid\r\n expect word: send password\r\n expect > send ppp\r\n Chapter Six Questions & Answers Q: How do I get the fastest performance? A: Do not run under a multitasker like Desqview or Windows. Try to use IP addresses instead of domain addresses. Do not run on a machine that acts as a LAN server. Disable buffering on your network drivers. Q: What is a port? A: A port is like a channel. Each application has its own port that it listens for incoming connections on. Port values under 1024 are well-known ports for (well-known) applications. Think of them as channels. For example, the Web works on port 80, so Web servers listen only for requests on port 80. Q: How do I provide Archie? A: You can use a Web Archie gateway to provide access to Archie databases. One such gateway is at æhttp://www-ns.rutgers.edu/htbin/archieÆ. Q: What are some good books to read about the Internet? A: The Whole Internet: User's Guide & Catalog O'Reily & Associates, Inc., Ed Krol Connecting To The Internet O'Reily & Associates, Inc., Susan Estrada The Matrix:Computer Networks & Conferencing Systems Worldwide Digital Press, John S. Quarterman !%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing & Networks O'Reily & Associates, Inc., Donnalyn Frey & Rick Adams Unix Communications The Waite Group, Bart Anderson, Barry Costales, and Harry Henderson Zen and the Art of the Internet Brendan Kehoe, zen-internet.src or zen.txt Hitchhikers Guide to the Internet Ed Krol, RFC1118 Glossary 10Base2 An implementation of the Ethernet IEEE standard on thin coaxial cable at 10 megabits per second. The maximum segment length is under just under 200 meters. 10Base5 The original Ethernet medium, an implementation of the Ethernet IEEE standard on twinaxial cable at 20 megabits per second. The maximum segment length is 500 meters. 10BaseT An implementation of the Ethernet IEEE standard on 24 gauge unshielded, twisted-pair wiring at 10 megabits per second. Archie A system for locating files that are publicly available by anonymous FTP. ARPAnet An experimental network established in the 1970's where the theories and software on which the Internet is based were tested. Article What a message is called if it is part of a newsgroup. Asynchronous Communication A method for transmitting data that sends one character at a time. Asynchronous also refers to commands, as in a windowing environment, that may be sent without waiting for a response from the previous command. Attenuation The loss of signal strength that occurs as a signal is transmitted through a cable. AUP Acceptable Use Policy; A term used to refer to restrictions placed on the use of a network. Backbone A major high-speed point to which other networks are connected. Bandwidth The capacity of a network to carry information. In a network, the higher the bandwidth, the greater the information-carrying capacity of the network, and the faster data can be transmitted from one device to another. Bridge An electronic device that connects two networks so that devices on one network can communicate with devices on the other network. Bridges connect only networks that operate under the same communications protocols. CCITT Consultative Committee for International Telegraphy and Telephony; An international standards-making body consisting of national telecommunications authorities. Daemon A program running in the background on a Unix system. A daemon performs a single task the entire time that it is running. Dedicated Line A permanently connected private telephone line between two locations. Leased lines are typically used to connect a moderate-sized local network to an Internet service provider. Dialup Line A method of connecting to a computer by calling it up the telephone. DNS Domain Name System; A distributed database system for translating computer names into numeric Internet addresses, and vice-versa. (e.g. foobar.com into 194.56.78.2) Ethernet A data link protocol jointly developed by Intel, Xerox, and DEC and subsequently adopted by the IEEE as a standard. FAQ Frequently Asked Question; Many USENET newsgroups maintain FAQs so that participants won't spend lots of time answering the same set of questions. Flame A virulent and often largely personal attack against the author of a USENET posting. Flames are unfortunately common Flamers People who frequently write flames. See above. Freenet An organization to provide free Internet access to people in a certain area. FTP File-Transfer-Protocol; An application that allows you to transfer files from one computer to another. This requires direct access to the Internet. Gopher A menu-driven system for exploring Internet resources. IAB Internet Architecture Board; The ruling council that makes decisions about standards and other important issues that concern the Internet. IETF Internet Engineering Task Force; A volunteer group that investigates and solves technical problems, and makes recommendations to the IAB. IEEE Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers; A standards-setting group in the United States that is part of ISO. Internet A worldwide 'network of networks' which are connected to each other. IRC Internet Relay Chat; An Internet-based application that allows users to interact in real-time. ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network; A new kind of dialup connection offering higher speed access over voice lines. ISO International Standards Organization; An international standards-making body responsible for the OSI network standards. LISTSERV This is a special automated agent that adds and deletes subscribers to mailing lists. Mailing List A discussion of individuals on a specific topic. Mailing lists are implemented by using a special mail address. Subscribers to the mailing list, send their comments in to that address. Their message will then get distributed out to all other subscribers. Moderator A person who receives all mail for a mailing list or moderated newsgroup and approves it for general viewing. This sometimes is automated for mailing lists. Moderated When a newsgroup is moderated, all messages are sent to the moderators address. The moderator will be authorize the distribution of those message to the rest of that newsgroups subscribers. Newsgroup Newsgroup A conference or topic area that is part of USENET. NIC Network Information Center; A organization that's responsible for supplying information about any network. The InterNIC plays this role for the Internet. NNTP Network News Transfer Protocol; A method of exchanging USENET news among host on the Internet. NSFNET National Science Foundation Network; One of the larger networks that makes up the Internet. OSI Open Systems Interconnect; A series of protocols for networking. POP Point of Presence; The closest location for a network. PPP Point to Point Protocol; This protocol is a new standard and should replace SLIP. It is used for the same thing as SLIP, mainly to hook up a computer to the Internet with just a high-speed modem. Repeater A hardware device that repeats the signal on a network. As signals pass over a line, they lose some of their power and pick up static. A repeater amplifies and conditions the signals on a network. RFC Request For Comments; RFCs are electronic documents that help define the Internet. They contain protocol standards, format standards, frequently asked questions, etc. RFC filenames all start with RFC and then have their number (eg. RFC1137). RFC822 The RFC that contains the standard for mail interchange within the Internet. RFC976 builds on RFC822 and describes UUCP routing among many other things. RFC1036 The RFC that contains the standard for mail interchange with USENET. Router A device that connects two networks together and maintains addressing information for each network. Service Provider An organization or company that provides connections to the Internet. SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol; This protocol is used when using IP over an asynchronous line. Usually this is used with modems. SMTP The electronic mail transfer protocol defined in RFC821. TELNET An application that allows you to log onto another computer. In the Internet this requires having direct access to the Internet TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol; The networking protocol that most of the Internet is based on. Transport Agent A transport agent is merely a program that transports files/messages from one location to another. An example of UUCP's transport agent is UUCICO. UNIX An operating system used by many of the systems on the Internet. USENET USENET is a network of systems that exchange news articles. There are over 18000 systems worldwide that participate. USENET comprises of thousands of newsgroups or conferences. UUCICO A program that transfers files/messages from one system to another. UUCP Unix-to-Unix CoPy; This is a collection of programs that allow computers to communicate with each other. UUCP uses standard modems, serial cables, and the telephone system. It is used to transfer USENET articles from one system to another. It can also be used to transfer private e-mail. WAIS Wide-Area Information Server; A very powerful system for looking up information in databases across the Internet. WWW World-Wide Web; A hypertext-based system for finding and accessing Internet resources. Appendix HTML =========================================================================== HyperText Markup Language is the standard document on the Web. It is out of this manual's scope to detail itÆs syntax. You may use any of the available HTML editors to create local web pages. Please note, that your user's will only see a text representation of the document, so inline images and image mappings will not be relevant. Error Messages =========================================================================== Could not allocate socket! Not enough memory was available to allocate the Internet socket (4k). No packet driver found! No packet driver software was found in the interrupt range of 0x60-0x80. NETSRV2.KEY not found! Your serialized KEY file could not be found in the system directory. NETSRV2.KEY is corrupt! Your serialized KEY file is damaged and should be replaced by contacting the source of purchase. Display Files Format =========================================================================== Both the WELCOME and the MENU display files use the same PCBoard colour macro format. This allows one file to be used by users with ANSI and users without ANSI. The colour macros are formated as: @Xbf Where b is the background colour and f is the foreground colour. Both f and b are hex digits that represent the colour requried. Hex Digit Foreground Colour Background Colour ============== ==================== ==================== 0 Black Black 1 Blue Blue 2 Green Green 3 Cyan Cyan 4 Red Red 5 Magenta Magenta 6 Brown Brown 7 Light Gray Light Gray 8 Dark Gray Blinking Black 9 Light Blue Blinking Blue A Light Green Blinking Green B Light Cyan Blinking Cyan C Light Red Blinking Red D Light Magenta Blinking Magenta E Yellow Blinking Brown F White Blinking Light Gray You may also use two distinct display files; one for users with ANSI and one for users without ANSI. A display file with a file extension of .ANS will be used by users with ANSI. A display file with a file extenstion of .ASC will be used by users without ANSI. Acknowledgments =========================================================================== Special thanks to all of our beta testers for their time. We would also like to offer our gratitude to the following people: Ed Bercovitz, Michael Boettger, Brad Dameron, Peter Ellis, Erick Engelke, Ian Gerada Anna Kalasznikow and Tony Rocha. INDEX A Anonymous FTP 32 Archie 30, 32 ARPAnet 32 Articles 32, 37 B BOOTP 8, 24 C CCITT 33 Command Line Parameters NXBBS 15 NXDIP 23 Setup 5 CSLIP 24 D Dedicated Line See Leased Line Dialup Line 33 DNS See Domain Address Domain Name System 34 E Ethernet 34 F FAQ 34 Flames 34 FORMs 21 Freenet 34 FTP 34 Anonymous 32 G Gopher 34 I IAB 34 Installation 3 International Standards Organization 35 Internet 1, 35 Internet Architecture Board 34 Internet Relay Chat 35 IRC 35 ISDN 35 ISO 35 L Leased line 33 LISTSERV 35 M Mailing List 35 Moderator 35 Newsgroup 35 N Newsgroups 32, 34, 35 NIC 36 NNTP 36 NSFNET 36 O OSI 36 P Packet Driver 25 POP 36 Port definition 30 PPP 36 R RFC 36 RFC1036 36 RFC822 36 Router 37 S Service Provider 37 SLIP 24, 36, 37 SMTP 37 T TCP/IP 37 Technical Support 2 TELNET 37 Transport Agent 37 U UNIX 37 USENET 35, 36, 37 UUCICO 37 UUCP 38 W WAIS 38 WWW 38