The first step I took was to get a copy of the current release of PPP. The reason for this is that I started with the red box edition of OS/2 Warp which only supports SLIP as the protocol out of the box. The blue box edition of Warp may be in the same boat, but the Connect editions all have reasonably current TCPIP stacks built in including PPP for dialup.
In any case I got a copy and started asking questions about how to set up this and that. It turns out that some of the stuff I was told was wrong, and other stuff has to be ammended. In any case here are the results.
Under the menu you see four buttons. The button to the left is Dial, and you will be using this button a lot. The next button over is Add Entry. As you can see I have used this button a couple of times, and I expect to use it some more. The third button is Modify Entry, from time to time I use this button, more for research now than to set things up, but the primary purpose is to change things around. The last button is Remove Entry. As it's name implies you will be using this button whenever you want to remove something. I do have a couple to remove, and I will get around to that eventually.
If you don't have any entries in the window below, you will want to click on the Add Entry button, If you already have an entry that you want to change, you will select that entry by clicking on it, then click on the Modify Entry button and you will be taken to a screen such as this.
Of course you won't have all the entries filled inif you are creating a new entry. I have used my Demo page which as you can see by the top of the window I was creating from the Add Entry button. I have given this entry the Name Demo, and the description ODIP Sample. If you add the contents of the name feild to the paramaters list of the object that launches DIOP, DOIP will attempt to connect to the provider as soon as it is open.
The Description field is limited to 11 characters. and I have filled it in this case. The Login ID field gets the name that you send to your service provider as you log in. My provider asks that I add the ".ppp" to the end telling the provider that I am starting a PPP connection. You will have to use the Password that your service provider and and you have agreed to. The phone number field is the phone number that you use to connect to the service provider.
The Login Sequence window defaults to the word NONE. This will work with some service providers. What happens is that PPP presumes that you are starting a PPP session from the moment you connect. PPP then does a login at the PPP Protocol level. If your service provider supports this great. If not, you have other options to investigate. The feild can be blank, meaning give it your best shot at picking out what the login sequence is. This will log you into the vast majority of providers that exist. If it doesn't, you will have to do one of a variety of things.
You can use/reference a REXX script. This works well if you have to respond in different ways to varying prompts. It may also allow you to connect to service providers that request that you enter a number from a smart card to log in. I haven't tried this, if this is required then you may need to do some rather extensive use of REXX programming.
You can define a short script within the sequence window. In the Demo window I have defined the script:
\r you? [LOGINID] sure? [PASSWORD]This from a fictitious account that has a login series that looks like this:
Press RETURN to continue: Who are you?rusty.ppp How can I be sure?******** Ok, I guess it's you, welcome rusty, starting PPP now.Not having tried this I can't be sure that the blank login script wouldn't work, but if you have an Odd login sequence, that's short and doesn't vary at all.
On this page you will be defining how your system looks to the internet and how your computer becomes part of the internet. The first entry is Your IP Address:. My provider does dynamic IP address alocation, so the feild is left blank. If you are using SLIP you can assign this feild to be 0.0.0.0 and look through the help file for the login sequence window on page 1 for information on how to retreive the correct address upon loging in.
The destination IP address is the IP address of the device you log into. You may not need to supply an entry here, if your service provider requires it your provider will give you that address information. The Netmask is defined by the network address. If you log into a really large service provider, one of maybe 256 possible providers your netmask may actually be 255.0.0.0, but I will leave it to your imagination the likelyhood of this. Most providers use the netmask 255.255.255.0. Some Providers may use more than one IP address and may subnet them into one network address. If this happens you may see some other number listed here. If you have questions about what should be here ask your provider.
The MRU or MTU entry defines how large a packet that you send or receive from your system Some providers will suggest that you use the number 576 in this feild. I have read sugestions that this number means 1500, but a quick check shows that the hex representitive of 1500 is 5DC, not 576. My advice is to ask the provider if their recomendation is in Hex or Decimal and do a translation to Decimal which is what DOIP uses.
The next selection is whether or not VJ Compression is in use. Just ask if your provider supports header compression or not. If they do then you can put a check in the box, if not then leave it blank.
Your Domain Nameserver is the system that your computer will talk to when you need to convert a host's character based name into a doted quad name, which is what your computer uses in the header of a packet for that host. If you set your Domain Namserver to the entry shown you will have to be running a DNS server on your own system. If you want to do this have at it. Most of us have found it to be simpler to have our ISP maintain the DNS
Your host name is supposed to be the name your computer has when connected to your ISP. It seams that this entry is not used in normal connections as I have had no problems with my ISP and this entry matches one of the primary systems in his system. It would appear that this feild is ignored in my case.
Your domain name is the domain name of the service provider that you use. If you are using warp connect your mileage may vary.
This brings us to the server page. These entries are fairly self explanitory other than your reply (mail) address. This should only be your account name, not your fully qualified name. Some of the applications included in the bonus pack will tie together your reply (mail) address and your reply (mail) domain to come up with the reply to entry for such things as usenet news. If you are running into a problem where you are seeing your domain name twice in articles you generate, this is probably the reason.
I won't go into what this page does, most of you will simply select your modem from the list, and things will work. I have modified my working entry to use atz to initialize my modem. If you wish to do this you will have to send an atw to the modem to write the settings to your modem. Check with your ISP and your modem documentation to work out any problems that you encounter. If your ISP allows you to use a shell account over the same number as you will be doing your SLIP or PPP sessions try using HyperAccess/2 Lite to log in, If you can get that to work take the modem init string that you used there and copy it into the modem init string for this page. You will want to confer with your ISP for the maximum recomended speed to lock the DTR to. This speed is what you will put in the Speed (Baud) feild, and you will set the Com Port to reflect where your modem is.
If communications world were perfect you would speak to your computer and it would connect you to the person or resource that you are looking for at the fastest possible connection speed. The problem with this is that for now the only way you could do this is to spend somewhere on the order of $50,000 to get that kind of capability. The problem is not the cost of the software or the hardware involved, your PC which probably cost you less than $5,000 can handle the software, and another $5000 would probably cover all the software and hardware needed on top of this.
The problem is that you will have to spend time and money training your system in how to connect, and you will have to pay for that training. On top of this you will have to pay for the connections themselves. Fast connections are not cheap, and they get exponentially more expensive the faster you want to send data. Receiving data is cheap.
Want to receive data really fast? Get a satelite receiver and a dish. Cost about $700. The receiver will have to dump data in a format that your equipment can understand, but that will be dependent upon your equipment. You will be limited by the I/O speed of your computer.
Want to send data really fast? As I understand it the data rate of a D4 link is over 300MBps. If you can aford the hardware and are willing to monitarily enhance your Telecom service provider you can buy that kind of bandwidth. The problem is that to do that now you will probably have to build the infrastructure yourself.
If you have any questions about this doucment please feel free to E-Mail me.
If you are thinking there has got to be an easier way to connect to the internet, there is. It's called Advantis, and you can reach them by selecting the "IBM Internet Dialer" if you are using OS/2 or the IBM TCP/IP stack for Windows product.
For that matter, AOL will do all the setup for you to get onto the Internet, or Compuserve, or Microsoft, or Prodigy. Remember that you get what you pay for. If you are not content with what one of these providers will give you, you will have to do some work of your own.