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Grex > Internet > #24: PPP communications from a PC - Which software to use? |  |
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srw
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PPP communications from a PC - Which software to use?
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Nov 23 06:54 UTC 1993 |
I am using the Merit PPP server to establish a PPP session from my Mac
and this is working well using non-authenticated PPP at 9600 baud.
However, I have a lot a friends at work who have PCs at home rather
than Macs. Some are 286, but many are 386 based. Some run Dos, some
run Windows. I would like to help these PC types get onto this
service, but I am ignorant of what software will get the job done. I
know just enough about PCs to get into trouble.
For example, I know WinQVT will do telnet TCP/IP comms over
ethernet. Does it support PPP? Or do they need some kind of
extension for it that would enable this? Should I tell them to take
a totally different approach? I know PCs must have good software
for this purpose.
KA9Q has been much discussed, but isn't QVT more robust?
So many questions...So few answers... help!
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| 36 responses total. |
rcurl
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response 1 of 36:
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Nov 23 13:23 UTC 1993 |
I can't help, but I can observe that I followed the travails of those
implementing KA9Q, on an MTS conference, and was not much tempted to
expose myself to such grief (;->).
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srw
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response 2 of 36:
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Nov 23 19:25 UTC 1993 |
Indeed, I was hoping someone would know about PPP that would permit a
suite of standard clients to run on a PC. I am aware that windows NT
provides winsock calls. No one is running NT at home, though.
I'd be more interested in a Windows 3.1 solution.
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kentn
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response 3 of 36:
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Nov 23 20:15 UTC 1993 |
I've followed the travails of those implementing NCSA Telnet, and came to
the same conclusion, Rane. That said, I have both KA9Q and NCSA Telnet
running on my '286 MS-DOS machine. I'm trying out the newest version
of NCSA Telnet but not having much luck with the EtherPPP driver (or
rather, EtherPPP runs and connects, but Telbin is unable to communicate).
What is QVT? Is it public domain?
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jdg
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response 4 of 36:
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Nov 25 00:05 UTC 1993 |
QVT and/or WinQVT are shareware DECterminal emulators. QVT/Net is a
Windows (tm) application that supports:
up to 15 Telnet client sessions
one FTP client session
one NNTP client session
one SMTP or POP3 client session
one LPR client session
FTP server
RCP server.
It supports WinSock (tm) TCP/IP socket drivers, and also supports TSR packet
drivers that conform to the PC-NFS packet driver standard, such as the many
Crynmore packet drivers for various ethernet cards and SLIP.
I've been testing QVT/Net at 19.2 on my 20MHZ 386 with both SLIP8250 and
the new SLIPPER driver. It seems to work fine for all but FTP, due to
performance. I may keep KA9Q around just for large-scale file transfers.
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jdg
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response 5 of 36:
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Nov 25 00:29 UTC 1993 |
corrections: Thats 15 Telnet/or rlogin client sessions, and the packet
drivers are "crynwr drivers".
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kentn
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response 6 of 36:
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Nov 25 04:48 UTC 1993 |
Does QVT require Windoze? Is it available via ftp? Thanx.
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jdg
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response 7 of 36:
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Nov 25 13:59 UTC 1993 |
There are multiple versions of QVT. WinQVT and QVT/Net require MS-Windows,
Windows NT, etc.
Both of these are available from the SIMTEL20 database via anonymous FTP,
as are the packet drivers (including SLFP, you know.) SIMTEL20's current
home is at oak.oakland.edu, in the directory tree /pub/msdos.
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srw
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response 8 of 36:
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Nov 25 17:00 UTC 1993 |
Thanks for your response #4 Josh. It's very helpful.
I still need clarifications on a few points though.
If I tell my PC-using colleagues to get a copy of WinQVT for their
home machines runnning Windows, what packet drivers could they use
to connect PPP to Merit? I have this fully worked out for myself and
all the other Mac users, but the PC users are bugging me to tell
them how to connect up, and I was hoping there was an inexpensive
solution for them. If SLIP is supported at Merit, and would
accomplish the same thing, I could use that info as an alternative.
Most of these people would use PPP without authentication, as
they are not affilated with U of M or Merit.
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jdg
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response 9 of 36:
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Nov 25 18:58 UTC 1993 |
I do not know if there is a PPP crynwr compatible packet driver.
My guess is there must be, they seem to have drivers for everything else.
The last time I checked (a year ago or so), Merit supported SLFP, which
is sort of like SLIP + BOOTP bot not exactly. A crynwr compatible packet
driver is available for SLFP in the SIMTEL20 database. Look for it in
/pub/msdos/ka9q
Crywnr *just released* version 11 of their drivers this past week. The
update at SIMTEL20 in /pub/msdos/pktdrvr is so new they haven't updated
the 00_index.txt description file yet. I haven't looked in their
new driver package, but I'd gues PPP is in there, because it is a
popular protocol replacing both SLIP and CSLIP.
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power
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response 10 of 36:
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Dec 8 15:06 UTC 1993 |
(they stopped supporting SLFP around August, I believe...)
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srw
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response 11 of 36:
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Jan 21 01:55 UTC 1994 |
There is a lot of information about Mosaic in item 5 of internet.
I would like to know if there is a Mosaic for PC Users, or is it only
for Macs? I don't own a PC, but I have a friend who wants to know,
and I can't help. If anyone has used such a program can they please
also help explain what to use for Packet drivers, and PPP on a PC?
He wants to use Mosaic over the Merit dialups, and realizes it will
be deadly slow.
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mju
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response 12 of 36:
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Feb 4 03:30 UTC 1994 |
I believe that Mosaic is available for Windows.
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power
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response 13 of 36:
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Feb 4 04:23 UTC 1994 |
Yes, it is... It's called wmosaic--I think there might be some discussion
about getting it running in alt.winsock...
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srw
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response 14 of 36:
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Feb 4 13:27 UTC 1994 |
Thanks. I now know about the client (I thinks it's actually WinMosaic).
I have never looked in alt.winsock, though. Maybe that's where he
can get reliable info about windows packet drivers and PPP.
I'll pass it on.
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jdg
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response 15 of 36:
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Feb 7 13:44 UTC 1994 |
I'd use mosaic, but my internet connection at work is through a "firewall"
machine. So, unless I can find a firewall socket-to-socket transfer
program around, I'm stuck with telnetting to the firewall machine to
then archie, ftp, or gopher.
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srw
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response 16 of 36:
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Feb 8 04:13 UTC 1994 |
Don't Forget Lynx. At least with Lynx you can use WWW servers, you just
have to forego the multimedia. Theres an item on this in internet.
Hmm. Maybe this item should be linked to internet, too.
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kaplan
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response 17 of 36:
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Feb 8 18:40 UTC 1994 |
Why not!? Micros 67 linked to Internet 24.
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davel
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response 18 of 36:
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Feb 9 02:25 UTC 1994 |
Thanks, Jeff.
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curby
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response 19 of 36:
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Feb 28 22:02 UTC 1994 |
Uh... I responded to the dos ppp question in item 5, if you want the
software that I am using, I will put it in our FTP area.
Uh.... Is QVT (share/free)ware? If not, your best bet for a dos machine
for nonfree software that connects you to the internet is the program
Lan Work Place, by the owners of unix, novell. It is a well put together
piece of software, but still leaves you with the problem of needing a id
from michnet.
Ah well...
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jdg
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response 20 of 36:
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Feb 28 22:35 UTC 1994 |
Your question about QVT was answered back in response #4. Shareware.
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srw
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response 21 of 36:
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Mar 1 01:16 UTC 1994 |
Since I asked this question, the people who wanted the solution have
indeed obtained Lan Work Place. One of them has Merit Auth so is OK,
the other will have to make do with Michnet exploration.
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kaplan
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response 22 of 36:
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Jan 3 21:21 UTC 1996 |
It's been a long time since anyone has entered anything here. So I assume
that the answers above are out of date.
I've almost convinced myself that I want to do graphical WWW at home and that
it would be worth the $25 per month to izzy. I have windows 3.1 on a 486
with 8M RAM and I was not planning to get win95 soon because I don't think
I need it and I don't think I have the hard disk space for it.
Is Win95 worth the cost and instalation time and possible new hard disk to
get the built-in PPP support? How good is the PPP that comes with Netscape
Navagate? Do I have to buy Netscape at a store, or can I download it
using lynx on grex? What other choices are out there?
What's with the current Beta version of netscape I've read about?
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ajax
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response 23 of 36:
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Jan 3 22:57 UTC 1996 |
If you're just getting into graphical web browsing, you might
consider Compuserve or AOL. Compuserve's basic $10/month membership
gives you 5 hrs a month of IP service, along with a few hours of
Compuserve access. Good deal if 5 hrs a month is all you use!
Personally, I wouldn't get Win95 just for built-in PPP support.
Netscape 1 and Netscape 2 beta can both be downloaded. They
sell it for $40 in stores. I think the Netscape 2 beta has an
expiration date of a few months, after which you have to pay.
(Not sure if you do if you're non-profit org or something; their
current pricing is free for a lot of people).
Netscape 2 has some privacy issues people are griping about
(e.g. a web site can query your browser to determine the other web
sites you've visited lately), but is fairly stable, and it adds
support for a lot of new "standards."
Other choices: variants of NCSA Mosaic are included with a
lot of hardware and software packages out there. I haven't used
any browsers I like as well as Netscape, but I've only tried
around four or five. Microsoft Plus! for Win95 comes with
"Internet Explorer"...not sure if that's Mosaic-derived or not;
I never tried it.
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curby
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response 24 of 36:
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Jan 4 06:10 UTC 1996 |
Trumpet Winsock 2.x combined with Netscape Navigator 2.x and a ISP that
allows low cost slip/ppp connections has always seemed to me to be the
best way of getting inet access. The Trumpet Winsock has worked with
every type of terminal server that I have used (Radius, Annex, USR Total
Control hubs, and the UofM's old SCP's), so I would be surprised to hear
of an ISP that is using something that will not work with it. Once the
PPP connection is set up, you can use any of the many shareware and
freeware winsock packages available. The best of which are Netscape
Navigator for web access and Eudora for POPping mail. As always, the best
things on the Net are usually free. :)
(Of course, you could always get rid of the microsoft OS's, and get
yourself a real OS like Linux. Not only does it work better then
the others for inet access, but the entire basic package is freeware.
You cannot beat that deal! <g>)
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