From: BruceG6069@aol.com (Bruce Grubb) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm,comp.answers,news.answers Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.comm Subject: comp.sys.mac.comm FAQ (v 2.0) Mar 1 1998 Archive-name: comp-sys-mac-comm/csmc-FAQ From: BruceG6069@aol.com (Bruce Grubb) Last-modified: Mar 1 1998 This is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list for comp.sys.mac.comm ======================================================================= This list of frequently asked questions and answers is intended to help reduce the number of "often asked questions" that make the rounds here in comp.sys.mac.comm. Since comp.sys.mac.comm is intended as a forum to discuss telecommunication (and related issues) that are specific to the Macintosh, most questions about modems, telecommunications in general, and other non-Macintosh specific communication questions are not listed here. The proper newsgroup for such questions is usually comp.dcom.modems. This list is posted periodically (about once a month) to the Usenet group comp.sys.mac.comm with intention to add comp.answers and news.answers to the newsgroup list. Latest versions of the FAQ can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from any info-mac mirror as well as at: http://members.aol.com/BruceG6069/csmc.txt This FAQ is purely a volunteer effort. Although every effort has been made to insure that answers are as complete and accurate as possible, NO GUARANTEE IS IMPLIED OR INTENDED. The editor and contributors have developed this FAQ as a service to Usenet. We hope you find it useful. It has been formatted in both HTMl and ASCII format for your browsing convenience. The editor/maintainer of this FAQ takes no responsibility for its contents. Thanks to David Oppenheimer for giving me permission to continue the FAQ. Please send your corrections and comments to the editor, Bruce L Grubb at BruceG6069@aol.com SHARE THIS INFORMATION FREELY AND IN GOOD FAITH. DO NOT DISTRIBUTE MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THIS FAQ. DO NOT REMOVE THIS NOTICE OR THE TEXT ABOVE. (INCLUDING THE 'LastModified' HEADER; THANKS.) Exception to the above: Excerpts of this FAQ not exceeding 9000 characters in length may be reprinted PROVIDED that "the comp.sys.mac.comm Usenet newsgroup FAQ" is credited as the source of the information. Even in this case, no editing of the quoted material is permitted ============================================================================= TABLE OF CONTENTS: * = Updated or New information [1] Modems and Cables [1.1] What kind of modem will work with my Macintosh? *[1.2] What kind of cable do I need to use my external modem with my Macintosh? [1.3] What do V.32, V.42, bis, MNP, etc mean? [1.4] How fast can the Macintosh serial ports really go? [1.5] How can I disable call-waiting when using my modem? [2] File Formats and Conversion [2.1] What is a resource (or data) fork? *[2.2] What is encoding? *[2.3] What is BinHex? What is uuencode? What is Base64? *[2.4] What is MacBinary? *[2.5] What do file suffixes like .hqx, .sit, .bin, etc ... mean and how can I convert such files back to normal Macintosh applications and documents? [3] Macintosh File Transfers *[3.1] What is the difference between a commmunications and an Internet connection? *[3.2] What commmunications programs are available? *[3.3] What Internet programs are available? *[3.4] What's the best compression program to use when uploading files to an archive or BBS? Are there any other guidelines I should follow? *[3.5] How can I transfer Macintosh files to/from my Macintosh and other non-Macintosh computers (eg: mainframes, UNIX boxes, PCs)? *[3.6] How can I use the programs that are posted to comp.binaries.mac? [4] Networking basics *[4.1] What is the difference between AppleTalk, LocalTalk, Ethernet, EtherTalk, TCP/IP, etc? *[4.2] What is Open Transport? [4.3] How can I change the Chooser "user" and name of my Macintosh? Also: Why can I no longer change the name of my hard-disk? [4.4] What is Apple Remote Access? [4.5] Where can I get a Remote Access script for my modem? [4.6] How can I use the services of my EtherTalk network and print to my LocalTalk-only printer at the same time? [5] Internet Networking *[5.1] What kind of hardware and software do I need to have a direct connection (ie use TCP/IP protocol) to the Internet? *[5.2] What are SLIP, CSLIP and PPP? *[5.3] FreePPP Frequently Asked Questions *[5.4] Do I have to know anything about Unix to use the Internet? *[5.5] What is Telnet, and what MacOS Telnet Programs are there? [5.6] Is there a UNIX program that will convert between BinHex and MacBinary? [6] Miscellaneous [6.1] What aids are available for programmers wishing to write TCP/IP applications for the Macintosh? [6.2] I have a FAX machine and a FAX modem. How can I use these devices together to emulate a scanner and a printer? Appendices: [A] List of Common File Suffixes and Abbreviations [B] Mac program archive list link [C] Mac program archive list link and Vendor Information [D] Contributors ========================================================================== [1] Modems and Cables ===================== [1.1] What kind of modem will work with my Macintosh? ----------------------------------------------------- Any *external* Hayes compatible modem will work with your Macintosh. There are too many to list or review here. The USENET newsgroup comp.dcom.modems is a good place to ask questions about the many different external Hayes compatible modems. Such modems can be used with any computer (Macintosh, UNIX box, MS-DOS PC, Amiga, etc) with a serial port (e.g.: Macintosh modem port) interface. However, there *are* modems that are designed specifically for use with the Macintosh. nternal Powerbook modems, ADB modems, and internal NuBus modems are all examples. Note that modems for the Macintosh Performa apparently can only plug into the Macintosh Performa because of an extra pin which they posesses (there is a corresponding extra hole on the Performa serial port connector into which this pin fits). As a result, the bundled Global Village FAX modem can only plug into the Performa. Other modems can of course also plug into the Performa; the extra pin only prevents plugging the Performa-specific modem into other Macs. Assuming you wish to use an external modem, your only other hardware consideration is to find an appropriate hardware-handshaking cable to connect it to your Macintosh. (see [1.2] for details). Various special modems exist with unique features; the most notable type is the dual FAX/modem. For more information, visit comp.dcom.modems or your local dealer: there are simply too many products to describe here. [1.2] What kind of cable do I need to use my external modem with my Macintosh? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Most modems have a female DB-25 (25 pin) connector labelled RS-232C on their backsides. All Macintoshes since the Mac Plus use a mini DIN-8 (8 pin) connector for the two serial ports (modem and printer). Earlier models use the larger DB-9 (9 pin) connector. Finding a generic cable for any configuration should not be very difficult at most computer accessory stores. They are typically sold for around $25. However, for any modem 14.4K and above you need a hardware handshaking cable. Attempting to transfer files at high bps rates using a non-hardware- handshaking cable will likely result in repeated transmission errors, a drop in the transfer rate, and possibly an aborted transmission. Since high speed modems are the norm non-hardware-handshaking cables have effectively disappeared. Also since such cables are at most $15.00 (10 ft) there is no need to 'roll your own'. [1.3] What do V.32, V.42, bis, MNP, etc mean? --------------------------------------------- Because these topics are universal telecommunications issues, they are more fully discussed in comp.dcom.modems. However, a short description of some of the more common abbreviations and buzzwords is given below. <> Buzzword What it typically means --------------- ---------------------------------------------- bit : binary digit; amount of information necessary to distinguish between two equally likely events (such as the value of a binary digit) byte : eight bits; size of a single ASCII character bps : bits per second baud : one analog signal state change; people usually use baud and bps interchangeable, although most modern modems can encode multiple bits per baud Bell 103 : 300 bps U.S. Standard Bell 212A : 1200 bps U.S. Standard LAP/M : Link Access Protocol/Modem. MNP : Microcom Networking Protocol (Proprietary) MNP5 : MNP extension; 2 to 1 data compression. V.32 : 9600bps, 4800bps V.32bis : 14.4Kbps, 12Kbps, 9600bps, 7200bps, 4800bps V.32terbo : psuedo-standard extending V.32bis to 16.8, 19.2 kbs V.34 : 28,800 bps, 14,400 bps, 9,600 bps, 2,400 bps V.Fast : Interim version of V.34; sometimes used as a nickname for V.34 V.FC : A proprietary Rockwell protocol used before V.34 was approved as a standard V.42 : MNP 4 and LAP/M modem to modem error correction V.42bis : LAP/M and 4-to-1 data compression. 2x, 54K : Two orignally incompatable format that are being used in the standard. Dependent on a digital equipment which some areas do not have. Note: Some V.FC modems do not work with V.34 modems at 28,800 bps. FAX standards: V.21 : 300 bps FAX V.27ter : 4800 bps FAX V.29 : 9600 bps FAX V.17 : 14400 bps FAX Table 1.3.1 [1.4] How fast can the Macintosh serial ports really go? -------------------------------------------------------- The Macintosh operating system supports data rates up to 57600 bps, but the Macintosh serial hardware can support transfer rates that are much higher if they are externally clocked. Serial port sound-input-devices such as the Cedar Technologies SID and Farallon's MacRecorder, as well as AppleTalk boxes, use this trick to achieve transfer rates greater than 100 Kbps. Ward McFarland <70240.504@compuserve.com> writes: "The clock rate supplied by pre-AV Macs to the SCC (and used for bps rate generation) limits the maximum asynchronous serial speed to 57,600 bps. The maximum synchronous speed is 16 times this (as used by the old serial hard drives used on 512K Macs and by the Personal LaserWriters). Indeed, the SCC can be externally clocked to faster asynchronous speeds, with a couple of limitiations. First, the external clock is applied to the Mac's CTS input, making it impossible to respond normally to normal modem handshake requests. Second, since the SCC used in older Macs can only buffer 3 characters, data losses can occur due to interrupt service delays. MacRecorder and other custom devices got around this by locking out all system interrupts during serial data transfer. The AVs and PowerMacs apparently use a different SCC clock, and I have benchmarked fairly good ZModem performance using Smartcom II 4.0 at 115,200 and 230,400 bps. Apple does not publish the serial driver control call to set this, and they state they do not support such speeds. I do not know of anyone besides Hayes who has managed to get Apple to tell them the methodology." Note: AppleTalk being active can degrade serial port performance, as can Ethernet-network traffic. Turning off AppleTalk via the Chooser, or disconnecting the Ethernet transceiver, are work-arounds. Dan Schwarz adds AVs and PowerMacs use a newer SCC chip and a DMA based serial driver that can handle a much higher async throughput than the older, interrupt-based driver. My SerialSpeed 230 control panel takes advantage of this new driver and allows many older applications to operate at speeds of 115,000bps or 230,000bps on the PowerMac and AV Mac. It's shareware and is widely available. You can get a copy from the info-mac ftp site, or try http://www.infohaus.com/access/by-seller/Brookline_Software [1.5] How can I disable call-waiting when using my modem? --------------------------------------------------------- This varies depending on your local phone company, but often, if you preced the phone number you wish to tone dial with "*70," (omit the quotes but not the comma), you can disable call-waiting FOR THAT CALL ONLY. If you have a strictly rotary dial line, try preceding the phone number with "1170". In the United Kingdom, the code to use is #43#. In New Zealand, the code to use is *52. If you are using Telecom Australia, ATDT#43#,;H Will turn call-waiting OFF ATDT*43#,;H Will turn it back ON again. ============================================================================== [2] File Formats and Conversion =============================== [2.1] What is a resource (or data) fork? ---------------------------------------- A Macintosh file has two parts: a data fork and a resource fork. Text files and GIF image files are examples of Macintosh files that are usually stored completely in the data fork, and have an empty (or nonexistent) resource fork. Applications, as a counter-example, store most if not all of their information in 'resources' in the resource fork and usually have an empty data fork. Because this two-forked organization of files isn't very common, transferring Macintosh files that have non-empty resource forks to non-Macintosh machines (such as UNIX boxes, or MS-DOS machines) requires special encoding, described below. [2.2] What is encoding? ------------------------ To understand 'encoding' as the term is normally used on the Internet one needs to understand the difference between "binary" and ASCII. With the noted exception of text files computers store information in "binary" format which means that all 8-bits of a byte are used. By constrast ASCII originally only defined the first 7 bits of a byte setting the high bit in each byte to zero. As an added complication the character sets for byte values 128-255 used by ANSI and 1981 to 1990 IBM PCs differed. As a result for 8-bit information to reliably be sent between computers it had to be translated into 7-bit ASCII text or 'encoded'. This was especially true of Usenet and e-mail which even today mostly support 7-bit ASCII. Because 8-bits worth of data are being put into a 7-bit text file encoded files are always larger than their binary counterparts. Because most binary files sent through the Internet are already compressed they are unafffected by V.42bis and MNP5 compression (see [1.3]). For the most part ASCII files do see a benifit which means that even though it is larger an ASCII endoded file can be downloaded faster than its binary counterpart. [2.3] (a) What is BinHex? (b) What is uuencode? (c) What is Base64 ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ These are all ASCII encoding (see [2.2]) formats. (a) BinHex 4.0, by Yves Lempereur, is a binary to text translator that can directly encode any Macintosh document (ie: it knows how to convert information in both the resource and data forks). BinHex files can be easily recognized since they begin with the line: (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) and are followed by a line starting with a colon, ':'. The BinHex encoding of the file follows, and is ended with another colon. Binhex 4.0 files also can be identified externally by the suffix ".hqx". There is in fact a program called "BinHex 4.0" in various archives, but it has a bug wherein it refuses to decode .hqx files with very long names and you don't have to use it to convert files to and from BinHex. It's best to use one of the other more powerful utilities like StuffIt Expander and other StuffIt programs, SunTar, and HQXer to name only a few. StuffIt Expander has the advantage of also being able to automatically expand StuffIt, Compact Pro, and Applelink archives and being available UNIX utilities (see [6.5]) that manipulate BinHex, MacBinary, and other types of Macintosh files are also available. The specifications to BinHex, should you be an interested programmer, are available at the University of Michigan's Macintosh archive site as mac/misc/documentation/binhex4.0specs.txt, or at InfoMac sites as dev/info/binhex-40-specs.txt . There is also a program/format called "BinHex 5.0"; it is NOT a more advanced version of "BinHex 4.0" but rather a separate _binary_ format (it uses the entire eight-bit ANSI character set and is thus not suitable for news postings or e-mail) (see [2.2]) BinHex 5.0, written by Yves Lempereur, was the first MacBinary converter available. Converting a file with BinHex 5.0 and then using BinHex 4.0 is another way of converting a native Macintosh files with data and resource forks into a format that can be e-mailed or posted (and then reconstructed). MacBinary, however, is almost always used in preference to BinHex 5.0. As new versions of BinHex were developed, they encoded only the new format but continued to decode all previous formats: BinHex 1.0 encodes .hex and decodes .hex BinHex 2.0 encodes .hex & .hcx and decodes .hex & .hcx BinHex 3.0 never existed BinHex 4.0 encodes .hqx and decodes .hex, .hcx & .hqx BinHex 5.0 encodes MacBinary and decodes .hex, .hcx, .hqx & MacBinary (b) "uuencode" is a binary to text translator that serves the same purpose as BinHex, except that it knows nothing about the Macintosh resource/data fork structure. uuencode was designed to allow UNIX binary files to be easily transferred through text- only interfaces, such as e-mail. Every uuencoded file contains a line similar to: begin 644 usa-map.gif followed by a series of lines of ASCII text characters (which are normally 60 characters long and begin with the letter 'M'). The file ends with a line containing the word 'end'. There may be other special keywords included. Externally uuencode files are usially denoted with the suffix ".uu". Usually, one won't find Macintosh files in uuencode format; however, most non-Macintosh specific binary data posted to Usenet is uuencoded, so if you wish to use any of this data (such as the images posted in alt.binaries.* and elsewhere), you will need to deal with uuencode. The programs 'uuencode' and 'uudecode' exist on most UNIX systems. If not, don't worry as there are many programs allow you to convert to and from uuencode using your Macintosh (see [2.6]). (c) Base64 is the encoding format used by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (Mime) files. The reason mime uses Base64 rather than the more popularal uuencode format is that uuencode is not really a standard but rather a collection of related but different formats. This rendered uuencode impractical as a cross platform encoding format. While Eudora recommends AppleDouble for recipients with mime mailers it is unclear if AppleDouble is related to Base64 or just a encoding format mime supports. Since AppleDouble are actually two files (data fork in a file with original filename and resource fork in a file with '%' prefixing the original filename) it seems the seconds idea is more likely. More extensive documentation is available at ftp.support.apple.com. [2.4] What is MacBinary? ------------------------ MacBinary is a standard way of taking a Macintosh file (both resource and data forks) and creating a new file with just a data fork. MacBinary's purpose is to encapsulate *all* information (including the filename, creation and modification dates, file type and creator) contained in a Macintosh file for transport over a non-Macintosh medium. Unlike encoding MacBinary uses the 8-bit ANSI character set making it a binary format and subject to the same limitations as other binary formats. This renders the format useless for Usenet posting and most E-mail. Although a Macintosh program (called MacBinary) does exist to do the converting to and from MacBinary, almost all modern Macintosh telecommunications programs have the capability of converting and unconverting MacBinary files for you. ZTerm, for example, can be configured to automatically detect when a MacBinary file is being received and to convert this file to its original representation; or, if you are uploading, ZTerm can optionally encode the file into MacBinary before sending. Fetch, and most other shareware and commercial products have equivalent or similar capabilities. Dennis Brothers, Yves Lempereur, and others gathered on CompuServe to discuss what eventually became the original MacBinary standard. According to Lempereur, "We finally agreed on using the MacTerminal format (without the modified XModem protocol). I then wrote BinHex 5.0 (see [2.3]) to support MacBinary. A year later, the same group got together on CompuServe again and created MacBinary II." MacBinary I is the name given to the old MacBinary standard. MacBinary II is the name given to the new MacBinary standard which everybody uses today; in common usage, MacBinary means MacBinary II. Since then, BinHex and the new MacBinary have become the standard way of encapsulating Macintosh files for transfer over foreign systems throughout the Internet, USENET, and elsewhere. MacBinary is also used as a way to retain Mac file information in non-mac formats. For example ZipIt uses MacBinary in this manner for the PC .zip format. [2.5] What do file suffixes like .hqx, .sit, .bin, etc ... mean and how can I convert such files back to normal Macintosh applications and documents? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Most files available by FTP or posted to Usenet are modified twice to allow them to more easily pass through foreign computer systems. First they are compressed and then either ASCII or ANSI encoded with BinHex (.hqx) and MacBinary (.bin) being the formats of choice for Macintosh users (see [2.3] and [2.4] for an explanation of these formats). Generally the suffix on these files only tells you the encoding method used and nothing about the compression method. As a result StuffIt Expander has become the defacto decorder utility especially when combined with the StuffIt Engine. You can use the following table to determine what Macintosh programs decode which formats. For a more complete description of the various Macintosh archival programs, see the excellent FAQ for comp.sys.mac.apps. This table is also part of the Mac-FTP-list and listed on its own as format-chart.txt both of which are at http://members.aol.com/BruceG6069/ as well as being archived on any info-mac mirror site, in the /info-mac/comm/ directory. unix gzip .uu/ .b64/ Macintosh .cpt .sit .hqx .bin .arc .zip .tar .Z .gz/.z .uue .mime* Stuffit Expander** D D D D w/ DSEE 4.0** D X X D D D D D D D w/ DSEE 4.5** D X X D D D D D D D D ShrinkWrap*^ D D D D D D D D D D StuffIt Lite*** D X X X {see note below} StuffIt Deluxe*** D X X X D D X X D X D ArcMac X BinHex 5.0 D X Compact Pro 1.5.1 X D/N X MacCompress X MacGzip D X MPack 1.5.1 D D X SunTar 2.1.3 X X X X D Tar 4.0b X uucd 2.4.6 X D YA-Base64 1.2.9 D D D ZipIt 1.3.8 D D X Other unix gzip .uu/ .b64/ computers .cpt .sit .hqx .bin .arc .zip .tar .Z .gz/.z .uue .mime* binhex-pc-13 X extrac.exe D macutil (unix) hexbin D D macunpack D D D D mcvert (unix) X X MPack D D X PKZIP X Stuffit Expander D D D D D D D for Windows unsitins.exe D xferp110 (win) X X X N = Cannot decompress .sit dlx {Type SITD} files D = Decode only X = Encode and decode .sit refers to both 1.5 and dlx. Otherwise a '/' is used {1.5/dlx}. .hqx = BinHex4 (see [2.3]); .bin = MacBinary (BinHex5) (see [2.4]) Note: Almost every Mac communications program can decode .bin files. * .b64/.mime (Base 64) refers to the encoding format used by the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension. For more information consult the MIME FAQ. ** DropStuff with Expander Enhancer is an $30 shareware addon for Stuffit Expander . The Stuffit Engine which comes with DSEE is also used by other programs {marked with a *^}. Current public versions are are 4.0 and 4.5 respectively DSEE version 4.5 is only available with StuffIt Deluxe 4.5 as of this writing. *** Stuffit Deluxe 3.5/4.0 translators can be used with Stuffit Lite. Current versions are 4.5.0 and 3.6.0 respectively as of this writing. Table 2.5.1 Note: .gz and .Z compression systems, while both native to UNIX, are completely different, and these suffixes cannot not be interchanged. WARNING: .hqx, .uu, .b64, and .txt files are the ONLY files that can be downloaded in ASCII mode; all others must be downloaded in BINARY {IMAGE} mode for the file to decompress properly. This is especially true of ".bin" and "unstuffed" files. Otherwise you will get errors like "unreadable file" or "file is corrupt" when you try to decompress them. Less commonly used formats. Those follwed by a + are Mac formats. .arj PC format common to European sites. Decompressed by unArjMac, DeArj, and Stuffit Expander for Windows. .dd + Disk Doubler (Mac} format. Decompressed by DDExpand and DiskDoubler. .exe DOS/Windows executable file (program); also used to create self-extracting archives. An .exe file used as a self-extracting archive can usually be decompressed with Stuffit Expander w/ DSEE. .html (.htm) WWW document. Used by WWW browsers such as Netscape and lynx. .image/.img/.ima/ + These are all disk image extensions. They represent Mac disk image (.image/.img), Microsoft Disk Image Utility (.img), and Winimage (.ima) formats. Most can be decoded and/or mounted via StuffIt Expander 4.5 or ShrinkWrap 3.0 . For a history of Shrinkwrap consult the 2.1 site . Note that .img is also used as an graphic file extension and needs GraphicConverter to view. .lzh (related formats - .lha and .lzs) old PC/Amiga format that is still quite popular in Japan, largely replaced by .arc and .zip elsewhere; decompressed via the Stuffit Engine 4.5 and StuffIt Deluxe 4.5, macunpack, LHA Expander 1.0.3, French KISS 2.2.0 and MacLHA 2.2.1 (which also allows compression). .pit old {~1989} Mac compression format created by PackIt programs, replaced by .sit. In general, a program that handles .sit files can decompress .pit files as well. .pkg AppleLink package format, replaced by .sit. Decompressed by all present Mac StuffIt programs. .rar A DOS compression format. Decompressed by MacUnRAR. .sea A special version of a Mac compression format that decompresses itself when opened. The most common .sea files are Stuffit, Compact Pro, and Disk Doubler. On the PC Stuffit Expander for Windows will expand Stuffit SEA files. .shar Unix shell archive. Decoded by Unshar. .taz another name for .tar.Z .tgz another name for .tar.z and .tar.gz (do not confuse with .tar.Z). .txt (.abs, .doc) ASCII text file. There is a slight differance between ASCII text files of Mac, PCs, and UNIX systems which can cause problems when trying to read them. Mac ASCII uses carrage returns, UNIX uses line feeds, and PC uses both. .z Early {~1993} suffix for Gzip files. Due to confusion with the UNIX 'compress' suffix {.Z} it was abandoned in favor of the .gz suffix. .zoo old {~1989} PC/Amiga format, replaced by .arc. Decompressed by MacZoo and MacBooz. Table 2.5.3 ======================================================================== [3] Macintosh File-transfers ============================ [3.1] What is the difference between a commmunications and an Internet connection? -------------------------------------------------------------------- A commmunication connection was the original way home computers remotely connected to other computers. Originally each communication program had its own method and interface but then Apple created the Communications Toolbox (CTB) as a standard interface for programmers writing communications programs. In addition, specific "tools" that interface with modems, provide terminal emulation, or handle file transferring could be implemented as external add-on features to CTB-aware programs. The protocals most commonally associated with commmunications software are (in order of preferance): Zmodem, YModem, Xmodem, and finally Kermit. In all cases the commmunication program itself provided a direct connection to the computer on the other end. Because it was a direct connection you could only do on thing at a time and the interface tended to be text only or even Command Line Interace. In the wake of Internet connections continued development of communication programs has fallen off though they are still the best way to connect to a local BBS. By contrast Internet connections grew out of the development of personal computers. Originally Internet computers were directly connected to each other providing information to the user via dumb termanals. With the development of personal computers a need to allow dial in connections developed with SLIP and PPP (see [5.3]) being the result. These additional protocals allowed personal computer users to use such Internet protocals as FTP, Gopher, and SMTP. Since support for Internet connections was rolled into the MacOS beginning with System 7.5 it has become the defacto way to link a personal Mac to the outside world. [3.2] What communication programs are available? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a short list of shareware/freeware and commercial communication programs from the orginal list that are still available. As a matter of practicality only those programs that have been written or updated since 1993, support at least three of the standard protocols (Kermit, Xmodem, YModem, and Zmodem), and either are available or have web pages are listed. BN: Black Knight 1.0.7, $30 shareware, Raine Storm softworks CL: Communicate Lite, $30 SRP, Mark/Space Softworks, http://www.markspace.com/comm_lite.html MP: MicroPhone II 5.0, $149 retail, $119.95 mail order; cheaper sidegrades often available, Software Ventures Corporation Also, MicroPhone Pro, a slightly more capable package. Software Ventures Corporation now offers MicroPhone LT, a streamlined version of MicroPhone II. MT: MacToPic Plus, $195, site licenses available, Carnation Software, ST: SITcomm 1.0.1, $120, sidegrades are $49, and existing Aladdin customers pay only $39, Aladdin Systems aladdin@applelink.apple.com or aladdin@well.sf.ca.us VT: VersaTerm and VersaTerm Pro 5.0.6, $145 and $195 respectively Synergy Software ZT: ZTerm 1.0.1, $30 shareware, $40 with disk, Dave Alverson, davea@xetron.com Shareware/freeware communications programs can be found in the /info-mac/comm/term directory of any Info-mac mirror. Table 3.1.1 summarizes file transfer capabilities of various Macintosh telecommunications programs. | Programs Protocols | BN CL MP MT ST VT ZT --------------------------------- XMODEM | X X X X X X X YMODEM | X X X X X X X ZMODEM | X X X X X X X Kermit | X X X X X QuickB | X X B Plus | X X CTB tools | X X X X FTP | X X Table 3.1.1 Table 3.1.2 summarizes the terminal-emulation capabilities of various Macintosh communications programs: | Programs Terminals | BN CL MP MT ST VT ZT --------------------------------- TTY | X X X X X VT52 | X X VT100 | X X X X X X X VT102 | X X X X X VT220 | X X X VT320 | X PC/ANSI | X X X IBM3270 | X Tek 4010 | X Tek 4014 | X Tek 4105/7| P DG210/211 | X CTB tools | X X X Controls | X X X Viewpoint | X Wyse 50 | X X Prism | X Table 3.1.2 Table 3.1.3 summarizes the scripting capabilities of various Macintosh telecommunications programs: | Programs Scripting | BN CL MP MT ST VT ZT ---------------------------------- Recording | X X X X If/Else | X X a a Loops | X X a a XCMDs | X FileOps | X X a a Arithmetic | X X a a Variables | X X a a X User Input | X a a Key Remaps | X X * Arrays | X a a Wait/Send | X X X a X AppleScript| X X X a = capability is accessible through AppleScript Table 3.1.3 Note: Both Black Night and SITcomm are fully Apple Scriptable. SITcomm also has the Frontier Runtime portion of the Frontier scripting system is also bundled with SITcomm. * Allows programmable function keys [3.3] What Internet programs are available? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The desire to get on the Internet has produced dozens of such programs many of which are listed at The Mac Orchard web page . To help the fledgling Internet user I am listing the most commonly used programs below: E-mail Eudora is perhaps the best written and most popular e-mail program available for the Macintosh. Eudora is a complete and versatile e-mail package which can send e-mail via SMTP (see [5.4]) and receive e-mail via a POP server. It can even be used with UUPC 3.0 (as a mail reader and message generator, not a transport agent). Eudora can also be used to transfer arbitrary Macintosh files between computers through its BinHex 4.0 attachment features. Many accolades go to the author, Steve Dorner. Versions are: Eudora Lite 3.1 (free) -- System 7+; expanded feature set Eudora Pro 3.1 (pay) --- commercial version; even more features FTP clients The two most popular MacOS FTP clients are Anarchie and Fetch. Anarchie 2.0.1 is sharewhare and has a home site at Fetch 3.0.2 "is free to users affiliated with an educational institution or charitable non-profit organization; all other users may purchase a license." () News All Mac Newsreaders make use of NNTP (see [5.4]). Newswatcher (2.2.1) by John Norstad and its close sister Multi-Threaded NewsWatcher (currently Version 2.4.1) by Simon Fraser are likely the most popular online Newsreaders. A reference page to these programs can be found at Browsers The two most popular browsers are Netscape and MicroSoft Internet Explorer both of which support frames and other Internet goodies. The most recent versions (4.0.4 and 4.0 respectively) can be found at and [3.4] What's the best compression program to use when uploading files to an archive or BBS? Are there any other guidelines I should follow? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Best Compression: (Revised 02/98) ---- ----------- The shareware programs StuffIt Lite ($25) and DropStuff with Extension Expander (and their commercial sibling, StuffIt Deluxe) are generally regarded as providing the best compression performance of the many Macintosh compression utilities. StuffIt Lite and StuffIt Deluxe have a fancy user-interface while DSEE has a very simply interface. StuffIt Expander (free) with DSEE ($30 shareware) seems to be the most comprehensive package currently available for decompressing files. StuffIt Expander 4.5 cannot make use of the StuffIt Engine that comes with DSEE 4.0 so one must use StuffIt Expander 4.0 instead. The closest rival to the Stuffit programs was Compact Pro but it has two problems: 1) it has not been updated since April 1995 and 2) it cannot decompress the Deluxe .sit format. As a result StuffIt has become the defacto king of Mac compression. Posting Macintosh Programs: (Revised 02/98) ------- --------- -------- You should use either StuffIt Lite, SE with DSEE, StuffIt Deluxe, or Compact Pro to compress Macintosh files you send to anonymous FTP sites and BBS's. Do not post Zip, LZH, or any other type of archive (including self-extracting archives -- see below). Stuffit and Compact Pro have evolved as the standard archive formats for posting Macintosh files for good reasons. Regardless of which archiver you use, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE AN AN ARCHIVE YOU ARE POSTING SELF-EXTRACTING! The convenience of self-extracting archives is not worth the space they waste at anonymous-FTP sites and BBS's (where literally thousands of compressed files are stored). Self- extracting archives are useful in other contexts, but should be discouraged as a medium for posting to archives. Before you create your archive, set the Finder label of all files you plan to include in the archive to 'None'. Avoid using strange punctuation marks in filenames that you will distribute. Characters such as exclamation points, spaces, dollar signs, etc, are legal characters in Macintosh filenames but can be difficult to work with on non-Macintosh systems (where most Macintosh archives are stored). Since BinHex and MacBinary store your original Macintosh filename, removing strange characters from a BinHex'd or MacBinary'd file before distributing will not affect the original filename. As an example, MyFile-215.sit is a perfectly acceptable filename. After you have created the archive and named it appropriately, BinHex encode it (see [2.3]). Preface the resulting text file a short description of the archive you want to distribute, including any system requirements and problems. Do not bother with a signature. Finally, upload the text file (if necessary) and e-mail it to macgifts@info-mac.org. Your subject line should specify a suggested name with a suggested location in the text file. To: macgifts@info-mac.org Subject: myfile-215.hqx Mailing your archive to macgifts automatically submits it to the InfoMac archives, mac.archive.umich.edu, and the Usenet group comp.binaries.mac. [3.5] How can I transfer Macintosh files to/from my Macintosh and other non-Macintosh computers (eg: mainframes, UNIX boxes, PCs)? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Regardless of whether you are using a communications or Internet program the procedure you should follow will be the same. First the file should be compressed with either Compact Pro or StuffIt and then binhex encoded. Some programs like Eudora will so the binhexing for you so you can skip the second step. The reason you want to use Binhex rather than MacBinary as your encoding format is that Binhex is useable in the 7-bit only areas of the Internet like Usenet and E-mail that MacBinary cannot go. For Internet programs downloading a file is very simple. For systems or programs that do not support Drag and Drop you simply double click on the file and it is downloaded for you. Drag and Drop aware programs allow you to drag the file to the desktop which results in it being downloaded. Uploading varies from program to program and some FTP sites only allow files to be E-mailed. Consult your program and destination site documentation for the proper procedures. Communication downloading and uploading is a little more complicated. This is because the remote computer is usially running a totally different OS from the Mac that the user must interact with. As a result the remote computer must be first be told that a file is being sent or recieved and then the Mac commmunications program told the same thing. Since Unix shell accounts were the most common remote OS they are used as example but it should be noted that many BBSes use a different interface and therefore different commands. For a unix shell account the command consists of two parts: % method filename 'Filename' is the name of the file on the remote machine and 'method' is the protocal and whether the file is being sent or received. The methods are generally as follows: Kermit XMODEM YMODEM ZMODEM ------- ------ ------ ------ sending kermit sx sb sz receiving kermit rx rb rz As one goes from left to right in the chart above the protocal's speed increaces. As a result as early as 1994 some communication programs were not supporting Kermit. With Internet connections communication software and its protocols are rapidly fading into the mists of history. [3.7] How can I use the programs that are posted to comp.binaries.mac? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The files posted to comp.binaries.mac are in BinHex 4.0 format. Long files are split into several postings that must be concatenated IN THE PROPER ORDER (and usually with headers and signatures removed) before converting. First, read the documentation for your newsreader. A little time spent here can save you a lot of time trying to put the articles together into one file later. Next, save all the posted articles for a given program posted to comp.binaries.mac to a single file. Don't combine postings that are for different programs, but do save multi-part postings to the same file, in increasing order of part number. Finally open the file in a text editor and make sure to eliminate all non-Binhex information from the file and save the new file. The Macintosh file you create may in fact be an archive that you then need to unarchive with the appropriate program. See the list of file suffixes (see [2.5]) to determine which program(s) to use. ======================================================================== [4] Networking basics [4.1] What are AppleTalk, LocalTalk, Ethernet, EtherTalk, TCP/IP, etc? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- When attempting to describe networking terms, a distinction should be drawn between networking _protocols_ (such as AppleTalk and TCP/IP) and networking _hardware_ (such as LocalTalk, Ethernet, and TokenRing). In most cases, a specific protocol can be used over more than one hardware medium. In order to help understand the interaction of these disparate parts in a real-world network, we can adopt the useful analogy of multi-layer cake with the physical wire at the very bottom and the software which you are running at the very top. Thus, we can think of LocalTalk, Ethernet and TokenRing as being the layers at the bottom, AppleTalk and TCP/IP in the middle and programs like NCSA Telnet, NFS/Share and Netscape at the top. The following terms describe protocols (software descriptions) common to the Macintosh networking world: AppleTalk A proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Computer, Inc. that provides for near-transparent network connections between Macintosh computers. However, over the years AppleTalk has been ported to other OSes including UNIX, VMS and DOS. Questions about the AppleTalk protocol are probably best posed in the newsgroup comp.protocols.appletalk. EtherTalk and TokenTalk The drivers which allows AppleTalk protocols to be transported by Ethernet and over IBM TokenRing networks respectively. TCP/IP A suite of protocols developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) whose purpose is multi-platform connectivity. TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, because these are the two most widely used protocols in the suite. However, TCP/IP includes the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) and others. TCP/IP drivers are available for almost all of the computer platforms in use today, including micros, minis, main-frames and supercomputers. The following terms describe hardware (the physical link such as the wire(s) connecting computers) common to the Macintosh networking world: LocalTalk One type of hardware over which AppleTalk protocols can be transported. LocalTalk has a throughput of 230.4 Kbps second, or roughly a quarter of a Mbps. PhoneNet Another type of hardware commonly used to transport AppleTalk packets. PhoneNet mates LocalTalk hardware with ordinary (unused) telephone wire. PhoneNet is probably the cheapest way to connect widely separated Macintosh computers within a single building. Ethernet A network medium over which AppleTalk, TCP/IP and other protocols travel, often simultaneously. Ethernet's maximum throughput is 10 Mbps. Competing successors offer 100 Mbps. TokenRing A network medium developed (and patented) by IBM based on a topology of a ring of nodes connected serially by a single cable. Each node, or computer, speaks on the cable only when it has posession of a token. TokenRing technology can demonstrate throughputs of ranging from 4 to 16 Mbps. [4.2] What is Open Transport? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Basicly Open Transport is Apple's complete revision to the Macintosh's network system software. Originally the Mac's only native protocol was AppleTalk and anything else had to be added on. In addition thanks to the AppleTalk Manager (which resided in the ROM of most Macs) AppleTalk got privileged access. As a result network software developers not only had to write each and every non-AppleTalk protocol they wanted to use but they had to contend with AppleTalk. After Open Tranport came out this method became known as Classic networking. Open Transport which has been part of the OS since 7.5.3 changed this situation by using industry standard Aplication Programing Interfaces (APIs). Not only did the APIs eliminate the need for developers to reinvent the wheel but they put all the protocols on an equal standing. In addition Open Transport is Power Mac native resulting in speed ups in both AppleTalk and TCP/IP. Open Transport requires a minimum 68030 CPU and can be added Systems 7.1, 7.1.1, 7.5.3, and 7.5.5. It became the default networking system beginning with System 8.0. It is recommended that at least version 1.1 of Open Transport be used. Classic and Open Transport networking are different enough that programs written for just one generally will not work with the other. So read the documentaion of any networking software you plan to use to make sure it is compatable with your networking method. [4.3] How can I change the Chooser "user" and name of my Macintosh? Also: Why can I no longer change the name of my hard-disk? ------------------------------------------------------------------- To change the owner and name of your Macintosh under System 7, select "Controls Panels" from the Apple Menu and double-click on the "Sharing Setup" Control Panel. The Chooser "user" is the "Owner name:". Change it like any standard edit field. The name of your Macintosh is the "Macintosh name:". Also on this Control Panel is a button to turn File Sharing on and off. When File Sharing is on, you cannot change the name of shared disks. If you are trying to change the name of your hard disk but cannot get the name to turn into an edit field, File Sharing is probably on. Use the Sharing Setup Control Panel to turn File Sharing off, change your hard disk name, and then turn File Sharing back on (unless you have no need for it). [4.4] What is Apple Remote Access ? --------------------------------------- Apple Remote Access is a software package that allows you to dial-in to an AppleTalk network (or to create an AppleTalk network between two Macs via dial-up modems) from a remote Macintosh. Remote Access requires at minimum: a Macintosh (possibly connected to an AppleTalk network) designated as the host with a dedicated high speed modem, or a dial-in server with ARA support. one or more remote Macintoshes with modems and a phone line connecting them to the host Macintosh copies of the Remote Access software running on the designated host as well as on all remote machines Once configured, connecting the remote machine to the AppleTalk network is as simple as clicking a button. Modem control is handled automatically (assuming one of the many included modem scripts works with your modem; see [4.4]). Passwords and call-back facilities are provided. Once connected, the remote machine can use the AppleTalk network normally. One can print remotely, send messages, access remote filesystems, monitor network traffic, etc. Apple's own description of Apple Remote Access can be found at http://training.apple.com/fast/spfast/ns/nsarasol.html [4.5] Where can I get a Remote Access script for my modem? ---------------------------------------------------------- If none of the (many) included modem scripts work with your modem, try: searching the InfoMac archives for a script for your modem; several scripts have been posted recently searching the database of Remote Access scripts maintained by Apple. making a copy of the script that works best with your modem (the scripts are in the Extensions Folder which is in the Systems Folder), opening it up with a text editor, and experimenting; this assumes you have a copy of your modem's manual and know the basics about the Hayes command set. If you are succesful, post your script so others can benefit! [4.6] How can I use the services of my EtherTalk network and print to my LocalTalk-only printer at the same time? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- By default, Macs can only use AppleTalk for communication through one network interface at a time. This means that without special hardware or software, if you are connected to an EtherTalk network through your Ethernet port/card and are also connected to a LocalTalk-only printer through your LocalTalk port, you cannot use the EtherTalk network services and print to your LocalTalk printer simultaneously. (EtherTalk is AppleTalk datagrams encapsulated in Ethernet packets running on Ethernet wiring, and LocalTalk wiring in this scenario is used to communicate with your printer using AppleTalk datagrams; hence to use both services simultaneously you would need to be communicating out of two network interfaces using AppleTalk simultaneously.) You tell your Mac which interface you want to use by selecting either EtherTalk or LocalTalk from the Network Control Panel. As Ethernet wiring becomes increasingly popular for transporting AppleTalk datagrams, many people want to share files or print over their EtherTalk network without losing simultaneous access to their LocalTalk- connected printer. A number of solutions exist to solve this problem. The simplest solution is to use software on your Mac which allows your Mac to speak a subset of AppleTalk through its LocalTalk port, while it continues to use the Ethernet port for the majority of its AppleTalk traffic. These products typically only support printing, and often to just one device. They allow your Mac to see that printer, but no other Mac on the network can see the printer. Two products in this category are Sonic System's PowerBridge 3.0 and the Apple LaserWriter Bridge. If you want to share your LocalTalk printer with other Macs on your EtherTalk network, you need true bridging software. This turns your Mac into a LocalTalk/Ethernet bridge, passing AppleTalk packets between the two interfaces. This allows users of the EtherTalk network to see and use your LocalTalk printer if your Mac is turned on and working properly. Such bridging software might also support services beyond printing, allowing Macs on your EtherTalk network to see any LocalTalk devices connected to the bridging Mac (including any Macs on a LocalTalk network connected to the bridging Mac). It typically does not provide a MacIP server (to encapsulate and decapsulate TCP/IP). Three products in this category are Farallon PowerPath, Farallon LocalPath, and Apple LocalTalk Bridge 1.0 (the last item is not available yet.) For faster and possibly more reliable service than software bridging, you need a LocalTalk/Ethernet hardware bridge. This bridge performs the same service as the software bridge described the above paragraph, passing AppleTalk packets between its Ethernet and LocalTalk interfaces. It allows Macs on the EtherTalk network to see and use any LocalTalk devices attached to the LocalTalk network connected to the bridge. It typically does not provide a MacIP server. Hardware devices in this category include Dayna EtherPrint, Sonic MicroPrint, Asante AsantePrint, Farallon EtherWave MultiPrinter Adapter, and Farallon EtherWave LocalTalk Printer Adapter. The final option is a LocalTalk/Ethernet router, which routes packets between a LocalTalk network and an Ethernet network, and converts packets between EtherTalk and plain AppleTalk as needed. A product in this category is the Shiva FastPath. ======================================================================== [5] Internet Networking ========================================== [5.1] What kind of hardware and software do I need to have a direct connection (ie use TCP/IP protocol) to the Internet? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Regardless of whether you using Classic or Open Transport networking (see [4.2]) there are some common hardware and software requirements: a program that implementes the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) TCP/IP Protocols (see [4.1]) a direct connection to an Ethernet or TokenRing network, a SLIP or PPP dialup connection, or a connection to a LocalTalk network with a DDP-IP router such as a Shiva FastPath, Cayman Gatorbox, Webster Multigate, or Compatible EtherRoute TCP. For Classic networking the TCP/IP impliementation is a control panel called MacTCP 2.0.6 which requires a Macintosh Plus or later CPU and System 6.0. or better and became part of the OS with System 7.5. Under System 6.0.X, MacTCP will reside in the System Folder; under System 7.0 +, it should be placed in the Control Panels Folder. In Open Transport the TCP/IP impliementation is called TCP/IP which IIRC is in the extensions folder. In either network the TCP/IP file is loaded when your Macintosh boots. Both programs provided a standard interface to TCP/IP network hardware, and makes it possible for more than one TCP/IP based application to run on a Macintosh at any one time. For example, you can simultaneously use a Telnet program, an FTP program, and share a filesystem via NFS when you use MacTCP to provide the interface to your TCP/IP network. For more detailed information regarding setting up a Macintosh to connect to a TCP/IP network using MacTCP, see Eric Behr's report on MacTCP which is archived at the various FTP sites as mac-tcp-info.txt. This report provides a lot of useful information for first-time Macintosh networking administrators. According to the document itself, "The newest release of these notes can be obtained by anonymous ftp to ftp.math.niu.edu (the text file /pub/mac/doc/mactcp.txt), or by gopher to gopher.math.niu.edu ("Help Files/Help For Macintosh Users"), or as http://www.math.niu.edu/~behr/docs/mactcp.html. The HTML version is usually updated first and may be more accurate." From the "obscure MacTCP configuration suggestions" file (submitted by Larry W. Virden ): We have a series of machines known only by internal hosts file as well as one machine which acts as a firewall/gateway to DNS for external machines. We had a hosts file in the System Folder, listed the gateway machine in the MacTCP 2.0.4 control panel, and marked that DNS entry as the default. We found that users could get to external machines, but not to the machines in the hosts file. If they unmarked the DNS entry as the default, then they could get to the internal hosts, but not to the external machines. To resolve the problem, we had to add a second DNS host, with the name of . and the same IP address as our gateway, and then not mark either as the default name server. When we did this, MacTCP would go to the hosts file first, and if the address is not found there, it goes on to the gateway for the external hosts. [5.2] What are SLIP, CSLIP and PPP? ------------------------------------- SLIP stands for Serial Line Internet Protocol. SLIP is a "non-standard" for framing IP packets and shipping them over a serial line (e.g. a cable, or a pair of modems), thus allowing a home machine to dial up and become part of the Internet. Effectively, SLIP turns a serial port into a logical Ethernet port. PPP (see below) has effectively replaced SLIP as the standard of choice for Internet connections. CSLIP stands for Compressed SLIP. CSLIP reduces the size of the headers in IP packets by eliminating a certain amount of redundancy. This improves interactive performance. Synergy Software offers a CSLIP MacTCP extension with its VersaTerm/VersaTerm-PRO packages. If you already own Versaterm, SLIP is a $20 upgrade. If you buy the complete VersaTerm 5.0.4 package, you will also get an FTP server and client, a Telnet connection tool, and MacTCP. Performance is comparable to that of MacSLIP. Contact: [USA] (215) 779 0522 PPP stands for Point-to-Point Protocol. PPP has been stated as a standards-track protocol by the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Activities Board. PPP can support both synchronous and asynchronous connections and protocols that are not IP-based (such as AppleTalk). It provides specifications for error detection, feature negotiation, escaping control characters, etc. As a result PPP has become the defacto standard for connecting to the Internet with FreePPP being the most popular extension. [5.3] FreePPP Frequently Asked Questions --------------------------------------- As stated in the FreePPP FAQ : "FreePPP is a group effort, by the not so coincidentally named FreePPP Group, aimed at 'unifying' the various enhancments to MacPPP that have been released since 2.0.1 as well as coordinating the efforts of the people making these enhancments." There is a 2.5 version of MacPPP around that is reasonally stable but it is recommended that FreePPP (currently at version 2.6) be used instead. * What things in MacTCP or TCP/IP do I -not- need to bother with? You can safely ignore the IP address field, Gateway Address, Subnet Mask, and generally the LCP and IPCP Options. These will be set up by the server at connect time. * How should I set the 'Obtain address' setting for MacTCP? This should be set to 'server' The load on the Internet today has rendered manual addressing virtually useless. * Do I need to set the Domain Name Servers list in MacTCP? Yes. This information needs to provided to you from your system administrator or service provider. * Which Port Speed setting should I use for FreePPP? If you are using a modern modem (e.g. V.32bis, V.34) then the best setting is likely to be 57,600. This will give you the best possible throughput of data. * Which Flow Control setting should I use and what modem initialization string should I use? With a modern modem connected with a hardware handshaking cable (see [1.2]) set this to 'CTS & RTS (DTR)'. While the exact modem initialization string will depend on which modem you have (Consult your modem manual or local systems administrator for advice.) some genralizations can be made. The modem must be configured to match the Flow Control and in addition the modem must be set for 'DTR override' (&D0) in your initialization string. Many modems have at least one factory defalt setting (&F) that can be used as a starting point. * Should I specify my username/password in the Accounts box? The Authentication Dialogue box is only for use if you are connecting to a PPP server that supports PAP. If setting your username and password in the Accounts box does not result in a successful login, and you are sure that the information is correct, and you have ruled out any other problems, then you should not use this part of Accounts box; its fields must be left blank. In this case use the Connection Script dialogue to build a script which includes your username and password. If you do not know whether your PPP server supports PAP, check with your service provider or System administrator. * Do I need to specify a connection script? If you are connecting to a PPP server which does not support PAP, then you must specify a connection script rather than using the Authentication Dialogue box (see above). The connection script must include your username and password. If you want to "watch what happens" in order to develop a connection script, then check the Terminal Window option in the FreePPP Setup program. Note, however, that if the Terminal Window box is checked, FreePPP will ignore your modem initialization string and telephone number. You will have to issue the modem commands by hand to establish your connection. You may need to include a command to start PPP at the remote end (this often happens automatically) - if you need to, put this command at then end of your script. * Can I control FreePPP using Apple Script? Yes this ability is allowed by the FreePPP Control add on whose homepage is * How do I make a FreePPP Connection Script pause? You can build a pause into the connection script using the '\d' special character in an out string. '\d' represents a 1 second pause. If you need a 5 second pause use '\d\d\d\d\d'. * FreePPP drops the line after a few minutes. What's wrong? This phenomena has a number of causes. 1) One cause is not setting your modem for DTR override when using 'CTS & RTS (DTR)' or 'RTS (DTR) Only' Flow Control. Mac hardware handshaking cables have the hardware line from the Mac wired to both the RTS and DTR lines of the modem. This means that when the Mac drops its handshake line to stop the flow of data from the modem, both RTS & DTR are dropped at the modem end. Dropping the modem's RTS line is fine because that stops the flow of data to the machine (until the machine is ready, whence the line is raised again and the flow of data resumes). However, if DTR is dropped, the modem will hang up. To avoid this, configure the modem for 'DTR override' by including the appropriate setting in your modem initialization string. 2) If you have selected an Idle Timeout, then FreePPP will seek to drop the connection when there has been no traffic for the period you have specified. Normally a dialogue box will appear, but, if you have checked the 'Quiet Mode' box in Config PPP, the disconnection will occur silently. 3) Some PPP servers will cut the link after a number of minutes of inactivity. This is to stop you tying up a network line if you are not making use of it. If you want to defeat this you will need to generate some network activity every few minutes. [5.3] Do I have to know anything about Unix to use the Internet? --------------------------------------------------------------------- For the most part the answer to this question is no though there are some Unix and Internet protocals you should know about. The ones followed by a * you need to be aware of. DNS (Domain Name Server) * desinates the servers that translates domain names to IP numbers. If this server has problems then you cannot use domain names at all and have to use IP numbers. The only MacOS DNS program I am aware of is DNS Lookup (any Info-mac mirror as info-mac/comm/inet/dns-lookup-092.hqx) which is no longer supported. NFS (Network File System) file sharing protocol used by many UNIX workstations. The average Internet surfer doesn't need to worry about this as most file transfers involve FTP not NFS. The one commecrcial product that allows NFS to be used on the MacOS is: PathWay Client NFS from Attachmate NNTP (Net News Transfer Protocol) * a protocol used to transfer articles between a central news server and many client machines over TCP/IP or a serial link. Used by about every MacOS Newreader program available. SMTP (Simple-Mail-Transfer-Protocol) and POP (Post-Office-Protocol) * These are two protocols for transfering electronic mail between machines that have a TCP/IP interface or equivalent. Without these you cannot send or receive e-mail. UUCP UUCP (Unix-to-Unix-Copy) is a protocol originally intended to be used to transfer files between Unix machines over telephone lines. As with NFS it can be safely ignored by the average Internet surfer. [5.4] What is Telnet, and what MacOS Telnet Programs are there? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Telnet is a high speed terminal connection protocol designed with TCP/IP in mind. A Telnet program allows you to connect to computers that accept Telnet sessions (such as UNIX boxes) with interactive full-screen console input and output capabilities in mind. There are several Telnet programs for the Macintosh. NCSA Telnet and BetterTelnet The oldest and still widely used one is the freeware NCSA Telnet for which developement stopped January 1, 1996. The last 'offical' version was 2.6 though there is a 2.7b4 available. The freeware succesor is Sassy Software's BetterTelnet (Version 1.2.2) which uses the 2.7b5 code and provides many bug fixes, and improved interface and additional features. Both of these programs support TEK 4105 graphics, provide both an FTP server *and* client, and can do session logging. About the only drawback is that these programs use Classic rather than Open Transport networking. Nifty Telnet Nifty Telnet is a freeware Telnet program that supports Kerberous encrypting (US version only), has a clean inteface, and is Open Transport native. tn3270 If you need to telnet to an IBM mainframe this is the MacOS program you need. At version 2.5b5 this makes tn3270 more enjoyable. [5.5] Is there a UNIX program that will convert between BinHex and MacBinary? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, there are at least two that will handle BinHex 4.0, MacBinary, and other conversions. macutil and mcvert are distributed as UNIX shar archvies and can be found in the unix directory at InfoMac sites. Source code is included (of course) so you will need a C compiler to build the programs. Be warned all of these programs are old and are no longer supported by their authors. * macutil (Last upload Aug 1992) macutil is a collection of utilities for manipulating Macintosh files in MacBinary [see 2.2] or BinHex [see 2.3] format, or over AppleDouble, AUFS, or CAP servers. It includes three programs: hexbin - a program to convert BinHex 4.0 to MacBinary; it also converts uuencode (and UULite) files to their native binary format; support for .dl, .hex, and .hcx formats (all predecessors of BinHex 4.0) also exists macsave - a MacBinary filter program to convert between various MacBinary representations, including a single .bin file, three separate .data, .rsrc, .info files, and AUFS format. macsave also allows one to "peek" inside MacBinary files macunpack - a program that decompress PackIt, Compact Pro, StuffIt (Classic and Deluxe format), Diamond, DiskDoubler, LHarc/MacLHa, .Z (UNIX compress) and Zoom It also decodes BinHex 5.0, MacBinary, and uuencode. Support for password protected and/or multi-segment archives of various types is minimal or non-existent. The various authors of the macutil utilities are too numerous to list here; consult the README files that come with the package for the details. * mcvert (Last upload Oct 1994) mcvert allows you to convert BinHex files to MacBinary files and vice versa. In addition, you can create MacBinary files with empty resource forks from normal files, as well as perform other transformations. mcvert can also decode PackIt archives. mcvert was originally written in 1987 by Doug Moore, but had many many new features and a better interface added by Joseph Skudlarek. ======================================================================= [6] Miscellaneous ================= [6.1] What aids are available for programmers wishing to write Classic TCP/IP applications for the Macintosh? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * PathWay API Developer's Tool Kit Macintosh from The Wollongong Group provides: * BSD 4.3 Sockets library * Stream (TCP) and datagram (UDP) socket types * Blocking and nonblocking socket modes * Include files and sample programs for Apple MPW 3.2 * PathWay API Programming Guide * Works on System 6.0.x, 7.0, and 7.1 [6.2] I have a FAX machine and a FAX modem. How can I use these devices together to emulate a scanner and a printer? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is often possible to simply connect your FAX modem to your FAX machine using a regular telephone cable. You can then print to your FAX machine by sending a document to your FAX modem (then through the cable to your FAX machine, to be printed). Analogously, you can "send" a FAX from your FAX machine to your computer's FAX modem and thus emulate a scanner (the FAX image will be read into your computer by your FAX modem software). This phone cable connection does not always work, however. For these cases, P.E.P. Products, Inc., offers faxScan/faxPrinter, a Macintosh and Windows-compatible product which allows you to connect your FAX modem to your FAX machine and thus gain the ability to print from your computer to the FAX machine and scan into your computer from the FAX machine, as described above. This device is pocket-sized, 1.05 ounces, and powered by a 9 volt battery. According to the company's sales information, "The faxScan/faxPrinter device stabilizes line voltages on both sides, allowing any combination of FAX modem and FAX machine to work together. This product is useful if you travel and want to print or scan using any fax machine." ======================================================================== Appendix ======== [A] List of Common Abbreviations -------------------------------- Abbrev- iation Description ------- ------------------------------------------------------ ADB Apple Desktop Bus ARA Apple Remote Access (was AppleTalk Remote Access) bps bits per second CSLIP Compressed SLIP csmc comp.sys.mac.comm CTB Communications Tool Box CTS Clear-To-Send DSR Data-Set-Ready DTR Data-Terminal-Ready FTP File Transfer Protocol IP Internet Protocol LAP Link Acess Protocol MNP Microcom Networking Protocol NNTP Net News Transfer Protocol PPP Point-to-Point Protocol RTS Request-To-Send SID Sound Input Device SLIP Serial Line Internet Protocol; also seen as SLIP TCP Transmission Control Protocol [B] Mac program archive list link and Vendor Information ------------------------------------------------------------------ Nearly all shareware or freeware programs described in this FAQ are available from one of the many archives that mirror the InfoMac and UMich archives. Over 90 of these mirror sites are listed in the FTP section of the Mac-FTP-list These vendors are either mentioned in this FAQ or provide products relating to Macintosh networking. Neither the editor of this list nor any of the contributors necessarily endorse any of the vendors or their products. The following information is provided for your convenience only. Please bring any errors or additions to the attention of the editor. Aladdin Software [USA] (408) 685 9175 Alverson Software e-mail: davea@xetron.com Apple Developers Association (APDA) [USA] (408) 974 4667 Asante Ascend Communications Attatchmate Carnation Software Celestin Company [USA] (800) 835-5514 [USA] (206) 385-3767 [FAX] (207) 385-3586 AOL: Celestin e-mail: celestin@pt.olympus.net Compatible Systems [USA] (800) 356 0283 Creative Solutions, Inc. [USA] (800) 367-8465 [USA] (301) 984-0262 [FAX] (301) 770-1675 AppleLink: CSI CompuServe: 70240,504 e-mail: 70240.504@compuserve.com Dayna Communications [USA] (801) 269-7200 Farallon Computing [USA] (510) 814-5100 FreePPP Group Global Village [USA] (415) 390-8200 [USA] (800) 736-4821 Hayes Corporation [USA] (404) 441-1617 [CANADA] (519) 746-5000 [UK] 081-848-1858 [UK] 081-569-1774 {BBS} [HK] 852-887-1037 ICE Engineering, Inc. [USA] (313) 449-8288 Mark/Space Softworks [USA] (408) 293-7299 Mercury System, Inc. [USA] (310) 553-0881 [USA] (310) 553-1291 (fax) QUALCOMM, Incorporated [USA] (800) 2-EUDORA [USA] (619) 587-1121 Raine Storm Softworks Sassy Software Shiva [USA] (800) 458-3550 Software Ventures Corporation [USA] (510) 644-1325 Sonic Systems [USA] (408) 736-1900 [USA] (800) 535-0725 Synergy Software [USA] (215) 779-0522 Webster Computer Corp. [AUSTRALIA] 61 3 764 1100 Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. [North America] (800) 872-2829 [Elsewhare] +1.206.217.7100 ZyXEL Communications [USA] (800) 255-4101 [USA] (714) 693-0808 [CANADA] (416) 534-1508 [CANADA] (416) 534-1312 [D] Contributors ---------------- The editor of this FAQ would like to graciously thank all of the following individuals who have contributed in some form or another to the answers provided above, and to the many others not listed who have nonetheless encouraged and corrected us along the way. Steve Baumgarten (Versaterm) Jack Brindle (BinHex, MacBinary) Eric Behr (MacTCP) Jim Browne (NCSA Telnet) Josh Cole (Networking, MacTCP, AppleDouble) Bill Coleman (Smartcom) Steve Dorner (Eudora, SLIP) Don Gilbert (SLIP) Tom Gewecke (European E-Mail, Archives) Elliotte Rusty Harold (General, File Transfer Programs) Mikael Hansen (AutoShare) Patrick Hoepfner (various tidbits) Greg Kilcup (CSLIP, PPP) Andy Y. A. Kuo (Networking) Yves Lempereur (MacBinary/BinHex) Peter N. Lewis (General) Ward McFarland (Mac serial port speeds) David Oppenheimer (original c.s.m.comm FAQ maintainer) Leonard Rosenthol (General, StuffIt) Richard Saint (MacPPP [now FreePPP] FAQ) Dan Schwarz (Mac serial port speeds) Eric P. Scott (General) Jon L. Spear (General, Baud Etymology) Christopher Swan (Black Night) Werner Uhrig (Macintosh Expert) =========================================================================