SLIP_IT! 1.0 Installation guide ------------------------------- Autoinstall ----------- IMPORTANT: PKZIP/PKUNZIP HAS TO BE IN THE DOS-PATH If you are already a user of the YARN offlinereader, copy slip_it!.exe to the YARN- directory else copy slip_it! to a directory of your choice. If you want to install YARN too, put a copy of YARN*.zip to the same directory. Unpack the selfextracting slip_it!.exe file now and type 'setup' After the installation is done start 'slip_it.bat' from the yarn-dir. This launches YARN. After you quit the reader, slip_it dials to your slipserver and starts a session. Manual installation ------------------- Installation of a SOUP compliant offline reader ----------------------------------------------- The basic setup expects soup compliant files packed with 'pkzip' in the slip_it directory. The names are 'outfile.zip' for outgoing messages (generated by the soup reader) and 'infile.zip' for incoming messages (messages consumed by the reader). If other names or directories should be used for some reason, or if you want to use another compression utility than 'pkzip', you have to edit the import/export batchfiles. If your Offlinereader uses an external 'import'-utility, (YARN does), you must edit the call to 'import.exe' in import.bat, if this file is not found in the c:\yarn directory. Installation for crosspoint users --------------------------------- If you don't have crosspoint: 1. Get the latest Crosspoint distribution. Create a directory of your choice, copy the xp*-files to this directory and unpack the (self extracting) *.exe files. Delete the German language modul (xp-d.res) if you prefer English language. now: 2. install slip_it and copy 'uuz.exe' from the crosspoint directory to your slip_it-directory (or modify the calls to 'uuz' in the ximport/xexport files if 'crosspoint' is not in the dos path) Replace the lines with 'shell import.bat' and 'shell export.bat' in the 'x_script.cfg' scriptfile by 'shell ximport.bat' and 'shell xexport.bat'. 3. Start crosspoint ('xp'). Select servertype: 'Zconnect'. Enter servername: name of your server machine Enter username: your email name Example: if your emailadress is 'khweis@mvmpc9.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de', the servername is 'mvmpc9' and the username is 'khweis' 4. Select menu /eDit/Servers/Edit/Names enter your Real name and the domainname. (example is 'ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de') Select submenu 'Misc' Enter Inputfilter: c:\slip_it\x_script.exe Select submenu 'Sysopmode' Enter Inputfile: c:\slip_it\infile.z Enter Outputfile: c:\slip_it\outfile.z (Of course you have to write another pathname, if slip_it is not in c:\slip_it) 5. If everything is done, start 'Netcall'. This connects you to your slip-server and do whatever else you have programmed in x_script.cfg. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- configuration files --------------------- 'wattcp.cfg' contains some vital imformation neded by the tcp/ip kernal (tcpport.exe). This file is modified if the dial script is executed. You need not modify this file, exept for testing purposes. my_ip IP of your Home PC. If your provider assigns this IP dynamically, enter any default value (e.g. 192.0.0.1) gateway IP of your slipgate. Enter 192.0.0.2 as default if the IP is unknown nameserver IP of your nameserver. domainslist The name of your domain (used for completion of partial names in your local network) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 'dial' is a script which performs a manual login to your slipserver. You are asked for 'my_ip', 'gateway' and 'nameserver' after you terminated the terminal program. This allows you to modify the IP's if your server uses dynamic IP assignment. If you are familiar with the scriptlanguage used by slip_it!, you can write an 'autodial' script, which logs you to the server without manual intervention. (Use the file 'autodial' as a template.) The 'dial' script is called as a subroutine by a 'call'- statement in 'x_script.cfg'. If you start it as the 'mainprogram' ('x_script dial'), the packetdriver is removed automatically on completion of the program. To avoid this, it's possible to install and unload the packetdriver from the dosprompt. The 'shell packetdriver' statement should be uncommented from the dial script in this case. To remove the packetdriver, type 'termin 0x60'. Loading the slipdriver may be as simple as 'cslipper com2' if your modem is on COM 2. (see the description in slipper.txt') To simplify the setup, all variables needed by the dialscript are read from the 'x_tcp.cfg' file by the usage of '$entry' statements (attention: $entry is case-sensitive to the search-strings!) $port Number (1..4) or address (> 15) of your serial port (addresses are hexadecimal, e.g. 3e8 is commonly used by COM1) $irq Interrupt used by the serial port (e.g. 4 is commonly used by COM1) $baud 'baud' rate. If you ommit this entry, your comport is set to the default value of 38400 baud. $VEC Software Interrupt used by the slipdriver. Modify, if another packetdriver is already using 60 initstring 'at'- command which initializes your modem. ('at&f' is sufficient in most cases. If you run slip_it! under windows add '&d0' to the string) dialstring 'atd..' command used for dialing. Dialing is repeated until the carrier signal is detected. Hit 'ESC' to break the script. packetdriver 'slipper'(no header compression) or 'cslipper' (if your provider uses 'VJ header compression') -------------------------------------------------------------------- 'x_tcp.cfg' contains information which is used by the client programs x_news, x_mail, x_ntp and x_pop. If you want to use other configurationfiles, you must create a one line batchfile with a content like this: 'x_pop account2.cfg'. Now call this batchfile on tcpport's commandline instead of calling the application x_pop.exe, for example: shell "tcpport " + pop_server+ " 110 account2.bat" To simplify the setup, 'x_tcp.cfg' contains additionally the 'dial' variables mentioned above. They are read by the aid of '$entry' statements when the dialscript is executed. user yournam@popserver.domain (your common emailaddress) pass password for the popserver login pop_server popserver.domain (this is the machine where you fetch mail) my_domain name of your home pc (if you ommit this entry, the current entry 'my_ip' from wattcp.cfg is used instead) news_server address (or IP) of newsserver smtp_server address (or IP) of mail gateway time_server address (or IP) of timeserver newgroups the date, where the newgroup file was updated. Format is yymmdd hhmmss (x_news updates this entry) keepMail keeps mail on Server if <> 0 keepbuf If > 0, messagebuffers in spooldir are not deleted by the clients. The buffers with the 'out'-messages are normally deleted when sucessfully sent to the mail or newsserver. If something went wrong, this messages remain in the spool directory where you can edit them with a normal texteditor. cmd_stack speeds up transferspeed if >1 (but < 8) newsrc name of the file with your active newsgroups (default is x_news.rc). The 'lastread' articlepointers is stored here. New_max get newest n articles if newsgroup is new Msg_max get not more then n articles per session T_max limits the online time to n seconds TZ Timeoffset relativ to GMT (this entry must contain a sign-character) Language Display days of the week in German language (US for the Englisch people) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 'x_script.cfg' is the scriptfile which is interpreted by x_script.exe. You can start x_script.exe with a different filename on the commandline. The scriptlanguage is a simple 'pseudo basic' and the comands are self explanatory as I hope. I don't have the time to write a manual with a complete description of all the things you can do with x_script. Look to the example scripts instead, which should show you most of the capabilities of the scriptlanguage. Modify this scripts for your own purposes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- COPYRIGHT --------- I included some helper applications in slip_it.exe. As far as I know, these applications are free for noncommercial use. Please note the copyrights of the individual authors! 'tcpport' is (c) by Erik Engelke. It's part of his great 'waterloo tcp/ip' package. - copyright is in 'wattcp.txt' and 'tcpport.txt' ) 'slipper' and 'cslipper' are (c) by Peter Tattam - copyright is in slipper.txt) 'Crosspoint'-package is (c) by Peter Mandrella - copyright is in licenz.doc and within his program termin.com is (c) by Russ Nelson, Crynwr Software - russ http://www.crynwr.com/crynwr/nelson.html Source of termin.com is available from pktd11[ab].zip found on this archiv in /gopher/public/pktdrvr/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- All other programs are my own and free for noncommercial use. If you are intrested in the sources, have a look to the SRC directory. ---- (c) by Karl-Heinz Weiss khweis@mvmpc9.ciw.uni-karlsruhe.de 20FEB95