Instructions for the IBM Internet Connection with CIS. Revised 97/12/16 Based on instructions downloaded from the INTERNET forum on CIS on July 7, 1995. Revisions added to the basic CIS document by Howard Acheson (hacheson@compuserve.com) with a special thank you to OS/2 Advisor Ron Higgin and to TEAMIBM member Tony Rall for their comments and advice. PURPOSE - Use to configure the "Dial Other Internet Provider" dialer for accessing the Compuserve Internet Service. The responsibility for accessing an Internet Service Provider lies with the provider. To support their internet service, CIS has a forum that can be reached at GO OS2CIM. While there are many helpful and knowledgeable folks available on the OS2USER you may also access the CIS support forum for assistance. The signon script that follows is not usable if you respond to the first system generated login prompt with something other than "CIS". If you access CIS through a provider such as TYMNET or, respond to the system prompt with some other sign-on, contact your provider for modifications to the sign-on script. To establish a PPP connection through CompuServe, you must have one of the following installed on your system: o OS/2 Warp V4 with the TCP/IP v4.0 feature installed. If you do not have the TCP/IP feature installed you may do so using the "Selective Install for Networking" utility in the "Install/Remove" sub-folder of the "System Setup" folder. If you do this and do NOT have a LAN connection then use the "Easy" TCP/IP install procedure (NOTE: You CAN NOT install TCP/IP v4.0 over the IBM Internet Connection for OS/2 from the WARP 3.0 Bonus Pack. All remnants of the IIC must be removed first.) or, o OS/2 WARP Connect V3 with the TCP/IP v3.0 feature installed. DO NOT install the IBM Internet Connection for OS/2 feature of the WARP Connect Bonus Pack when the TCP/IP feature is installed. Installing the IIC over the WARP Connect TCP/IP feature will render TCP/IP inoperative. TCP/IP v3.0 uses the same dialer as IIC. Therefore, you should download and install PPP.ZIP to ensure you are using the latest dialer (see above) or, o OS/2 WARP V3 with the Bonus Pack's IBM Internet Connection for OS/2(IIC) with the latest PPP update applied. The PPP update may be downloaded from library 9 ("Internet and OS/2") of the OS2USER forum as file name "PPP.ZIP", or FTP'd from "ftp.ibm.net", directory "/pub/PPP", as file name "PPP.ZIP". In addition, download and install the TCP/IP Base Update (PN71501) from Retrieve Software Updates. To install the PPP update: - place the "PPP.ZIP" file in your "\TCPIP" directory - Open an OS/2 command prompt session - Make the "\TCPIP" directory "current" - UNZIP (using InfoZip's unzipper) the "PPP.ZIP" file If you do not have the InfoZip unzipper, PKZIP (V2.04) or later may be used BUT you MUST run it from a DOS command prompt session and you MUST specify the PKUNZIP "-d" option. IF you have the "Warp for Windows Users" (RED spine box) product you MUST also install OS/2 Fix Pack 5 or later. Once you have the PPP update installed, you need to open the Dial Other Internet Providers object. Warp V3 users will find this object in the "Internet Utilities" subfolder of the "IBM Internet Connection for OS/2" folder. Warp V4 users will find the object in the "Internet (Modem)" subfolder of the "Programs" folder. Once you've fired up the "Dial Other Internet Providers" utility, choose the Add Entry object, or select Add Entry from the Configure pull-down menu, then configure dialer as follows: Login Info page of the settings notebook: - In the Name: field, type CIS or PPP or some other "name" for this connection. This name serves only to identify the target provider dialer entry. The dialer itself does NOT reference this "Name", and hence, it may contain any name YOU find meaningful - In the Description: field, enter a description for this connection. This is for descriptive purposes only. The dialer does NOT use the contents of this field. -For the Login ID: field enter your CompuServe User ID number. Be sure to use your assigned User ID NUMBER, NOT YOUR ALPHA CHARACTER MAIL ID. Substitute a "." for the comma separating the two number series. - Enter your password in the Password: field. If your password contains one or more blank characters (spaces) substitute the TWO character string "\s" for EACH blank character - In the Phone Number: field, you need to enter the dial up number that you use to connect to CompuServe. - Then enter the following information into the Login Sequence: field. Be sure there are no spaces and that each line is ended with a . << NOTES >> \r ame: <== use lower case CIS ID: [LOGINID]/GO:PPPCONNECT <== type exactly including brackets. ord: <== use lower case [PASSWORD] <== type exactly including brackets. NOTE: o Be sure there are no spaces anywhere in the above script. o Do NOT use a "cut and paste" operation to enter the script. Type it in directly. o Do NOT put your real Login ID or Password in the script. Use the words "LOGINID" and "PASSWORD" preceded and followed by brackets. - Set the Connection Type to PPP. - Set the Inactivity Time Out to the desired minutes for the dialer to wait before automatic hang-up. Connect Info page of the settings notebook - Set the MRU (Maximum Receive Unit) to 1500. - Place a check in the VJ Compression checkbox. - Enter 149.174.211.5 in the Domain Nameserver: field. - Enter compuserve.com in the Your Domain Name: field. Server Info page of the settings notebook - If you would like to use a news reader through your PPP connection, you may enter news.compuserve.com in the News Server: field. - Leave the other fields blank. Modem Info page of the settings notebook - Modem Type - I don't mess with this, but if you don't understand the commands for your modem and you can find it in the list, go ahead and select it. (See below) - Com Port - Get this right. Note that if you use anything above com2 you need to define it in CONFIG.SYS with a COM.SYS statement. - Speed (Baud) - This misnamed field is referring to what is actually called the DTE speed - the data transfer rate between the com port and the modem. For CIS, set this to 38400. If you seem to be having problems communicating with the modem, drop this to 9600 to ensure that this is not the cause. - Data Bits - Leave at 8. - Parity - Leave at NONE. - Prefix - Leave at ATDT (unless you don't have tone dialing; then use ATDP). - Mode - Leave at Dial - Initialization Strings - If your modem type was not in the list at the top of the page, see below. General comments about "Special" characters. Several characters are invalid without being preceded by the escape character "\", plus other special characters (these same comments apply to the Login ID, password, and modem initialization strings): space - replace by "\s" carriage return - replace by "\r" back slash "\" - replace by "\\" double quote " - cannot be used at all (near as I can tell) 2 second delay - use "\d" Modem Init Strings There is also a file titled MODEMIAK.ZIP in OS2USER library 9 that contains an updated and expanded list of modems and init strings that can be used with the dialer. Another option is to use the initiation strings suggested for use in the IBM Dialer. You can view these by using your editor and loading the file MODEM.LST that resides in "x:\TCPIP\ETC". ===================================================================== NOTE: If you are using OS/2 Warp Connect V3 or OS/2 Warp V4 the "MODEM.LST" (and other files normally found in the "x:\TCPIP\ETC" directory) will be located (by default) in the "x:\MPTN\ETC" directory. ===================================================================== The reason there are 2 init. strings is that some modems require a delay between a reset and any other commands. Typically the first command is to reset to factory defaults; then the other string is used to make any changes needed from those defaults. In practice, most modems work fine with just one string (which can be quite long), and this avoids the 2 second delay that is inserted between the 2 strings. If you cannot find a string(s) that work, I recommend you try this (in Init. string 1; leave Init. string 2 blank): AT&FM1E1S0=0&C1&D2 Not all of these commands are available on every modem; if you get ERROR when you dial (as a response from the modem), start removing stuff until you don't. &F reset to factory defaults (check your modem manual to see if there is a different command for this; if there are several, use the one for asynchronous communication with RTS/CTS (hardware) flow control) M1 speaker on (usually a default) E1 echo on (so you can see the commands being sent to the modem, including the dial string) S0=0 no auto-answer &C1 signal true carrier-detect &D2 hang-up when DTR drops (this is how slip/ppp makes the modem break the connection) After adding the above information you need to close the settings notebook and choose SAVE. Using an editor, open your CONFIG.SYS file and enter the following after the other "SET" lines near the top of CONFIG.SYS (first 20 lines or so). SET HOSTNAME=mypc (or anything else you like) Save the file and reboot the system. ESTABLISHING THE INTERNET CONNECTION Then to establish your PPP connection, select the NAME of the connection and choose DIAL. You will then see the initialization of the modem, the dialing, the logging in, and you should see messages in the Status Window reporting the remote IP address, VJ compression enabled, and that the default route address has been assigned. Do not be concerned if you see a couple of "fcs" error notices. The final line will be "[PPP] Enter Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break to End Session" When you see the above messages, then the connection is complete. You must leave the dialer running while you have the PPP connection active. You may want to minimize the dialer after the connection is established. NOTE: SENDING/RECEIVING INTERNET MAIL (E-MAIL) You can NOT use UltiMail Lite/2 (or any other mail handler) to send/receive mail when connected to the Internet via CIS. This is because CIS does NOT provide a POP (Post Office Protocol) server. You can continue to use a non-internet CIS navigator (CIM, Golden CommPass,etc) to send mail to, or receive mail from the Internet by way of the CIS supplied Internet gateway (simply address your mail to "INTERNET:xxxxxx@yyyyy.zzzzz"). PROBLEM SOLVING The number one reason for an unsuccessful connection is having illegal characters (usually spaces) in the script, modem strings, password and/or user ID. Be sure and check by placing your cursor at the beginning of a space, pressing and LMB while dragging the cursor to the end of the space or to the end of the line of the script. There should be not empty spaces in any of the "fill in" spaces and only one space at the end of each line in the script. IMPORTANT If you are using WARP v4 be sure you have not installed TCP/IP v4.0 over the WARP 3.0 Bonus Pak IBM Internet Connection for OS/2. You must remove the IIC by deleting all TCPIP references in your CONFIG.SYS, rebooting and deleting all the TCPIP directories, subdirectories and files. * After clicking on the Dial icon, it switches to Hang-up and then immediately switches back to Dial - quitting immediately. - Make sure there are no spaces in your userid or password; you can substitute "\s" for any spaces. - Your com port is not defined to OS/2. On ISA bus machines, COM1 and COM2 are the only ones defined by default. If you use COM3 or 4, you need to add a COM.SYS statement to config.sys (and reboot). - Your com port is still held by some other program (another com or fax program). You must exit that program before dialing. - Anyone using the original red spine Warp (for Windows) and communications apps should have at least fix pack 5 installed. * The dialer does not appear to talk to the modem and, after one minute, terminates with a failure. On some hardware combinations there appears to be a flow control problem on the com port. Issuing the following command before dialing may help: MODE.COM COMn:1200 On other modems, forcing the modem to reset after the previous connection helps. Change &D2 in your modem init. string to &D3 (not all modems support this command). Other users have solved this problem by replacing com.sys with the shareware (by Ray Gwinn) SIO.SYS, generally available at your favorite download sites. * can not find hostname-See instructions for SET HOSTNAME above. * [io_event] Unsupported protocol (xxxx) received. The remote server is trying to setup additional communications protocols (such as IPX) that ppp.exe does not support. This is just an informational message. Ppp.exe will reject that protocol; this will not cause a problem unless the server insists on that protocol being supported. * [io_event] Unsupported protocol (2080) received. This is a special case of the previous item. The 2080 is definitely not a ppp protocol - it happens to be a couple of ASCII characters typically used to format text (non-ppp) messages. In other words, the server is not yet in ppp mode (but OS/2 is). This usually means that either: - you didn't get correctly logged in (from the server's viewpoint), and it is sending you error messages, but ppp.exe is expecting formatted ppp messages at this point - you did get logged in, but the server is sending a few more text messages, such as: Ok, you're on Let me get my ppp code fired up Hold on a sec Ok, it's up Have a good day If you want to eliminate this error, you have to find out what the messages are. In the first case (bad login), correcting the login should suffice. In the second, you'll need a fancier Login Sequence (not a blank or NONE LS). One way to determine what is being sent is to put an intentional error in your LS: after the last line to be sent to the server add a line with "xxxyyy". This won't match, so the Status window will display all messages received. If it wasn't indicating a login error, replace the xxxyyy with the last part of the last such message. In the example above, the last line in your Login Sequence should contain: good\sday * Invalid FCS - Bad phone line or modem, or, more likely, ppp.exe has entered ppp mode while the remote system is still sending text messages. The latter can often be corrected by improvising a better Login Sequence. But don't do anything at all if you just get a few of these messages at the start of the connection. If they continue throughout your session, you should try to correct the problem - usually a phone or modem problem. - getting a better serial card (with a buffered uart) - running the com port at a lower speed ("baud" on page 4) - replacing the serial cable - getting a better phone connection - using a better initialization string for the modem - suppressing modem compression (such as V.42bis) - replacing the modem - replacing com.sys with the shareware sio.sys (or vice versa). SIO is available from CIS in OS2BVEN library 4 as SIOxxx.ZIP or from most OS2 BBS's. * Some USR Sportster modems seem to have trouble accessing the internet through CIS. Be sure to use the modem strings in the updated list MODEMIAK.ZIP as described above. The strings in the original modem.iak are incorrect. * In some cases, adding "PPP" as the final line in your script will facilitate securing a connection. Be sure to use it only if necessary and use all upper case. * After the message "Enter Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break to End Session", you get: notice : DCD lost, exiting info : Exit called info: Terminating link - This could be caused by an attempt by your system to send mail to a mail gateway if you do not have a correctly configured mail setup. Messages may end up queued in etc\mqueue\. When you make your connection an attempt is made to send these messages immediately. If you still have a bad mail configuration, you can get the error described above, and ppp (erroneously) hangs up. Erase the files in the etc\mqueue directory and try redialing. - The problem may be in your modem cable. Older modem cables frequently did not have all pins (25) and/or wires. If you have an older cable, try a new one. * You tell the system to hangup, but the modem stays off-hook (it does not hangup). This can run up your phone bill (if a toll call) and can foul up your next connection attempt. There are 2 ways that software can tell the modem to hangup: The "+++ ATH0" escape sequence and command will make most modems hangup, but I know of no way to make the dialer issue this. The method used by the dialer is to drop DTR. Unfortunately this requires that the modem pay attention to the DTR signal, and modems can be configured to ignore it. On many modems the default setting is to obey DTR (and hangup when it drops); on other modems &D2 should be included in the init. string. Some modems may not recognize the change in the DTR signal. This can be controlled by the setting of S25, on at least most modems. If &D2 by itself is insufficient to provoke hangup, add S25=5 to your modem initialization string.