Fax and Internet Connections with OS/2 v. 3 (Warp)

Getting the IBM Internet Access Kit to run in OS/2


As provided in the Bonus Pack, the Internet Access Kit was incomplete. It provided for SLIP connections, but not for PPP connections. The WebExplorer was not included either.

These notes should help how to set up your modem for fax and data.

These notes also help you to set up IBM FaxWorks, and for connection to the Internet for PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) connections (mail, news, WebExplorer for exploring the WWW, and FTP). As a "bonus", setting up NETSCAPE for OS/2 is included.

I found out the hard way. I hope this helps to make it a bit easier for you.

First Step: Install the Internet Access Kit from the Bonus Pack, and/or install Faxworks, according to the directions in the pack, and then do the following:

Setting up the Modem -- Fax transmissions

To get OS/2 to recognize the modem (which will typically be on COM3 or COM4), it is necessary to include the triple (Com_Port, Address, IRQ) on the Fmd.SYS statement in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file.
Example: (3,3E8,7) for COM Port 3 using address 3E8 and IRQ 7).
Your existing command will look like this:
DEVICE=C:\FaxWorks\Fmd.SYS L
Change it by appending the triple for your particular modem, and it will look something like this:
DEVICE=C:\FaxWorks\Fmd.SYS L (3,3e8,7)
(Ignore the line in the CONFIG.SYS file that says don't modify these (Fax) lines.)

Refer to the file README.DOC in the directory C:\FAXWORKS for special notes about your modem.

For USRobotics Sportster 14400 Data/Modem -- which is a Class III fax modem -- you need to Click CLASS 1, Hardware FIFO control with 16550A, and Click Receive EOP delay.

If you have an older system, don't click the 16550A button, as you probably won't have a 16550A installed.

Try leaving the SPECIAL COMMANDS field blank. However, if you have trouble, use the special commands given for that modem, which are:&H2&I2.

Note that abbreviations are sometinmes used in the README.DOC file, and that "cls-1" means CLASS 1 and that "spc cmd" means SPECIAL COMMANDS.

These settings are found in the README.DOC file in C:\FAXWORKS. However, the description is unclear, modem details are imprecise, and it is easy to mistake the notes as not applying to your modem because it mentions the wrong class of modem.

For other modems, ignore the fact that your modem might be CLASS 3. Under the heading "Special Conditions" the entry for your modem says Class 1, then Click the Class 1 button. If the modem entry (special conditions) says Class 2, then click the Class 2 button. Apply any other special conditions.

Setting up the Modem -- Data transmissions

To get OS/2 to recognize the modem (typically on COM3 or COM4), it is necessary to include the triple (Com_Port, Address, IRQ) on the COM.SYS statement in the OS/2 CONFIG.SYS file.
Example: (3,3E8,7) for COM Port 3 using address 3E8 and IRQ 7).
Your existing COM.SYS statement will look like this:
DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\COM.SYS
You will add the triple for your particular modem, and after you have modified it, the line will look something like this:
DEVICE=C:\OS2\BOOT\COM.SYS (3,3E8,7)

Getting OS/2 to run the Internet Access Kit

As provided in the Bonus Pack, the Internet Access Kit provided only SLIP transmissions. It did not provide PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) transmissions that are used by some Internet Service Providers such as Telstra Bigpond.

Obtain a copy of the file PPP.ZIP from the ftp.ibm.net site (that is, ftp://ftp.ibm.net).

Then go to the sub-directory pub. Then go to the sub-directory PPP. There are two files to download: PPP.ZIP and the readme file README.PPP.

Copy the PPP.ZIP file into your OS/2 directory TCPIP, and then use the command PKUNZIP2 -o -d PPP.ZIP.

You may find that the command PKUNZIP is OK if you don't have PKUNZIP2.

The PKUNZIP command unpacks several files, one of which is the PPP.EXE file that is necessary for PPP transmissions. I presume that the other unpacked files update or add other necessary support files.

Go there now for PPP.

For Telstra Bigpond, you need to configure the telephone dialer for Other Internet Providers as indicated below.

Click on the "Dial Other Internet Providers" Icon. This brings up the dialer "IBM Dial-Up for TCP/IP". There are several square buttons. Click on "Add Entry" to add an entry for your own ISP. Then fill in these settings (these settings worked for me; they may not be optimum or correct, and may need changing for other ISPs):

First Page "Login Info" (information for the telephone directory): Name: Telstra [this name goes into the "telephone directory" as a Provider Name. It can be whatever you want.] Description: Bigpond [an outline of your Provider's service. It can be whatever you want.] Login ID: [Your login name obtained from your ISP] Password: [your password] Phone Number: [Insert the phone number of your ISP] Login Sequence: [I left this blank] Connection Type: PPP Inactivity Timeout [I inserted 15 (minutes)]

Second page "Connect Info":

Your IP address: 0.0.0.0 Destination IP address: 0.0.0.0 Netmask 0.0.0.0 MRU size leave as is [mine is 576] Domain Name Server: 139.134.2.2 Your Host Name: [Your login name obtained from your ISP -- mine is blank] Your Domain Name: bigpond.com [this is your ISP's domain name. If your login name is james@bigpond.com, then this entry is: bigpond.com]

Third Page "Server Info":

News Server: news.bigpond.com Gopher Server: [leave empty to default to os2info.gopher.ibm.com ; Bigpond does not have a server.] WWW Server: www.bigpond.com Mail Gateway: bigpond.com POP Mail Server: mail.bigpond.com Reply Domain: bigpond.com [same as Your Domain Name above] Reply (Mail) ID: [Your login name obtained from your ISP] POP login: [Your login name obtained from your ISP] POP password: [your password]

Fourth Page "Modem Info":

[Set up the modem characteristics] Modem: [USRobotics Sportster 14400 data/fax modem. Substitute your own] COM port: 3 [substitute your own] Speed (Baud): 57600 [put the maximum speed of which your modem is capable when using data compression. This figure is usually higher than the rated speed of the modem. For the Robotics modem, the rated speed is 14400 Baud, but the maximum speed is 57600 Baud.] Data Bits: 8 Parity: NONE Prefix: ATDT [if your telephone exchange accepts tone dialing] ATDP [if your telephone exchange accepts only pulse dialing] Initialization String 1: [Don't alter these settings unless Initialization String 2: you have problems and you know what you're doing.] Mode: Select the "Dial" button . Then quit and save. Don't worry if you mis-typed or omitted something. You can alter it or add it later by clicking the "Update Entry" button.

Once this has been done, you should now be able to click on various icons in the information highway folder to do mail, newsreading, and Web exploring, etc.

FTP program


The FTP program enables you to transfer files between computers, and in particular enables you to upload files to your ISP to create your own web pages.

Telstra Bigpond allows you to have your own web pages. Start up FTP by clicking on the FTP icom. OS/2 will display a window requesting host information. These are the settings you will need for Bigpond:

Host: users.bigpond.com User: [your user name from your ISP] Password: [your own password] Account: [empty] When you have entered this data, you can click OK and proceed to the FTP window, where you can upload files to the remote system, download files from your webspace on the remote system, and delete files in your webspace on the remote system.

Let us suppose that your user name is james, and that you have uploaded the file table.htm. It should be accessible to a web browser with the URL:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/james/table.htm

IBM WebExplorer


The IBM WebExplorer is another package that did not come with Warp v. 3. You can download it from the same place as the PPP file, namely,
ftp://ftp.ibm.net/pub/WebExplorer
In there, you'll find several files including the latest version of WebExplorer: Web103.zip, and the readme file: README.TXT. Go there now for IBM's WebExplorer.

(There are some earlier versions for OS/2 version 2 also.) Download the two files (and/or any others if you want an earlier version) into a temporary directory. Then use PKUNZIP to unzip the file.

You'll also need to load a fixpack : it's at:
ftp://ftp:ibm.net/pub/pn71501/
The files you want are: pn71501.zip and the readme file: readme.fix. Put those into a separate temporary directory too. Use PKUNZIP to unzip the program, then install it from an OS/2 window.

Then install the WebExplorer you also downloaded and unzipped.

Start up WebExplorer. There will be a warning that the init file does not exist. This is normal, as this is the first time that you are running it.

Change any options that you want. Then quit WebExplorer. Don't try to use it to browse the internet, as it won't. However, next time you run it, the initial web page that you want will be loaded.

NETSCAPE

Once Netscape for OS/2 has been installed, and the ISP names set up, Netscape loads up and brings up web pages immediately. To read news, you need to set up the required ISP names using the options button.

FTP

IBM's FTP program (called FTP-PM) which comes with the Bonus Pack can be started by clicking on the icon. The dialog box that comes up must be filled in as follows for Telstra Bigpond: Host: www.users.bigpond.com User: [Your user name as issued by your ISP] Password: [Your password as issued by your ISP] Account: [blank] When uploading either via Netscape or FTP, this seems only to work for files smaller than about 1.5kb. The transmission stalls for larger files, and times out with the message that you may not have authorisation or that the file name is wrong. If anyone gets this going with larger files, I'd love to hear from you.

Warning,

9th June 1999.
DON'T install the fixpack for WEBEXPLORER, nor WEBEXPLORER. I strongly suspect that it changes some files, and wrecks Ultimail and FTP. Ultimail seems to work fine. Uploads via FTP and Netscape suffer from stalling when the file size is greater than about 1300 bytes. This seems to be a fundamental flaw in the Bonus Pack for Warp 3.
However, after I installed PMMail (Pegasus Mail) for OS/2, this problem went away, and I can send mail of any size from Ultimail Lite, and I can upload files of any size using IBM FTP. Possibly PMMail replaces a file of OS/2 that's faulty.

Notes for Ultimail Lite

Ultimail Lite has some major bugs that occur when large files are downloaded (more than 500K), and when a large number of letters is received.
When the bug hits, all the inbox files disappear from the folder, and it's not possible to create new letters because it "loses" the folder.
When this happens, go offline, quit Ultimail Lite, and start up an OS/2 window, and type the following OS/2 commands: [If necessary, change to a drive other than C drive where the TCPIP directory is.] CD TCPIP CD UMAIL CD MAILSTOR C:\TCPIP\UMAIL\MAKEIDX [substitute your own drive letter instead of C:] EXIT [to exit the OS/2 window] which re-creates the mail folders and the indexes. To see the mailboxes and their contents, restart Ultimal Lite, and see that everytihing is normal again.

Help


It's a great help to get Herb Tyson's book: Navigating the Internet with OS/2 Warp, Sams, 1995. This book is intended for Warp 3. It covers how to connect to an ISP using Ultimedia Mail/2 Lite (a.k.a. Ultimail), Gopher, and the WebExplorer. It also covers other (non-IBM) internet packages too. If you're connecting to some other ISP, the book is a must.

Created 12 September 1998, Updated 13 October 2000.
Hope this helps you get set up.
Any comments to email: robin_v@bigpond.com