Subject: DOS 4.xx communications?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 19:26:18 GMT

We have a staffer with an old 286 640k at home who wants to be able to get his pine mail from our 
Unix box at work. Does anyone know of shareware or freeware he can use for communications?

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From: Lea Andrellan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 1995 13:24:52 -0600 (MDT)

On Mon, 31 Jul 1995 [email-masked] wrote:

> We have a staffer with an old 286 640k at home who 
> wants to be able to get his pine mail from our 

I don't know offhand if any of the following are shareware or freeware, 
so please don't quote me on that part, but...I'm assuming a 2400 baud 
modem with the above setup, since I don't think he'll be able to connect 
at any higher a speed.  A vt100 communications software package like 
MS-Kermit, QuickLink, ProComm, or ComIT should work just fine for him.  I 
was on the same setup, with a 2400 baud modem, for three years, 
connecting to our Unix server here using MSKermit.  If he tries this 
arrangement or something similar, and is having problems, feel free to 
e-mail me off-list and I'll see if I can troubleshoot for you...

Lea
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Marianne Aldridge (Lea)  CNS Consulting Team; CWIS WWW/gopher admin; Helpdesk
         [email-masked]  OR  [email-masked]
                 492-9380 (voicemail)  OR  492-9400 (helpdesk)

. (D)inner not ready: (A)bort (R)etry (P)izza

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From: [email-masked] (Jonathan and DearOldDad)
Date: 2 Aug 1995 21:27:32 GMT

Lea Andrellan ([email-masked]) wrote:
: On Mon, 31 Jul 1995 [email-masked] wrote:
: > We have a staffer with an old 286 640k at home who 
: > wants to be able to get his pine mail from our 
: > Unix box at work. Does anyone know of shareware or 
: > freeware he can use for communications?
: I don't know offhand if any of the following are shareware or freeware, 
: so please don't quote me on that part, but...I'm assuming a 2400 baud 
: modem with the above setup, since I don't think he'll be able to connect 
: at any higher a speed.  A vt100 communications software package like 
: MS-Kermit, QuickLink, ProComm, or ComIT should work just fine for him.  I 
: was on the same setup, with a 2400 baud modem, for three years, 
: connecting to our Unix server here using MSKermit.  If he tries this 
: arrangement or something similar, and is having problems, feel free to 
: e-mail me off-list and I'll see if I can troubleshoot for you...
: Lea

I also have a 286 with a 2400 modem and it works just fine (but of course 
ssllloooooowww) using Windows Terminal v3.0 as the communication software.  
You have to run through the (S)ettings menu first.  Hope this helps.  
E-mail me or followup post if any problems getting it working. ... PS 
this post is NOT made with that, I only use the antique computer when the 
kid has this one tied up.  G'Day.
                             /\    /~~\/\  /\    /\      /\  /\   |>>
John (aka DearOldDad)     /\/\ \/\/   /  \/  \/\/  \/\/\/  \/  \/\|
Pocono Mtns PA USA EARTH /_/__\/_/___/_/\/___/[email-masked]|__

Hope this gets thru, we're having one hell of a thunderstorm right now.

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From: Kevin MacNeil <[email-masked]>
Date: 3 Aug 1995 23:24:36 GMT

>e-mail me off-list and I'll see if I can troubleshoot for you...

Well, I'm posting this from a 286 at 14.4 (57.6 line speed), so I have to
disagree about not being able to connect above 2400b.  For the record, I'm
using vt100 and Procomm/dos 2.01, but almost anything will work.  I've
also used telemate 4.20, which is excellent -- particularly if you want to
stay away from expensive commercial products. 

To answer the question about downloading mail:  It can be done, but it's
not easy to set up from scratch.  First, you have to make sure that uqwk
(available at ftp.gte.com) is installed on the host unix machine, and then
you need a dos program that can read your downloaded mail and news.  I use
yarn (available at ftp.coast.net/simtel/msdos/offline) and I strongly
recommend it.  Yarn works with whatever text editor you happen to choose,
and it also has built-in hooks for the pgp encryption program, if that's
important.  Also, I've found the olmenu script (available via ftp at
america.net/pub/users/kgrisham) to be invaluable for setting things up on
the unix end. 

Hope this helps.
-- 
      Kevin MacNeil            \      Memorial University of Newfoundland
[email-masked]      /            English & Philosophy

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From: Lea Andrellan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 1995 22:26:24 -0600 (MDT)

> kid has this one tied up.  G'Day.

Just a note:  I won't disagree with the idea of using Windows Terminal ( 
or any other comm software designed to run under Windows);  the reason I 
didn't suggest any Windows-driven software, though, is because through 
working at the Helpdesk here I've seen many many clients experience 
problems of various shapes and sizes when running standard vt100 comm 
software under Windows (including Windows Terminal), and in 90% of cases, 
shutting down Windows and running the comm software from the DOS prompt 
eliminated the problem.  This is not to say that I haven't also seen some 
clients running vt100 comm software successfully in a Windows 
environment, just that the number who had problems is significantly 
high.  Windows 3.1 does not seem to handle communications well in a 
fairly wide variety of circumstances.

Lea

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From: [email-masked] (Vasilios L. Pilarinos)
Date: 8 Aug 1995 16:29:42 GMT

...( [email-masked] ) wrote:
[rf] We have a staffer with an old 286 640k at home who wants to be able 
[rf] to get his pine mail from our Unix box at work. Does anyone know of 
[rf] shareware or freeware he can use for communications?

You can find many different communication software that _should_ run on
that kind of setup. Off the top of  my head,  you might try looking for
it at any simtel mirrored site. 

ftp:oak.oakland.edu/pub/simtel/msdos/telix/tlx322-*.zip
                                    /qmodem/qm46td-*.zip

I have gotten both these software to work with my 286/10 at home with 1
meg of RAM. Hope this helps. Let us know how it worked out.

--
Vasilios L. Pilarinos  --  Network Administrator, Girl Scouts of the USA. 
E-mail: [email-masked], [email-masked] Voice: 1-212-852-6581 
---( All opinions are my own. )----( http://www.gsusa.org/~vpilarin/ )---