Using Trumpet On Netcruiser Accounts

First Version: June 1995; Now Obsolete
Preserved for posterity from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/1180/



Table Of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. License Agreement
  3. Download Trumpet
  4. Installation
  5. The Login Script
  6. Configuration
  7. Your First Login
  8. Troubleshooting
  9. Where To Go For Help

Introduction

These instructions are rather long, but please read them completely. The time that you might save by skimming the instructions is small, especially compared to the time you would then spend trying to find your mistake (s)!

A small note to those of you using Windows95: while you can use Trumpet with that operating system, there's no reason to because Win95 includes its own equivalent (and better!) TCP/IP stack, called DUN (Dial-Up Networking). Click here for DUN instructions. If you're using WindowsNT, then you should follow these instructions. For instructions in setting up all appliactions to work with these or other TCP/IP stacks, see PC's Help Page.

License Agreement

At first, it seemed that using Trumpet would be in violation of the NETCOM Netcruiser License Agreement. I would not be using Netcruiser, which would violate section 1.3. I would have to reverse-engineer Netcom's connection in order to write a LOGIN.CMD for Trumpet, violating 7.2. So it would be a criminal offence, as stated in 7.4. But, I received the following from Kael Loftus at the beginning of June 1995:

>The bottom line is, we don't mind if you use a different Winsock. The Agreement needs to be
>altered to reflect this fact.  As you point out, it makes little difference to us what means
>you use to access your NetCruiser account, as long as we can monitor the usage.   Recently,
>certain proprietary code has been removed from the system making it possible for us to monitor
>usage regardless of the user's Winsock.  Given this change, your use of the Trumpet (or
>similar) Winsock is acceptable.

>I appreciate the effort you have taken to make sure your usage complies with the intent of
>NETCOM's _Terms of Service Agreement_.  Please feel free to pass my comments along to your
>fellow users. [snip]

So, I think this means that it is fine for me to share details about using Trumpet.

Download Trumpet

First, download Trumpet Winsock 2.1F from whatever WWW or FTP site you like; I'd suggest papa.indstate.edu/winsock-l/winsock/twsk21f.zip. But you can obviously get it from whatever site you'd like.

I am well-aware that Trumpet Winsock 3 is now available. Several people have written me noting that these instructions work well for it too, which I am of course glad to hear :-). I don't plan to support it at this time, however, because it offers no substantial benefits in any area that I am aware of. If anyone believes otherwise, do let me know -- I want to be persuaded. In the meanwhile, meaning "until I get enough spare time to modify these instructions further," I suggest using Trumpet 2.1F, which works just fine; if you must use Trumpet 3, you will most likely still find these instructions and the accompanying script useful.

Installation

Unzip Trumpet into a directory of its own. I recommend C:\TRUMPET but you are free to use whatever directory name you want, of course. You may now delete the archive file twsk21f.zip since its contents are now in the C:\TRUMPET (or equivalent) directory.

Put Trumpet's directory in your AUTOEXEC.BAT path line, and make sure that your remove Netcom's directory from the path (You can still use winsock applications with Netcruiser if you want to, even without Netcruiser in the path, so long as Autoload winsock.dll is enabled in NC's Startup Options). After modifying your path, reboot your computer so that the new path will take effect.

The Login Script

Now, the login script. Thanks to the generosity of Eric Phelps, who provides FTP space for this file, you can download a copy of my login script here. You should shift-click on the preceding link, and specify in the resulting dialog box that the file be saved in your Trumpet directory as LOGIN.CMD. You will want to overwrite your existing login.cmd file. Skipping this step, overwriting the Trumpet script, is one of the most common errors.

Configuration

Now, configuration options for Trumpet: load TCPMan.exe and, from its File menu, select Setup, and make sure that the following choices are made:

  1. Name server: Enter these server addresses just as they are listed here:
  2.  199.182.120.1 199.182.120.2 199.182.120.202 199.182.120.203 206.214.98.33 206.214.98.34
  3. MTU: 580; RWIN: 2160; MSS: 540; TCP RTO MAX: 60; Demand Load Timeout: 30
  4. Note that some people think that tweaking MTU, RWIN, and MSS is very important. I don't, but if you want to see what you can do, check out this page.

  5. Internal PPP checked.
  6. Set SLIP Port to the COM port on which your modem is located, so if it's on COM2, for example, put a 2 in this field.
  7. Baud Rate: 28800 for 14.4 modems on "slower" computers (486 and below), 57600 for 14.4 on "faster" computers (Pentium); 57600 for 28.8 modems on slower computers, 115200 on faster computers. If your connection seems unreliable, you get lots of COMM OVERRUNs, or you have other COMM errors in Trumpet, you might try lowerring your baud rate. If you get Modem Not Responding errors, try changing this setting.
  8. Hardware Handshake: checked.
  9. Van Jacobson CSLIP Compression checked. (Enable this even though you're actually using a PPP connection; the compression protocol remains the same.)
  10. Online Status Detection: None.
  11. Leave Time Server, IP Address, Netmask, Domain Suffix, and Default Gateway blank (some of those are disabled, so you can't change them anyway). That's about it for this dialog box. By the way, do not change anything in File | PPP Options. If you enable PAP (Password Authentication Protocol, not to be confused with PPP), nothing will work. So don't do this!

Your First Login

Now you are ready to login for the first time. Choose Dialler | Login. It will ask you for the following information:

  1. The phone number of the POP that you use (get this from Settings | Phone Numbers in NC, or open up the PHONE.LST file in your NETCOM directory).
  2. Your username. Be sure to type a number sign (#) before your username. For instance, in that dialog box, I would type #BEDELMAN. This is extremely important; do not make a typo and do not forget the # sign. BTW, a common mistake is to include the @IX.NETCOM.COM from one's e-mail address; do not input that information -- Netcom's servers already know that you're connecting to Netcom, so it is unnecessary and will cause an "Invalid Login" error.
  3. Your password. No need to worry about its security; the password is stored in encrypted form.
  4. Your modem initialization string. Do not include the AT that is at the beginning of your init string. A typical init string is &c1&k3. Your init string should include commands for hardware handshaking, hardware flow control, and DCD Status check. You can get your current modem init string from NetCruiser by choosing Settings | Modem Parameters | Manual Setup | Advanced (you must do this when you are offline, or you will find that Manual Setup is disabled); just be warned that Netcruiser's init string isn't necessarilly perfect or ideal. In any case, make sure that you use a valid and appropriate modem init string for your modem, or you may experience failed logins, unstable logins, and/or low throughput. The five minutes that spent consulting your modem manual, are five very well-spent minutes! If your modem manual proves too confusing (many are), check out PC's Modem Init String list.

When I login, I get a message like the following in my Trumpet window:

1>Trumpet Winsock Version 2.1 Revision F
2>Copyright (c) 1993,1994,1995 by Peter R. Tattam &
3>Trumpet Software International Pty Ltd.
4>All Rights Reserved.
5>THIS IS AN UNREGISTERED COPY FOR EVALUATION ONLY (14 DAYS LEFT).
6>
7>Use of this copy for more than 30 days requires the copy to
8>be registered - select the "Special/Register" option from the program menu.
9>
10>License terms and conditions apply to your use of this software - select the
11>Special/license" option from the program menu.
12>
13>This program incorporates a time lock feature and will cease to operate if
14>not registered within 30 days.  Trumpet Software International encourages
15>you to register your evaluation copy early and well within the 30 day
16>evaluation period.
17>
18>This software may not be distributed or otherwise made available to the
19>public except in accordance with the license conditions stated in menu
20>option "Help/Distribution".
21>
22>ATZ
23>OK
24>AT&FE1Q0V1X4&B1&C1&D2&H1&R2L0S0=0S11=40
25>OK
26>ATDT703-242-8936
27>CONNECT 26400/ARQ
28>
29>netcom6 login: #bedelman
30>Password:
31>PPP session from (163.179.13.15) to 199.183.208.149
32>Connected.  Your IP address is 199.183.208.149.
33>PPP ENABLED
34>
35>Script completed

Yours will differ in the following ways: line 24 will be your init string. Line 26 will be the phone number that you use, line 27 the message that your modem reports when it makes a connection. Like 29 may have something like "netcom13" (it says the number of the modem that you're connected to at the POP, I believe, but not all POPs report this information). Then, line 29 will have your username. (Again, make sure that you have not forgotten the # sign; if you did, then run Setup from the Dialler menu to correct that critical mistake.) Finally, line 30 will not show your password.

If everything worked OK and you now have Trumpet working OK, I'd appreciate it if you can press this button letting me know that everything worked OK for you. If you have problems, review everything that you have done so far and see if you missed anything or made any mistakes. Then check the Troubleshooting and Where To Go For Help sections, below.

Troubleshooting

If line 31 does not show up, then make sure that your login-name has the '#'; that your login-name is spelled correctly; and that your password was entered correctly. If you think you might have mis-typed your password when you entered it as instructed above, simply rerun SETUP.CMD from the Dialler menu.

The most common mistake that I've seen is to forget to enter the Name Servers in the Configuration Step above. Another common mistake is forgetting to download my Script. You must use this script or Trumpet will not connect to your Netcruiser account!

If you get lots of COMM OVERRUN's, check the info at The Navas Modem FAQ for troubleshooting information. You might also want to check Microsoft's 16550 UART Configuration Instructions.

If you get Modem Not Responding errors, try changing your baud rate. For example, some people find that a baud rate of 28800 simply will not work for their system, but changing it to another value (say 57600) makes everything work fine. Strange, but so is life!

If you get strange, inexplicable errors, make sure that you have selected Internal PPP in Trumpet's File | Setup, and not Internal SLIP.

If you realize that you have misentered your modem init string (if you included the AT, for example), username (forgot the # sign), or phone number, you may edit that data by opening trumpwsk.ini in a text editor. You will find the pertinent lines at the very end of the file. Note that your password can only be modified by running setup.cmd from the Dialler menu.

Where To Go For Help

I am happy to help with any and all questions regarding Trumpet. If you e-mail me, be sure to include all of the following information:

Once you get Trumpet working, I'd appreciate it if you could press the Yes, Trumpet works! button, above. If you have comments and/or a good or bad experience to share, you are, of course welcome to e-mail me

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