Term/2 for OS/2

This utility allows any OS/2 computer that has both tcp/ip connectivity in some form (lan, SLIP,PPP, whatever) and a available async (rs-232) port to "spawn" a telnet session to this available port.

What this is useful for? If you're many of the computer users out there, you know that many terminals have come onto the used market for $20 - $50 range. VT220's, VT420's, ADM 3A's and other terminals have become available to the everyday OS/2 user.

This can be useful for several situations:

1. You are a school and need to provide cheap internet connectivity. With several cheap terminals and a 28.8 or higher modem, the sessions remain very responsive, requiring only 1 computer (with several rs-232 ports, but this application uses standard calls, so Digiboards and the like will work with no problems.)
2. Someone wants to read PINE on your $4000 OS/2 superstation. Give him/her their own machine.
3. You'd like several people to work on your OS/2 machine. Setting ifconfig to route to localhost and running the telnet daemon is a quick fix for "multi-user" OS/2.
4. Many other uses .....

You must have TCP/IP connectivity *OR* loopback 127.0.0.1 enabled

The terminal needs to be connect and configured with the communications paramters that will work with the COM port selected. MODE 9600,n,8,1 does no good if your terminal is set to 1200,7,e,1.

You must configure the communcations for the particular COMM port before you start the program.

The telnet server you intend on attaching to MUST have a DNS entry. This version does not resolv "dot decimal" addresses. It will be available in the next release.

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*** Usage *** The application is a command line utiltiy that takes these arguments:

c:\term\term COM1

COM1 being the communications port you have setup using the MODE command.

This program assumes that you have setup the communication parameters via a OS/2 MODE statement. For example, you need to do something like this:

mode com2,19200,n,8,1,,XON=yes
and to test it, just type ECHO TEST >COM2. If you see "TEST" on the terminal, this is a good indication that the local connection is working.

Once the application is running a command prompt will be seen on the terminal. Press ? for current help. The text file termtype is a list of valid terminal types for many telnet clients. Remember, those are just standard names, and does not imply that your terminal is supported by whatever telnet daemon your trying to connect to.

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*** Notes ***
There is a known problem, after a telnet connection is closed, you will see the term> prompt at the terminal. The first character typed gets "eaten". To fix this would require a little polling, which I won't put in. If it bothers you, I'll cut you a version that takes care of it.
99.9% of the problems are with the handshaking (if you see garbled characters) between the PC and the terminal.
MOST modern telnet servers support a "binary" and "terminal" sub-negotiation. If yours doesn't, your out of luck.(The one on the Warp 4 does....)
Terminal types are negotiated AT startup, so you may experience control characters being passed after the negotiation is done.

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*** Support *** No warranties, expressed or implied.....

If you would like to send comments, please email them to tfry@universe.digex.net

or visit the web page http://www.universe.digex.net/~tfry/term.html