From: ron@empire.cce.cornell.edu (Ron Pool)
Subject: Re: Desparately seeking... transparent connection from Annex 3 to Sun
Organization: Cornell Cooperative Extension
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 15:32:09 GMT

Alexis Rosen (alexis@panix.com) wrote:
: We recently bought an Annex III. We were assured by various people at
: Xylogics that we would have "no problem" doing 8-bit clean connections to our
: Sun so that users could download binaries with zmodem or xmodem or whatever.

We're using an Annex 3 w/ a bank of 8 modems with most connections going to a
Sun  SPARCstation 2 running SunOS 4.1.3.  Zmodem works fine without need to
tell zmodem not to use any characters.

: Well, now we have this very fine expensive server and no way to do what we
: need. Xylogics tech support is trying, but so far none of their ideas seem
: to work. I am _not_ using Xon/xoff or telnet_crlf, and the attention char
: is turned off (by being set to "" or to ^@, I've tried both) as it the
: telnet escape char (set to u). Flow control is "eia" in both directions, as
: we use hardware flow control. Rlogin just doesn't do the trick- zmodem
: downloads fail instantly- and telnet isn't any better.
: 
: I don't understand why telnet isn't doing the trick- there shouldn't be any
: in-band data that matters to it at this point. Anyone know what's wrong? If
: you are successfully doing 8-bit xfers, what is your port setup and what
: macro (if any) are you using?

Here's the settings for one of our ports.  All ports have the same setting
on our Annex.  The IP addresses listed here are not our real ones, BTW.

xxx: Annex-3-UX R6.2, 16 ports

annex xxx port 1:
               speed: 38400                       data_bits: 8
           stop_bits: 1                              parity: none
         imask_7bits: N                       control_lines: both
                type: dial_in                          mode: cli
    forwarding_timer: 5                      cli_inactivity: 1
    inactivity_timer: 15                     port_multiplex: N
     allow_broadcast: Y                 broadcast_direction: port
   max_session_count: 1                  input_flow_control: eia
    input_start_char: ^Q                    input_stop_char: ^S
 output_flow_control: eia                 output_start_char: ^Q
    output_stop_char: ^S                 ixany_flow_control: N
          long_break: N                         short_break: N
    attn_char_string: ""                          user_name: ""
            term_var: "vt100"             input_buffer_size: 8
 bidirectional_modem: N                            location: "800 #"
   input_is_activity: Y                  output_is_activity: Y
  reset_idle_time_on: output                   cli_security: N
    connect_security: Y                port_server_security: N
       port_password: "<unset>"           dedicated_address: 0.0.0.0
      dedicated_port: telnet                         prompt: ""
    newline_terminal: N                                echo: Y
        map_to_lower: N                        map_to_upper: N
          char_erase: Y                          line_erase: Y
       hardware_tabs: Y                          cli_imask7: Y
          erase_char: ^?                         erase_word: ^W
          erase_line: ^U                     redisplay_line: ^R
       toggle_output: ^O                      telnet_escape: U
       local_address: 123.456.789.012        remote_address: 123.456.789.013
    slip_subnet_mask: 0.0.0.0           slip_load_dump_host: 0.0.0.0
         slip_metric: 0                     slip_allow_dump: N
       slip_mtu_size: small             slip_do_compression: Y
slip_allow_compression: Y                        slip_no_icmp: N
            slip_tos: Y                       slip_security: N
    forwarding_count: 0                            need_dsr: N
       dptg_settings: "CCCCCCCCSSSSSSSS"
         telnet_crlf: N                         latb_enable: N
    dialup_addresses: N

Here's the macro we use to have users connect to our Sun; hostname and IP
address have again been changed.

alias "Connect to soho"
  keyin "1" 1-16,v@129.985.432.198
  keyin "empire" 1-16,v@129.985.432.198
{
>
>Connecting to empire...
>
<telnet 129.985.432.198
}

All of this works very well for us.  Some problems you might be having:

  o Local or remote modems are doing xon/xoff flow control, even though Annex
    isn't.

  o Local or remote modems are not doing cts/rts flow control and are losing
    data -- especially likely at high speeds.

  o Remote host (eg, a PC or Mac) is not able to keep up with the modems at
    high speeds.  Eg, we've seen old IBM PC/XTs drop characters at as low as
    4800 bps under older terminal emulators.

  o Zmodem is misconfigured on the Sun side -- maybe not properly setting
    the line raw.

Something that worked for me in diagnosing this kind of problem in the past
was to write a program that put /dev/tty completely raw and then put out every
character from 0 to 255 ascii; I'd run this program from a machine with a
terminal emulator set to display all characters numeric codes as received.

I've also written code to do the reverse.  BTW, I used a Mac running White
Knight for the remote end as Whit Knight has adequate scripting and other
tools for doing this sort of thing.

Good luck!
-- 

--
Ron Pool; Electronic Technology Group; B-15 Wing Hall; Ithaca, NY 14853
Internet: ron@cce.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.servers