Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Fri, 20 Nov 1992 14:26:11 CDT
From:         Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      Capturing a Telnet Session

9 Messages, 173 Lines
*-----
From:         Ed Cherry <CECHERRY@SAMFORD>
Organization: Samford University
Subject:      Re: capturing a telnet session
On Thu, 19 Nov 1992 10:44:24 CDT Justine Roberts said:
>Has anyone figured out how to capture a telnet session originating at an
>IBM VM (CMS) system? That is, getting the session into a PC file, or
>into a mainframe file? Special software, mainframe or PC?  I'll be
>grateful for any account of successful experience OR for tutoring on
>why it's NOT possible. - Thanks.

Try entering the command, "cp spool console start to *".  This
opens up a console log that captures everything done in the session after
this point.  To turn it off, the command, "cp spool console close"
terminates the capture session, and sends the console to your rdrlist.
From the rdrlist, receive it using the command, "receive / filename filetype"
which creates a file that can then be downloaded to PC.

Hope this helps.

************************************************************************
*  Ed Cherry                       *                                   *
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*-----
From: ldavids@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Lloyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: capturing a telnet session
On capturing TELNET sessions.

Since Justine did not include an e-mail address I will have to
reply to the list.  First, you did not say whether you are telneting
from a dumb terminal or from a PC.  If from an IBM PC, one way
to capture a Telnet session on a microcomputer when you have
a direct connection to the internet, rather than calling up via a modem,
is to use a program like the freeware Snipper utility that I downloaded
from a local bulletin board.  This is a TSR program that, when activated by
pressing a hot key combination (by default, ALT-W), allows you to mark
any or all of a screen display and capture it as an ASCII file on your
local computer disk.  It is a little cumbersome, but it works.

Another way would be to print the sessions off and scan the printed pages
into ASCII code.  Also cumbersome, but it works reasonably well, depending
on the quality of your printer and scanner.

Dialup access by way of a modem, of course, requires communications
software which almost always has a means of capturing sessions as ASCII
files.  So if there is a way to dialup to one of your campus computers with
Telnet capability, that is probably the easiest method.

Please, everybody, attach email addresses and names to all messages.

L. Davidson
L-Davidson@nwu.edu
*-----
From: Steven Kirby <kirby@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Subject: Re: capturing a telnet session
Depends on how you're getting to CMS.  If you're using an async line, you
can use the screen snapshot feature in ProComm Plus (or equivalent feature
in other telecomm programs, I suspect) to do a screen dump to disc.  If
you're using DCA's Irma software, you can do the same thing a lot cleaner.
Don't have the details handy, but it's in the manual somewhere.  And if
you're on a Mac, Command-3 (I think) will do a screen dump to disc.  Other
than that, I doubt there's a good way to deal with it given the limits
built into the 1K block mode method that CMS uses to communicate with the
mainframe.  Anybody has better information than I do, this is one time I'd
just *love* to be proven wrong.

--Steve

Steven Kirby
University of Georgia
kirby@athena.cs.uga.edu
*------
From:         Kate <MCCAINKW@DUVM>
Subject:      Re: capturing a telnet session
Most telecommunications software has some capability to "record" or
"spool" or "capture" the session as it is ongoing and to save the
session as an ASCII file.  I use TinCan and it has both "record" [replays
the interaction step by step] and "spool" [captures all as a single
static file] options. This file _should_ be movable to your PC, if you
are working on a mainframe, by whatever file transfer protocols your
machine and software permit.  In my case, again, I have several flavors of
file transfer "up" (PC to mainframe) and "down" (mainframe to PC). I can
move a file down and open it in a WP package and reformat, change fonts,
etc.

Kate McCain                       bibliometrics R us
College of Information Studies
Drexel University

mccainkw@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu
*------
From:         Mike Newman <PB5840@UTKVM1.UTK.EDU>
Subject:      Re: capturing a telnet session

    TELNET hostname (RECORD

        will create a file named RECORD TELNET.  I believe this only
        works for linemode sessions.

Mike Newman                                 BITNET:    PB5840@UTKVM1
The University of Tennessee                 Internet:  PB5840@UTKVM1.UTK.EDU
Computing Center                            Phone:     (615) 974-6755
*-----
From:     Jim Muir <JM20@SWTEXAS>
Subject:  RE: capturing a telnet session
One way to capture a TELNET session (or FTP or whatever) onto your
microcomputer is to use KERMIT to access your mainframe from the microcomputer
with the "log session" parameter included;  Depending on the KERMIT version,
it will either replace an existing session.log file on your micro, (MS-DOS,
anyway), or add onto the end of an existing session.log file. You need some
file management, since if it replaces an existing session.log file, you will
need to rename that file, or lose it; on the other hand, if it adds onto the
end of an existing file you need to delete it occasionally before it fills up
your disk--a delete command in your autoexec.bat takes care of that.

Not too elegant, but it works.

Jim Muir
Southwest Texas State University
*-----
From: S_ROLDAN@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU
Subject: Re: capturing a telnet session

RE:  Sorry I goofed up. The right command would be:

        $ set host/log=baba.txt upr1

Which would mean the following: "baba.txt" any file you would name;
and "upr1" would be the lowest/or highest domain area, (sic) well
what I mean is the following:  s_roldan@upr1.upr.clu.edu ...
you would write after "baba.txt" ... UPR1

Got It! Now try this out and logout ... then do a DIR in you
(sic) your local directory to find or look at "baba.txt".

ROLDAN
*-----
From: Marty Kesselman <KESSELMAN@ZODIAC.BITNET>
Subject: Re: capturing a telnet session
At Rutgers, connecting via a vax, we use the photo command at the $
prompt to log the entire session until you type logoff at the $ prompt.
A file called photo.log;1 is created in the user directory.  Then using
kermit, you can download the photo.log session to you local pc.  --
Marty Kesselman


Marty Kesselman
Head of Reference and Instructional Services
Rutgers University Library of Science and Medicine
P.O. Box 1029
Piscataway, New Jersey 08855

908-932-3850 office
908-932-3208 fax
908-247-5662 home
kesselman@zodiac.rutgers.edu
*-----
From: slides@ced.berkeley.edu (Arch Slide Library)
Subject: Re: capturing a telnet session
Ralph Moon at UCB wrote a cature front end to
our OPAC melvyl and it works as a telnet session.
But it is linked to melvyl.  Maybe he can help
you.  His address is rmoon@library.berkeley.edu

Maryly Snow
Architecture Slide LIbrary
UC Berkeley
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU