Conference hydra::amiga_v1

The answers to your question are throughout this confernece.  Try a
"SHOW KEYWORD/FULL DOWNLOAD" or "DIR/TITLE=DOWNLOAD" and read the notes
that look good.

For starters, though, you will need a terminal program that supports file
transfer.  Ed Acciardi has a "starter" disk that has a copy of Handshake
(a GREAT VT200 terminal emulator) that supports both XMODEM and KERMIT
protocols.  You need this on disk first so you can use it to download the
other software.

If you run into specific problems, drop in another note and someone will
surely be able to help.

Good luck!

...richard

Ok Rob,

let's begin.


1.)     BUY A SECOND 3.5 inch FLOPPY-DRIVE !!!
        I buyed my Amy on Thursday. On Friday i ordered the second
        drive. Any serious work (I think) is impossible with only
        one drive. POINT

2.)     At first You need THREE programs on Your Amiga:
                VT200.arc (or known as the Smokey Vt200-emulator)
                ZOO     an archiver
                ARC     an archiver

2.1.)   At first You need FIVE programs on the VAX:
                VAX-Kermit
                ZOO.EXE
                ARC.EXE
                CVTARC.EXE
                SHAR.EXE

3.)     Make SOME room on your Workbench-Disk !!!
        Delete the following files:

                LIBS:math#?.library
                DEVS:narrator-device
                UTILITIES:notepad#?
                FONTS:  - all the fonts you don't like
                C:diskdoctor#?
                c:cli-commands you don't need
        are there more ??? (YOU NEED MORE THAN 150 K ADDITIONAL SPACE
        ON YOUR WB.)

3.1)    makedir SYS:VT200 (on your WB)
        copy the (Amiga)- arc and zoo executeables to SYS:utilities
        make sure that sys:utilities is in your PATH-search-list
        format a blank disk in your second drive and name it vt200
        copy VT200.arc (the 'saveset') to your second drive
        CD SYS:vt200 (where the emulator should be)
        type ARC E VT200:VT200.arc (extract FROM your second drive)
        READ the README-file
        type the file FONTS.COM (then you know what it does)
        execute FONTS.COM (the installation comin' with VT200)
          FONTS.COM now copies the VT200-fonts to FONTS:
          this takes a while on a floppy-based system !!
        delete everything in SYS:VT200 exept the emulator (the largest
        file) the docs and the init-file (which must be copied to S:)

                start vt200 with VT200 or RUN VT200
                wait until vt200 has a blank screen with only the
                title-bar.
                PLAY WITH THE VT200-emulator: check all the pull-down
                menus. R E A D  T H E  D O C ' s comin' with VT200
                R E A D  T H E  D O C ' s  AGAIN until you are firm
                with this beast

4.)     The other day in the office:
        Install the 5 programs (see 2.1) on your vax. OR ask your
        friendly system-manager to do this for you.
        VMS-KERMIT must be (VMS)installed, the others need to be
        defined as foreign-commands.
        Ask your local network-manager for the procedure in accessing
        your VAX in the local computer-center via Dial-IN

4.1)    Hurry home :-)
        Connect your modem (do you have one?) to Amy's serial port
        enter preferences and check the serial port's settings:
                8 Bit, No parity, 1 Stopbit and of course the correct
                speed: 1200 or 2400 (you lucky guy) Baud.
                THEN....test the access to the vax in your location:

                Boot your system
                enter CLI or SHELL
                Connect to the VT200-subdirectory
                start vt200 with vt200 or run vt200
                dial (via 'hand' or ATD)
                hit return (n-times)
                go through password checkings
                SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENT
                LOGIN
                THERE SHOULD BE NO PROBLEMS IN ACCESSING YOUR ACCOUNT,
                 VT200 is a FULL-FEATURED VT100/VT200-emulator !!!

                Start kermit with  $ mc KERMIT on the vax
                kermit prompts with Kermit-32>
.               type SET FILE TYPE ASCII
                type server
                kermit ask you to go back to your local kermit
                enter the file transfer-menu
                pull down to kermit get
                then a requester comes and ask you for the files
                you want: type LOGIN.com <RETURN>
                kermit begins with the transfer, and tell you
                when it has finished "File transfer complete"
                pull down to "Kermit Bye"
                click the file transfer window to the background
                click into the emulator-window.
                exit VMS-Kermit with EXIT  or <CTRL-Z>
                close your vt200-session

                type the new file LOGIN.COM everything OK?
                CONGRATIULATIONS........




UUUUFFFFFFFF this was the first part. My boss calls me NOW.
The next part comes this week.
MAYBE this text needs some rewrite sessions, but this may help you
over the next hours/days.
This could be one part of OUR AMIGA-NEW-USER-HELPFILE. ANY ADDITIONAL
CHAPTERS  ARE WELCOME.


'NUFF  SAID


RALF
====

    Based on my suspicion that you don't have a modem, or modem connection
    is not permitted to your vax (pretty common in my experience), you
    have two other options:-
    
    -take your amiga (and TV !) into the office and connect directly
     (also not permitted in my experience)
    
    - find an MS-DOS machine (vaxmate, rainbow, but that needs a 51/4
    inch floppy on your amiga) and download to that. Transfer the files
    on floppy.
    
    Which meets your possibilities? Obviously modem is most convenient.
    
    PS. I'm always amazed (read envious) of the ease with which people
    (particularly in the US) can have remote access to Digital's network.
    Certainly in my location ( maybe an extreme example, but I believe
    probably true in most places in Europe)
    
    - only data center staff who are on call have modems - with occassional
    exceptions if someone is laid up at home with broken legs or something.
    In that case it has to be approved by God. Modems must be Digital
    and all access is answer back.
    
    - other remote access is not permitted - even from remote digital
    sites.     
    
    - bringing a personal machine into the office is not permitted,
    let alone connecting it. If you did get it in, you'd never get it
    out again.
    
    - System managers will not install anything that is not approved
    and supported on site (ie forget most things)
    
    
    Needless to say I transport on floppies. If you are more fortunate
    - think of your poor underpriveliged (literally) brothers sometime.
    
    Regards
    
    Colin
    

    alternate form of no modem:
    
    Try to convince your manager you need a DEC Tandy clone, it has
    a 3.5" disk drive.  Then get DOS2DOS or Crossdos, that will let
    you read a 720K 3.5" ibmpc disk on your Amiga.
    
    -Dave

    Aha - Tandy is not for sale in Europe (maybe Olivetti?)
    
    Anything that uses MS-DOS would do I think.
    
    Colin
    

    Re: .5
    
    Ah, a question which I'm competent to answer (ya see, I'm working
    here as PC integration guru and PCSA wizard, but have no idea what
    that I*M junk is doing here... ;-).
    
    DEC Europe will use Olivetti machines for their DECStations, they
    ought to be introduced in September...
    
    BTW, *I* had no problem moving my "secondary" machine (A500) including
    monitor in and out of our building. I just write my own delivery
    clearences... ;-)
    
    Regards,
    
    <CB>

    And the Olivettis have the 3,5 in. 1.4 Meg drive. I suppose it's
    possible to have 720K disks.
    
    Any downloaders operating here in EHQ?
    
    Maurice

    re.3
    
    O.K., i'm going to buy a drive, but I noticed two things about the
    drives I saw in a few computer mags.  There seems to be two types
    of 5�" drives.  The first one was an IBM compatible which had 720K
    when the disc was formatted, and another drive which was 1meg,
    presumably with 880k when formatted.  My question is this:-
    Do i need to buy the IBM compatible drive so I can run the downloaded
    software, or could I use the 1meg drive?  
    
    Rob.
    
    P.S. Thanks everybody for your help.  I'm still chasing up the other
    solutions though, as i'd rather have a second 3�" drive.

    
    I have no experience with IBM drives on the Amiga. I buyed a 5.25"
    drive FOR THE AMIGA. It was modified to write 880KB as DF2: and
    has a built-in 'automatic diskchange'. I did this to make my back-
    ups on the tons of 5.25 i had from my APPLE II - life.

    Ralf
    ====

    Re: .8
    
    If you can restrain yourself for a couple of days (read next week),
    I'll upload my schematics (IFF picture) and a description to build
    an interface for any 80 track/1 MB  unformatted drive, either 3.5"
    or 5.25". That is, if you don't mind soldering a little. Having
    someone make a layout for a PCB wouldn't hurt, too. ;-)
    
    The nice thing about this design is the ability to switch it from
    Amiga mode (automagically mounted by the system at powerup) to IBM
    mode. Your selected drive should support some sort of jumper/switch
    to put it in 40 track mode if you want to read 360 KB IBM disks,
    but if you use CrossDOS or DOS2DOS, these programs take care of
    that.
    I use two TEAC drives for several years with this interface. 
    And yes Virginia, 5.25" is soooo much cheaper... :-)
    
    Hang in thight,
    
    <CB>  

AAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I NEVER used to have problems with uploads/downloads 'til... our computer
center decided to upgrade.  They've apparently got new terminal servers/modems
in now and it's BROKEN me! I thought I had the communications thing licked, but
this one has me stumped!

The tough part is that I've found what I think is a GREAT Shareware game that I
want to upload... and I CAN'T.  (John Gineau, could you send me mail at
ODIXIE::MCDONALD telling me your office mail address?  I'll just send it to you
via inter-office snail on a floppy.)

Now, back to my problem.  It looks like the new dial-in lines must support 9600
baud or something.  When I hook up to the terminal server and do a show port, I
get the following:

> Port 7:  m
>
> Character Size:            8           Input Speed:        9600
> Flow Control:            XON           Output Speed:       9600
> Parity:                 None           Modem Control:   Enabled
>
> Access:                Local           Local Switch:          `
> Backwards Switch:       None           Name:             PORT_7
> Break:                 Local           Session Limit:         2
> Forwards Switch:        None           Type:               Soft
>
> Preferred Service: None
>
> Authorized Groups:  20,101,111
> (Current)  Groups:  20,101,111
>
> Enabled Characteristics:
>
> Autobaud,  Autoprompt,  Broadcast,  Inactivity Logout,  Input Flow Control,
> Loss Notification,  Message Codes,  Output Flow Control,  Password,
> Verification

As you can see, the input speed and output speed are both 9600.  This strikes
me as a bit odd, since I only have a 2400 baud modem, but I think this only
means that the terminal port is talking to it's attached modem at 9600 baud.

Anyway, after logging in, I break back to the server and do a set session
passall, but it still does no good.  Whenever I try to download, my end doesn't
see ANYTHING from the VAX side.  When I try to upload, my end doesn't see any
ACKs or NAKs.  

I can't set  the port's speed to 2400.  The modem expects the port to be 9600.
Anybody got any ideas?  (Besides buying a 9600 baud modem.  I'd love it, but
can't afford it yet.)


					John

    A couple of suggestions :-
    
    1.	Don't touch the baud rate
    
    2.	try turning off the local switch (I think "Set port local swtich
    	none"  or "set port local none").
    
    regards
    	Mike

    Don't worry about the baud rate.  The port is autobauded which starts
    out testing at 9600 and works its way around to 2400 for your setup.
    
    You don't say what the terminal characterististics are (SHOW TERMINAL),
    but make sure it's 8 bit and .12 is right; the grave accent is as
    likely to be a part of the character stream as well as any other
    character, so set local switch none and forward or backward switches
    will also get in the way.
    

I finally tracked down the problem.  I'm posting it here for the benefit of
others who might encounter it.  

One more thing you apparently need to be sure of is that you LAT port Type is
set to "Ansi".  It seems that with our new dial-in equipment, the ports are all
set up as type "soft" (Softcopy).  Fixing this setting seemed to clear things
up nicely.

So, John... Thanks for you office address, but I guess it would be quicker now
if I just uploaded the file myself.  (About 22 minutes with Ymodem at 2400, but
worth it, I thought.)  BTW, can I copy it TO WJG::AMIGA: without problems? 
I've never tried before... I've just always dumped things to NORSE::.

					John

    I need a little help with downloading and VMS file formats.

    I use Kermit for most of my downloads. I have found that if I 
    KERMIT> set file type block , I can download stream_lf type files.
    I think if I SET FILE TYPE BINARY , I can download fixed file formats.
    Right ???

    What do I do with a VARIABLE LENGTH, MAX 2045 BYTES  type file
    I tried " set file type block " but file was bad. Would " set file type
    binary " work better ?

    One of the reasons I like kermit is that I do my downloading at night.
    I put a few / bunch of files in a sub dir and then just tell kermit32
    the send *.* . I get back to the amiga and just tell kermit to receive
    and where to go. Then I go to bed.
     Is there other programs that will send all the files in a sub-dir
    without needing to type in each file name ??

    Thanks  Bob

�    I use Kermit for most of my downloads. I have found that if I 
�    KERMIT> set file type block , I can download stream_lf type files.
�    I think if I SET FILE TYPE BINARY , I can download fixed file formats.
�    Right ???

    You would set file type to binary to download files with fixed length
    records, but you may want to consider another transfer protocol (need I
    use the "z" word?).

�    What do I do with a VARIABLE LENGTH, MAX 2045 BYTES  type file
�    I tried " set file type block " but file was bad. Would " set file type
�    binary " work better ?

    That format sounds like something from the I*M world, but setting file
    type binary should allow you to transfer it (don't know what you'll get
    at the other end, though), or you may have to convert it, ala CVTARC.

�    One of the reasons I like kermit is that I do my downloading at night.
�    I put a few / bunch of files in a sub dir and then just tell kermit32
�    the send *.* . I get back to the amiga and just tell kermit to receive
�    and where to go. Then I go to bed.

�     Is there other programs that will send all the files in a sub-dir
�    without needing to type in each file name ??

    Kermit does a few nice things as mentioned above, but it comes up short
    on so many other things that you may want to give ZMODEM a try. It isn't
    very picky about files types and though there's no "native" support for
    wildcard transfers, Clint Adams has written a nice DCL procedure that
    will allow batch mode transfers (including wildcards). I can't recall
    the note where it was posted in this conference, but there is a version
    of it CRISTA""::AMIGA: as SZ_SEND.COM.

    Hope this helps,

    Pete

    I use SET FILE TYPE FIXED for anything that isn't stream format.
    
    Actually, I've found it better to CVTARC the files on VMS to make
    them all stream format - that way I can check if the archive is
    intact on VMS before trying to download it.
    
    Dave