[Coco] Internet/BBS connectivity via Coco1

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 1:15 AM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks Aaron, that will help quite a bit. With the sources to several term programs and even a few BBSs floating around, it shouldn't be hard to create something uniquely useful.
> In using a terminal program with dw4, is the x/ymodem protocols supported for up/downloads?
>

They should be.  That was the intention but it's been a looong time
since I looked at that code.

> Bill Pierce
> My Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Fri, Jan 3, 2014 12:57 am
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Internet/BBS connectivity via Coco1
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>> Derek (and others),
>> DriveWire4 will do the same thing in emulating the modem. If you have no need
> for drivewire, then this is the perfect idea
>> But I think the real problem is not the means of connection.... but where to
> connect to.
>> I can make internet connections on my Coco all day long... but I have no idea
> of an address to connect them to.
>> What is really needed is the actual telnet addresses of internet BBSs to
> connect to.
>
> This is a good place to start:
>
> http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/
>
>> I've never really messed with telnet so I know little about it. A good
> detailed description of how to connect, where to connect, and what to do after
> you've connected would really be benificial.
>
> NitrOS9 includes a telnet client for DW that is appropriate for
> connecting to most telnet based services (remote shells, mostly).  The
> telnet client opens a *raw* socket to the remote host, i.e. DriveWire
> does not do any processing on the data passing through, it just moves
> bytes back and forth verbatim.
>
> Telnet BBSes tend to be a bit different than other telnet services.
> They like to use a lot of ANSI graphics and fancy screen controls, a
> hold over from the BBS glory days I guess.  Since telnet is (mostly)
> terminal agnostic, if you connect to such a BBS using the telnet
> client then these control codes are going to be delivered to OS9's
> current term or win driver and things will be mostly insane.
>
> There is another option that is more appropriate for telnet BBSes.
> You can use a traditional telecomm/terminal emulation program such as
> Supercom (included on NitrOS9 disks, I think.  It's in the repo at
> least).  These programs understand the ANSI nonsense and make the
> menus and fullscreen interfaces of the BBS work (usually).
>
> To use these traditional telecom programs (or traditional BBS server
> software) with DriveWire, just configure them to use /N instead of /T2
> or whatever they default to.  For supercomm, just start it with /N as
> an argument:  supercomm /n
>
> The /N devices will map your connection to one of the virtual channels
> automatically, so you can start as many instances of a terminal
> program as you have channels (by default 14) and connect to different
> sites concurrently.  You still use /N as the device for all of them.
>
> The /N devices will act a lot like a Hayes modem.  They understand all
> of the standard AT commands.  No particular configuration is
> necessary, but if your telecomm program likes to see a certain
> response to some AT request, it will most likely get one that makes it
> happy.
>
> To connect to your BBS of choice, dial just like a phone number but
> use a.b.c.d:e form of IP address and port rather than a phone number.
> For example, ATD127.0.0.1:6809   IIRC you can use DNS names too, as
> long as they dont start with T or P.. something like that.  Maybe I
> just made it ATD and broke T/P for the sake of easier dns.  Can't
> recall.
>
> Anyway, this will connect the virtual channel to the remote host and
> respond with hayes codes as if dialing a phone.  In this mode,
> DriveWire will process the telnet protocol for you so your terminal
> program should get a data stream very similar to being connected via a
> real modem.
>
> To disconnect, log off using the BBS interface or just close your
> terminal program.  There is no support for a hayes style escape
> sequence to reenter command mode.  The virtual modem will reenter
> command mode if the remote side disconnects however.
>
> I think that's mostly it.
>
> -Aaron
>
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