Copyright: ® Roger Hadgraft, 1993


A Guide to WinTrump

WinTrump is a Windows version of Trumpet, an Internet News reader for DOS machines. There is also a DOS version of Trumpet. Configuring WinTrump is a non-trivial task, and for most readers, this will already have been done. If not, see the Configuration section later.

How to Read this File

What is WinTrump?

Procedures

Menu Commands

Buttons

Keyboard

Configuration

Glossary


How to Read this File

How can you read this file? There are a number of approaches you can take, and you can mix and match them all together.

Turning the Page

Use Tables of Contents & Up

Keyword Search

Cross References & Back

Backtracking - Back & History

Hotspots

Cursor shape

Up

Contents

Bookmarks


Turning the Page

You can read the entire file by clicking on the  [image] button. This is just like turning the page in a book. You can go back through the file with the [image] button. This is a standard feature of Doctor Help files.

You may find in other Help files that the browse sequence is either not implemented, or that a browse sequence only covers a part of any one file. Doctor Help implements a feature as close as possible to what we are all used to.


Use Tables of Contents & Up

At each level in the file, you will see a Table of Contents for the subsidiary sections. You can click on one of these topics (hotspots), and read it, then press the [image] button to return to the menu. You can then choose another topic from that menu.  will always take you up one level.

Of course, you can combine this with the page turning mode, and choose a topic from a menu, then continue reading page by page using the [image] button.


Keyword Search

If you want information on a particular topic, click on the [image] button. A dialog box allows you to scroll through the list of defined keywords, or if you want to search for a particular word, start typing it in the box available

 and the nearest word will appear. If you match a particular word, then click on the [image] button to see all the topics for that word:

Double click on whichever topic seems most appropriate.


Cross References & Back

In many places in Doctor Help files, you will find hotspots - like "Doctor Help" above. These are of a different colour and underlined like this: . Click on one of these and you activate a cross reference to another part of the current file or to another file. To backtrack, just click on the [image] button. In fact, clicking on topics in the menus that you see are the same type of operation.

Another style of button is the popup, indicated by dashed underlining like this:


Backtracking - Back & History

Since these files are made up of a series of links between the topics, you can backtrack using two methods:

The [image] button takes you back to the previous topic. Click on it again for the one before that and so on. The last 50 topics are kept.

Using the [image] command you can jump back to any one of the previous 50 topics by scrolling through the list of topics and double clicking on it.


Hotspots

Hotspots are fundamental to navigation in hypertext systems like Windows Help. They are areas on the screen on which you click with the mouse, and you are transported to another topic. Hotspots can be either text (in which case they are visually different from the surrounding text) or graphics. See also Cursor shape.

You can backtrack from the current topic which you have accessed via a hotspot by using the Back, History, Contents and Up buttons.


Cursor shape

When you move the cursor over a hotspot, it will change shape to a hand with a pointing finger. Most of the time, you won't need this visual cue, because textual hotspots are underlined, and of a different colour. However, graphical hotspots don't have any visual cues - no underlining, and no change of colour, so you have to rely on the cursor indicating which of them is a hotspot.


Up

To specially support the hierarchical structure of most files, the [image] button allows you to jump back to the last topic you visited at the previous level. You can keep going upwards until you reach the Contents page.


Contents

The [image] button takes you back to the highest level Table of Contents. This is useful if you get lost.


Bookmarks

If you want to be able to return to a particular point in a file, just set a bookmark. You can come back to that point by clicking on [image] in the menu and choosing the bookmark that you want.


What is WinTrump?

WinTrump is a Windows version of Trumpet, an Internet News reader for DOS machines. There is also a DOS version of Trumpet. Configuring WinTrump is a non-trivial task, and for most readers, this will already have been done. If not, see the Configuration section later.

Trumpet has been written by Peter Tattam of the University of Tasmania, Australia. He can be reached as peter@psychnet.psychol.utas.edu.au.

The documentation (this Help file) has been written by Roger Hadgraft of Monash University, Australia. He can be reached as roger.hadgraft@eng.monash.edu.au. Thanks to Ashok Aiyar for writing the section on using Trumpet with SLIP.


Procedures

Network setup

Getting Started

Identifying yourself

Subscribing

Reading Articles

Posting an article

Followup to another article

Replying to an article

Mail to anyone

Forwarding an article to someone else

Changing Font


Network setup

Setting up Trumpet to run with your network is not trivial and is covered in more detail in the Configuration section. With a bit of luck, someone else has already done it for you!


Getting Started

You are probably already running WinTrump, but if not, you execute the wintrump.exe file using the File Manager or the Program Manager.  See the Windows manual if you are unsure how to do this.

If all goes well, you should be connected to the NNTP server of your choice and then you will be able to read the news.

You will be presented with a large window with 2 scrolling frames. The top frame should contain a list of newsgroups, and the bottom is for scanning the items in a selected newsgroup.  A group's articles will not be displayed until the newsgroup is selected (in the top window) by using the cursor keys and the Enter key, or by double clicking on its name with the mouse/cursor.

To move about within a frame, use the cursor keys or the scroll bars.

To read an article, merely select the article in the lower window by pressing Enter, or by double clicking with the mouse. Click the [image] button to return from reading an article to see the list of articles (ie. their subject lines).


Identifying yourself

Before you do anything else, you should define your Signature filename. Select File/Setup (from the menu bar). Use Tab to move between fields. You will need to create the signature file with an ASCII text editor outside Trumpet. A sample file might be:

   ------------------------------------------

   Fred Bloggs, 2nd year, Civil Engineering student

   Monash University, Clayton, Vic. Australia. 3168

   e-mail: fred.bloggs@eng.monash.edu.au

This saves typing this useful information for each of your messages. You can, if you wish, use the same signature file as you do for mail.

Note that on a Novell network, you will probably find that your network supervisor will only allow you to edit your signature filename, and not the rest of it (like organisation name, etc).


Subscribing

Trumpet will, by default, show you a limited list of the newsgroups available. These are ones that your system administrator thought might be of general interest. You can add others, and delete some of the existing ones if you wish, to match your own interests.

To see all the other newsgroups, select Group/Subscribe from the menu bar. A window appears showing subscribed groups in a list on the left, and unsubscribed groups in a list on the right. You can move a newsgroup from one list to the other by clicking on it with the mouse, or by moving the cursor to it and pressing Enter. You can use the scroll bars to move through the list. When you're finished (it can take quite a while with 2000+ newsgroups), select Close from the window's control menu to close the list of newsgroups.

If this process has taken more than 10-15 minutes, I suggest that you now exit from Trumpet (by choosing File/Exit with the mouse), so that your list of newsgroups is saved, just in case your computer crashes. You don't want to have to go through that again if you can avoid it!


Reading Articles

I assume that you now have a list of relevant newsgroups, as outlined in the previous section. Click on your first newsgroup if the items don't show already. If there are any items in your first newsgroup, you should see a list of subjects in the bottom window. Note that Trumpet conveniently groups together messages on the same theme or thread. This makes it much easier to follow a discussion.

You can view a message by double clicking on it, or by moving the cursor and pressing Enter, or by clicking on it and then clicking [image]. If there are no messages in the bottom window, your first newsgroup is empty. Click on [image] to make Trumpet scan forwards for the first non-empty group. You can keep using [image] until you see a message worth reading. Double click on it.

If you're reading an article, you can see the next article in the list by clicking on the [image] button, or you may see the previous article by clicking on [image]. You can Save an article to disk using Article/Save. To print, give lpt1 as the filename. At the moment, Trumpet only supports simple text printing. It does not yet handle postscript laser printers. This will be changed in a future release.

Once you've read or scanned the messages in the group, and you don't want to see them again, click on [image] at the bottom of the screen. Trumpet will scan forwards again through your list of newsgroups for the next one with new messages. You can get the messages back by selecting a newsgroup in the upper window and choosing Group/Unread N. This will present the last N old messages as if you'd never read them. You can choose to unread 10, 20 or all of the available old messages.

Eventually, you'll get to your last newsgroup, by which time you will have marked all the new items in all your newsgroups as read. It's time now to Exit the program and get on with the rest of your work!


Posting an article

Many people are content to read the news but not to contribute. However, to get the most out of it, you will want to use the ability to Post (a new message) and Followup (to an existing message).

Choose Article/Post, and you'll be presented with an edit window. The top section has some group and subject information which you need to complete. The default newsgroup is the current one. You can also add additional newsgroup names (separated by commas) for cross-posting. Use a Tab to move between the fields. You will want to add a suitable Subject line. Make it as meaningful as possible. Don't type "Help needed", for example. Most people won't bother to read it. You can use Shift-Tab to move backwards through the fields.

The lower window is the edit window in which you can construct your message. Keep it brief and concise. Remember that this will circulate around the globe. When you're finished, click on the Post button to post. Posting may take some time, depending on the speed of the News server. To abort a posting, simple press the Cancel button.


Followup to another article

If you want to respond to a posting so that everyone else can read it, then you need to do a Followup. Select Article/Followup for which the window is much the same as for Post, except that the edit window will contain the article on which you wish to comment, with each line marked with a >. Delete as much of the message as possible to save space, and add your comments between the lines and paragraphs of the original.

You can use all the normal Windows editing keys except for TAB which currently switches you to the next field (one of the buttons). You can use Ctrl-I to insert a TAB in the editing window.

The Subject: line will contain the original subject with Re: prepended to it. This helps others follow the threads of a discussion, and Trumpet itself uses it to sort similar items together.

Be respectful of other people's opinions, and remember that everyone on the net isn't an expert. Don't post items about things which could reasonably be found in the manual, and post questions to a local newsgroup (eg. monash.* or aus.*) before you post to the whole world.


Replying to an article

Often you may want to reply directly (via e-mail) to the author, rather than have the message go to tens of thousands of computers worldwide (via Followup). Select the Article/Reply option, which will give you a rather similar screen as for Post and Followup, except the To: field will now contain the original author's address, and the Cc: (carbon copy) field will contain your's (so you can file a copy in your records). Again, you get to add your own comments around the original text of the article. Remove as much of it as you can as explained above. Just leave the bits that are relevant to your reply. You will often need to delete the block of headers at the top.


Mail to anyone

Article/Mail is like Reply, except that the original message is not included, but the default destination is the author of the current article. Of course, you can replace that with anyone, so this is a general mailing facility.


Forwarding an article to someone else

Article/Forward lets you mail an article to someone else. The default is yourself. This is handy for keeping a copy of an article.


Changing Font

You can configure the font you want to use for the viewer window. See Font.


Menu Commands

Here is a summary of the menu commands and buttons.

File

Edit

Special

Group

Article

View

Window

Help


File

Setup

Network setup

Reconnect

Save Settings

Fetch Mail

Exit


Setup

Allows you to edit various system parameters. For most users, the most important of these is the name of your signature file which is appended to all your postings and mail items. You may want to make it the same file as you use for your e-mail program.


Network setup

This command shows another dialog box. This one specifically relates to network ip addresses that are not covered in the main dialog box, such as the name and time servers and your own ip address.


Reconnect

This allows a reconnection to the NNTP server in case the connection is lost.


Save Settings

This allows you to save your list of newsgroups (into news.ini) while you're working. This is really handy if you've spent considerable time choosing your newsgroups, then want to go and read them. You can save the list just in case a crash doesn't allow Trumpet to save your list on exit.


Fetch Mail

Check for new mail using POP mail.


Exit

Exit the program. Your list of subscribed newsgroups and the articles which have been read, is saved to your news.ini file.


Edit

Copy


Copy

This doesn't seem to do anything at the moment, but presumably it will be possible to mark a block of text in the viewing window and take a copy of it to the Clipboard.


Special

Font

Zap all subscribed groups

Discard Unsubscribed groups

Insert Folder

Delete Folder


Font

You can choose which font you want to use for the viewing windows. The default is the proportional system font. Another useful choice is the fixed width system font. See also Format.


Zap all subscribed groups

Zap removes all groups from your subscribed list, and hence allows you to make a fresh start by subscribing to the groups of your choice.


Discard Unsubscribed groups

This clears out your news.ini file, removing groups that you have subscribed at some time in the past. Only currently subscribed groups will be listed.


Insert Folder

Folders can be used for storing mail and news items. Folders can only created and deleted when viewing the Mail window (since the folders are really mail folders, into which news items as placed). Perhaps a future revision will change this. This command creates a folder.


Delete Folder

Delete a folder. See also Insert Folder.


Group

Read all

Unread all

Unread 20

Unread 10

Catch up

Subscribe

Unsubscribe


Read all

Mark all items in the list as read. It doesn't take you on to the next newsgroup like the Skip All button.


Unread all

Marks all available articles in a newsgroups as unread so that they can be seen. Don't forget that news servers have an expiry period beyond which articles are killed. This expiry period varies depending on the perceived worth of the newsgroup.


Unread 20

Unread the last 20 articles. Shortcut key is Ctrl-U.


Unread 10

Unread the last 10 articles. There is no shortcut key is.


Catch up

Catch up is a single group command.  It differs from Read all in that it short circuits the normal scanning process to check for unread articles and simply sets the read-to pointer to the end of the range of articles


Subscribe

Subscribe allows you to add newsgroups to your subscribed list. These are the groups which Trumpet scans each time you use it. You can read a newsgroup unless you subscribe to it first. See Subscribing.


Unsubscribe

Unsubscribing is the opposite of subscribing. It is a process of removing groups from your subscribed list. Simply click on the group you want to remove, and select Group/Unsubscribe.


Article

Reply

Mail

Forward

Post

Followup

Cancel

Toggle

Skip

Save to file

Append to file

Delete article

Move article to folder


Reply

See Reply.


Mail

See Mail.


Forward

See Forward.


Post

See Posting an article.


Followup

See Followup.


Cancel

This allows you to cancel an article you've posted that you don't want others to see. It may contain a mistake for instance. You should do this as quickly as possible because the message may have already been spread across the network.


Toggle

Toggle allows you to mark or unmark an article as read. It is similar to Skip.


Skip

Skip allows you to mark a single article as read. Trumpet will then move on to the next article. Toggle will let you unread a single article.


Save to file

Save the current article to disk. It will be in text form, so choose a name like fred.txt. For binaries which are uuencoded, choose a name like fred.uue. You can the define your favourite uudecode program to execute when you double click on the .uue file in the File Manager.


Append to file

Like Save, but Append lets you add this article on the end of the last one you saved to disk. This could be handy for saving multiple parts of a uuencoded file into one file. (I use a uudecoder that is happy about decoding multiple files, so I don't use this feature).


Delete article

This allows an article to be deleted from a folder. See also Insert Folder. You can only view itmes in folders when in the mail window. If you are viewing an item and you wish to delete it, then you must return to the list of articles before you can delete it. Perhaps this will change in a later version.


Move article to folder

This command allows an item to be moved into a folder for later perusal, or for record-keeping purposes. See also Insert Folder. If you are viewing a newsgroup at the time, then Trumpet asks if you want to create a folder of matching name (eg. aus.general). If not, the list of available folders is displayed from which you may choose.


View

Full headers

Word wrap

Rot 13


Full headers

Show full headers for an article rather than brief ones (From:, Subject:, Date:). This might be handy in tracking the mailing address of the poster.


Word wrap

Word wrap an article so that long lines can be read.


Rot 13

Some authors use this simple encoding method to hide information that shouldn't be publicly viewable.


Window

Trumpet is now an MDI application. You can move and resize the child windows (Mail and News) within the Trumpet window.

Tile

Cascade

1 News

2 Mail


Tile

Rearrange the open windows in a tiled fashion (one above the other).


Cascade

Rearrange the windows so that one appears behind and to the left of the other.


1 News

Go to the News window.


2 Mail

Go to the Mail window.


Help

Help brings up this file. Sub-commands allow you to jump into specific portions of this file, such as:

Index (Contents)

Keyboard

Commands

Procedures

This Help file has been written by Roger Hadgraft of Monash University, Australia. Contributions by others are achnowledged in various places.


Buttons

Click on a button for its explanation:


Keyboard

F1	Help

Ctrl-F	Followup

Ctrl-M	Mail

Ctrl-P	Post

Ctrl-R	Reply

Ctrl-S	Skip

Ctrl-T	Toggle

Ctrl-U	Unread 20


Configuration

Trumpet requires connection to an NNTP server and an interface to the packet driver installed on your machine. If you don't know what these mean, you'll need to talk to one of your local network gurus.

Basic Requirements

Versions

Common Environments

Related Utilities


Basic Requirements

Files needed

packet driver interface

news.prm

news.ini


Files needed

You need as a minimum, a version of Trumpet to suit your environment, plus WTCPDRV.DLL, WINTRUMP.HLP, NEWS.INI and NEWS.PRM. The executable files for Trumper are currently called:

WINTRUMP.EXE	version to work with NTCPDRV.EXE

WT_PKT.EXE	version to work directly with the packet driver

WT_LWP.EXE	version for Novell's LAN Workplace for DOS

WT_WSK.EXE	version to work with the WINSOCK.DLL.


packet driver interface

Trumpet needs an interface to your packet driver so that it can talk to your NNTP server. If you don't know much about packet drivers, talk to your local expert. There are several versions of Trumpet with different packet driver interfaces as described below.


news.prm

News.prm is a simple text file that specifies several attributes for the news connection. It should be kept in your Trumpet directory. Here is a sample news.prm.

Make sure you change the host, site, domain and organization parameters.

user        = *

fullname    = *

myip        = bootp

netmask     = 255.255.255.0

mygateway   = 130.194.132.254

nntp-host   = 130.194.1.196

smtp-host   = 130.194.1.196

dns-host    = 130.194.1.196

time-host   = 130.194.1.196

site        = eng2.eng.monash.edu.au

organization= Faculty of Engineering, Monash University

rwin        = 4096

mss         = 512

domain      = eng.monash.edu.au,cc.monash.edu.au,monash.edu.au

protect


news.ini

News.ini is used to keep a record of the articles you've read. On a Novell LAN, it will be stored in the user's mail directory.


Versions

Using WinTrump

Using WT_PKT

WT_LWP

WT_SCK


Using WinTrump

WinTrump is the version that uses its own packet driver interface. It is called WINTRUMP.EXE. For it to work, you must also load NTCPDRV before you start Windows. NTCPDRV should be available from the same place where you picked up WinTrump. The advantage of NTCPDRV is that it also allows other utilities (eg. NewChat) in the Trumpet range to run. The disadvantage is that it takes about 60k of low memory. Here are the relevant lines from my batch file:

loadhigh ne2000 -n -w 0x7e 2 0x300 >nul

c:\windows\trumpet\ntcpdrv >nul


Using WT_PKT

The WT_PKT.EXE version accesses the packet driver directly. For it to work, you must load WINPKT.COM after your packet driver. WINPKT.COM is available from many places. Check archie for details. This only takes a few kbytes of memory. Here are the relevant lines from my batch file:

loadhigh ne2000 -n -w 0x7e 2 0x300 >nul

c:\windows\trumpet\winpkt 0x60 0x7e


WT_LWP

WT_LWP.EXE is a version to work with Novell's LAN Workplace for DOS.


WT_SCK

WT_SCK.EXE is a version to work with WINSOCK.DLL which is designed to provide a standard interface for Windows connections to TCP/IP. This will (hopefully) eliminate the need for all the kludgy solutions like NTCPDRV.EXE and WINPKT.COM.


Common Environments

Using PKTMUX

Novell Networks

SLIP


Using PKTMUX

PKTMUX is a utility that allows a single packet driver to be shared among several conflicting applications. This is very handy because applications such as NTCPDRV and WinQVT/net want a packet driver to themselves. You can pick up PKTMUX from various ftp sites, so do a search of archie to get a copy. The only problem I have found so far is that I can't seem to get the WinQVT/net ftp server going. Here are the lines from my batch file. They might help you get started. However, make sure you read the PKTMUX documentation.

rem the real packet driver

loadhigh ne2000 -n -w 0x7e 2 0x300 >nul

rem ---------------------

rem PKTMUX won't loadhigh

c:\sys\pktmux\pktmux 3 /3 >nul

c:\sys\pktmux\pktdrv 65 >nul

c:\sys\pktmux\pktdrv 66 >nul

c:\sys\pktmux\pktdrv 7f >nul

rem ---------------------

rem Novell stuff

ipx >nul

loadhigh netx /ps=ENG2 >nul

rem ---------------------

rem PKTINT is for WinQVT/Net

loadhigh c:\windows\qvtnet\pktint >nul

rem ---------------------

rem This is for Windows Trumpet

c:\windows\trumpet\ntcpdrv >nul


Novell Networks

Trumpet is designed to use attributes from the Novell bindery. In particular, it will use the user's login name and full name. The system administrator can also provide a copy of news.prm which provides the organisation's domain and other things. These cannot then be edited if the "protect" directive is used. Of course, there's nothing stopping a knowledgable user ftpping a copy of Trumpet for themselves, running it off their own directory and filling in any bogus site and organisation.

It is a good idea to provide a default news.ini file containing references to the most useful newsgroups at your site. This will at least allow novices to get started, without the nuisance of 2,000 or more newsgroups appearing before them.


SLIP

This section was written by Ashok Aiyar <ashok@biochemistry.cwru.edu>.

Based on my experiences on setting up SLIP under DOS and Windows,  here are my comments on setting up SLIP in this environment.  I thank the Trumpet beta testers for their comments.

Configuring your Modem

Configuring the SLIP drivers

Configuring Windows 3.1

Additional notes

How to use PKTMUX over SLIP?

SLIPPER and ethernet simulation mode


Configuring your Modem

a)	Turn off DTR (AT&D0&W)

I have to disable DTR because the communication program that I use (QMODEM) drops DTR when I exit the program and therefore hangs up the line.  If you use a program like Kermit or Conex to establish the SLIP connection, then this need not be done.  These programs do not necessarily hangup the line when you exit.

b)	Dial and establish the SLIP connection first.

This can be done automatically if you use a program like SLIPDIAL (from the University of Minnesota) which will dial and establish a SLIP connection then load the SLIP packet driver, unless you use SLIPPER.EXE -- which can be loaded in AUTOEXEC.BAT

My modem and several others based on the Rockwell RC144AC V.32bis data - pump do not work with current versions of SLIPDIAL.  I therefore use a DOS program like QMODEM to dial the SLIP server, and automatically run a script file that establishes the SLIP link.

A more recent alternative to SLIPDIAL is PHONE (also from the Univ. of Minnesota), which does not require a fossil driver, and is a lot easier to configure and use.


Configuring the SLIP drivers

There are three main SLIP packet drivers available

SLIPPER.EXE	Peter Tattam's SLIP driver

SLIP8250.COM	Crynwr driver (I like Phil Burn's modified driver)

ETHERSL.COM	Crynwr driver (ethernet simulation over SLIP)

Of these three, I vastly prefer SLIPPER.EXE over SLIP8250.COM or ETHERSL.COM for the following reasons:

a)	It is much faster even though my modem has just a 16450 UART

b)	It supports PKTMUX

c)	It can simulate ethernet type packet driver (although this doesn't work with some applications).

Instructions for SLIPPER.EXE

Instructions for SLIP8250.COM

Instructions for ETHERSL.COM


Instructions for SLIPPER.EXE

a)	Load SLIPPER in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file according to instructions:

For instance if you have a v.32bis modem on COM1:

slipper com1 vec=62 baud=57600

b)	If you use DOS TCP/IP applications in Win 3.1 DOS boxes, then use the double-ended packet driver shim WinPKT.COM -- this creates a virtual packet driver at 0x60.  DOS applications in native mode, DOS applications in Windows 3.1 DOS boxes and Windows applications can all use this virtual driver at 0x60.

winpkt.com 0x60 0x62

c)	I use QVT/Net, so I load PKTINT.COM next.  QVT/net is configured in QVTNET.INI to use the interrupt at 0x60.

pktint.com


Instructions for SLIP8250.COM

a)	Try getting a version 10 SLIP driver.  Philip Burns of North Western University has a modified SLIP8250.COM driver that is better at hardware handshaking.

b)	Load the driver AFTER establishing the SLIP connection.  My modem is a V.32bis modem on COM1, so here is how I would load the driver.

slip8250 -w 0x62 -h 4 SLIP 0x03f8 57600

c)	As discussed above if you use DOS TCP/IP applications in Windows 3.x DOS boxes, you probably want to use WINPKT.COM

winpkt.com 0x60 0x62

d)	If you use WinQVT/net, load PKTINT.COM

pktint.com


Instructions for ETHERSL.COM

If you choose to use ETHERSL.COM instead of SLIP8250.COM, the instructions are exactly the same with one crucial difference.  You will have to DELETE the line "device=*vcd" from the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI.  This will interfere with running regular Windows Comm applications (such as Crosstalk), and you will get lots of dropped characters etc. in these applications.  This is therefore not recommended. ETHERSLIP would be loaded as:

ethersl -w 0x62 -h 4 0x03f8 57600


Configuring Windows 3.1

a)	Make the following modifications to the SYSTEM.INI file [386Enh] section.

i)	List all your COM ports, with their addresses and interrupts.

COM1Base=03F8

COM1Irq=4

COM2Base=02F8

COM2Irq=3

COM3Base=03E8

COM3Irq=5

ii)	Give the port to which your modem is attached a generous COM buffer

COM1Buffer=10000

iii)	Change the COM port AutoAssign value for the COM port that you wish to use for your modem to ZERO.  This is the amount of time that Windows waits in seconds before handing control of that COM port to another application.  If you use WinQVT/net and then want to switch from session to session, and this value is at the default value of 2 seconds, you are will get a GPF and Windows will crash.

COM1AutoAssign=0


Additional notes

What to do if you are assigned a different IP address for each SLIP session?

I am fortunate in that our campus SLIP server assigns each user a permanent IP address, so I do not have to worry about editing QVTNET.INI each time that I establish a SLIP connection.

If you are assigned a new IP address when you dial in, please try to use BOOTP aware software, and let BOOTP do the configuration for you.


How to use PKTMUX over SLIP?

PKTMUX will not work over the SLIP8250.COM packet driver, and crashes immediately if used with ETHERSL.COM. PKTMUX will work with SLIPPER.EXE, when SLIPPER is used in ethernet simulation mode.  An example of this configuration is shown below:

lh slipper com1 vec=62 baud=57600 ether	(packet driver)

lh pktmux 2 62 /2	(pktmux loaded for 2 virtual packet drivers)

pktdrv 7f 62	(first virtual packet driver used for QVT/net)

lh pktint.com	(QVT/net pktint.com)

pktdrv 60 62	(second virtual packet driver for Win 3.1 DOS box)

On my system, I experience crashes if the virtual packet drivers are loaded high.


SLIPPER and ethernet simulation mode

In ethernet simulation mode, SLIPPER works with most but not all applications; notable exceptions include NCSA Telnet 2.3.0x.  However SLIPPER is still under development, and this might be corrected in the future.


Related Utilities

NewChat


NewChat

NewChat is an excellent, DOS-based utility that allows windowed access to several network services, namely chat, finger, gopher, archie, ftp, whois, open (primitive telnet). There are several versions:

NewChat works directly with the packet driver (and hence with WT_PKT),

NewChat2 uses NTCPDRV.EXE, so it's the version to use with WinTrump, and

NewChatL works with Novell's LAN Workplace for DOS.


Glossary

About this Help file & Doctor Help

archie

bootp

Control menu

File Manager

Format

Internet

ip

MDI

name server

news.ini

Newsgroup

Next Article or Group

NNTP Server

Popups

Previous Article or Group

Program Manager

Skip all

Subjects

View/List

WINTRUMP.HLP

WTCPDRV.DLL


About this Help file & Doctor Help

This Help file was created from a Word for Windows document using a macro (Doctor Help) written by Roger Hadgraft. Any reasonable Word file can be translated into a Windows Help file (with the aid of the Help Compiler of course). The macro is available as drhelpe4.zip on ftp.cica.indiana.edu (in subdirectory winword), and a registered version (US$20) is available by contacting roger.hadgraft@eng.monash.edu.au.


archie

Archie is an on-line, searchable catalogue of ftp sites. Simply telnet to your nearest archie (eg. archie.au) and do a search, eg. for winpkt.com (see WT_PKT).


bootp

Bootp is a protocol that allows a computer to determine its ip address. A table of ethernet addresses versus ip addresses is maintained in a database. A computer makes a request using its ethernet address, and the name server returns its ip address. This is very handy in student labs where one copy of a program is being accessed by computers with different ip addresses, and there is no easy way to place the ip address in an environment variable, or something similar.

Another protocol for this type of resolution is RARP.


Control menu

The control menu appears by clicking on the control/system box [image] in the top left corner of any window.


File Manager

The Windows File Manager allows you to manipulate files and directories. You can execute a program within File Manager by double clicking on the .exe file.

See the File Manager help file for more information.


Format

The Format button works in both the Subject window and also in the Article window. In the Subject window, it lets you cycle around several different layouts with different combinations of author's name, article size and subject line.

In the Article window, it lets you toggle between a proportionally spaced font (if that is your main choice) and a fixed space font. This can be useful for reading articles that display tables that rely on spaces to provide the correct layout. Another alternative is to always work with a fixed space font. See Font.


Internet

The Internet is a term applied to the collection of interconnected networks worldwide. In Australia, our part is AARNet (Australian Academic and Research Network). In other parts of the world there are similar national networks which are interconnected to provide a global network, the Internet. For more information, read RFC1206


ip

IP stands for Internet Protocol. On the Internet, each computer must have a unique identifier, its ip address. This is a 32 bit number, usually expressed as 4 bytes, eg. 130.26.123.234. Local names servers maintain a list of ethernet addresses versus ip addreses (since each ethernet card also has a unique address). Bootp allows a machine to broadcast its ethernet address and have a name server return its ip address.


MDI

MDI = Multiple Document Interface. MDI applications allow for multiple child windows within a parent's window. Most significant Windows applications (eg. Word, Excel, etc) work this way. Each document (in this case News and Mail) can be zoomed, resized and iconised) within the Trumpet window.


name server

A name server is a computer that maintains a database of names versus ip addresses. Two distinct operations are common:

1.	resolution of names versus ip addresses, eg. translating fred.monash.edu.au into 130.194.132.211, and

2.	translation of ethernet addresses into ip addresses using bootp.


news.ini

Trumpet keeps a record of newsgroups you've subscribed to, and the articles you've read in news.ini. If you are using a Novell network, news.ini is stored in your MAIL directory on the SYS volume. Otherwise, I assume it's stored with your Trumpet executable file.


Newsgroup

The Internet News service is subdivided into topics called newsgroups. Each topic is named in a hierarchical fashion, eg. comp.binaries.ms-windows. This means that similar topics tend to be grouped together - most of the time. (For example, why not put comp.binaries.ms-windows with the other ms-windows groups, eg. comp.os.ms-windows.binaries?).


Next Article or Group

The [image] button takes you to the next article or group depending on whether you're reading an article or scanning a group's contents.


NNTP Server

An NNTP Server is another computer somewhere on the network near you which receives a news feed from somewhere else, and which dishes out the news to your News client (ie. Trumpet) when it asks. This saves every computer having to store multiple megabytes of new news each day. Because these news servers tend to have many demands on their time, don't be surprised if the news service is a bit slow at times.


Popups

Popups are used for small amounts of information, and are most similar to footnotes in normal texts. They appear in a separate window overlaying the main window. Click anywhere to make one go away. Doctor Help uses popups for intermediate menus. When an author defines a cross reference, there are sometimes several targets for the jump. In such a case, Doctor Help builds a table of targets from which the reader can select.


Previous Article or Group

The [image] button takes you to the previous article or group depending on whether you're reading an article or scanning a group's contents.


Program Manager

The Program Manager allows you to place useful programs and files into groups. You can drag an executable file into a Program Manager group if you can arrange the File Manager and Program Manager so you can see both things at the one time.

Alternatively, select File/New within the Program Manager, choose Item then proceed to fill in the required information. All of this is explained in the Windows manual, or in the Program Manager help file.


Skip all

Skip all marks all the articles in the current group as read, and scans forward to find the next unread article (in the next or subsequent groups). Skip all only works when viewing the contents of a group.


Subjects

Each news article normally has a Subject: attached to it. These are displayed when you click on a particular newsgroup. The subject line allows us to scan a newsgroup and quickly pick up articles that might be interesting. Always make the Subject: line as obvious and helpful as possible.


View/List

View/List toggles between viewing an article and viewing a list.


WINTRUMP.HLP

This file.


WTCPDRV.DLL

Module that provides an interface between Windows and the packet driver.


Back

How to Read this File / Cross References & Back

How to Read this File / Backtracking - Back & History


Contents

How to Read this File / Use Tables of Contents & Up

How to Read this File / Contents


Up

How to Read this File / Use Tables of Contents & Up

How to Read this File / Up

Procedures / Network setup

Procedures / Followup to another article

File / Setup

File / Network setup

Special / Zap all subscribed groups

Special / Discard Unsubscribed groups

Menu Commands / Group

Group / Catch up

Article / Followup

Glossary / Newsgroup

Glossary / Next Article or Group

Glossary / Popups

Glossary / Previous Article or Group


Post

Procedures / Posting an article

Article / Post


Followup

Procedures / Followup to another article

Article / Followup


subscribe

Special / Zap all subscribed groups

Special / Discard Unsubscribed groups

Group / Subscribe

Group / Unsubscribe


subscribed

Special / Zap all subscribed groups

Special / Discard Unsubscribed groups


Mail

Procedures / Mail to anyone

File / Fetch Mail

Article / Mail

Window / 2 Mail


unread

Group / Unread all

Group / Unread 20

Group / Unread 10


Read all

Group / Read all

Group / Unread all


Reply

Procedures / Replying to an article

Article / Reply


Forward

Procedures / Forwarding an article to someone else

Article / Forward


Skip

Article / Skip

Glossary / Skip all


Save

File / Save Settings

Article / Save to file


Help

Menu Commands / Help

Glossary / About this Help file & Doctor Help


NEWS.INI

Basic Requirements / news.ini

Glossary / news.ini


WinTrump

A Guide to WinTrump / What is WinTrump?

Versions / Using WinTrump

Glossary / WINTRUMP.HLP


ip

Article / Skip

Common Environments / SLIP

SLIP / Configuring the SLIP drivers

Configuring the SLIP drivers / Instructions for SLIPPER.EXE

Configuring the SLIP drivers / Instructions for SLIP8250.COM

SLIP / How to use PKTMUX over SLIP?

SLIP / SLIPPER and ethernet simulation mode

Glossary / ip

Glossary / Skip all