Notes on Trumpet TCP

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



Trumpet TCP (not to be confused with the Trumpet newsreader) is a TSR that

runs on top of a packet driver interface.  There are several applications

supplied that use the TSR:  ftp, telnet, finger, ping, archie, whois, hopchk

(aka traceroute), and something called ichat (presumably similar to Unix

talk, but incompatible).  The Trumpet TCP package is notable in that it

contains the only working DOS archie client I've found, but the other stuff

leaves a bit to be desired.  Trumpet International of Australia, the makers

of all this stuff, claim that Trumpet TCP only works with SLIP and recommend

that you use Slipper or Cslipper with it.  I find that finger, telnet, ping,

archie, and whois work with Etherppp, and that all of those plus ftp work

with Klos PPP or Dospppd.  According to text in the executable

(NTCPDRV.EXE), Trumpet TCP supports both class 1 and class 6.



jpIRC (not included with tcp201.zip, it is elsewhere on my site) is another

program that uses the Trumpet TCP TSR.  jpIRC works much better than most of

the programs included here, though.



The ftp in this package won't work with Etherppp and seems to have trouble

trouble uploading (but not downloading) with Klos PPP.  There are better ftp

clients for DOS available.  The telnet will work but is slow and doesn't

have a very good VT100 emulation; again, there are better clients available. 

whois will only query the military whois server at nic.ddn.mil; you can't

specify rs.internic.net for queries as you can with the whois in the NCSA

Telnet package.  hopchk doesn't seem to work.



The TSR supplies a TCP/IP stack that Trumpet TCP applications can use.  Once

the TSR is configured (via BOOTP, with command-line options, or with DOS

environment variables), the applications generally need no more

configuration.  There are two TSR's here.  tcp201.zip contains TCPDRV.EXE,

and ntcpdrv.zip contains NTCPDRV.EXE.  You should use NTCPDRV.EXE, which is

newer; TCPDRV.EXE is buggy and would not work on my Tandy 1000TL. 

NCTPDRV.EXE does not come with any documentation, but the documentation for

TCPDRV.EXE still applies.



The Trumpet newsreader and IRC are both also available in Trumpet TCP

versions; the versions elsewhere on this site are the packet driver

versions.  The Trumpet TCP versions, if you can get them to work, are not as

good, and I'm leaving them off my site.  If you want them, search archie for

"ircabi.zip" and "newsabi.zip" (or check http://www.trumpet.com.au/).  If

you get them, they do not come with documentation, so you will still need to

get the packet driver versions for the setup and usage instructions.



On Agate with Etherppp or Dospppd at least, no setup is required for this

package.  Just connect with the packet driver and enter the following at the

DOS command line:



    NTCPDRV



No parameters are needed.  NTCPDRV.EXE will get the local IP address,

netmask, and IP addresses of the gateway and nameserver from the packet

driver via BOOTP.  Note, however:  the -ip=bootp command line option is

ignored if you have the IP or MYIP environment variable set.  Since you

generally have to set MYIP to get University of Minnesota applications to

work with dynamic IP, it is probably best to use variables to set up Trumpet

TCP as well.



If you don't have BOOTP (or you have MYIP set), you can set these parameters

on the command line, like so (use your real IP address, netmask, etc., of

course):



    NTCPDRV -ip=127.0.0.1 -netmask=255.255.255.0 -gateway=127.0.0.2

-dns-host=127.0.0.3



(This is all one line - let it wrap at the end.)  It is a good idea to add

"-mss=512 -rwin=512" to the end of that line (and required if you use Frank

Molzahn's SLIP drivers).  "ip" is your machine's IP address, "netmask" is

your provider's netmask, "gateway" is your gateway machine's IP address,

"dns-host" is your nameserver IP address, and "mss" and "rwin" cause shorter

packets to be sent by the gateway and each one to be acknowledged before

another is sent.  An easier way of doing it without BOOTP is to use DOS

environment variables, say by putting the following in your AUTOEXEC.BAT

file:



    SET IP=127.0.0.1

    SET NETMASK=255.255.255.0

    SET GATEWAY=127.0.0.2

    SET DNS=127.0.0.3

    SET TIME=127.0.0.2

    SET MSS=512

    SET RWIN=512



Of course, if you have dynamic IP, you will have to set IP and possibly

GATEWAY at connect time rather than in AUTOEXEC.BAT; see my README file.



This is the same as for IRC 1.01 and uses the same environment variables;

IRC 1.01 was written by the same guy who wrote this package.  (FYI, Peter

Tattam also wrote the Trumpet newsreader, the Slipper and Cslipper packet

drivers, and Trumpet Winsock.)  With the environment variables set, you can

just type NTCPDRV to load the driver.  Type the following to unload the

driver when you're done with Trumpet TCP:



    NTCPDRV -u



There is no documentation on the included apps, unfortunately.  With some of

them, you can see the command-line syntax by typing the name of the app

without parameters.  <esc> exits some apps; <control>-C exits others.  FTP2

has some unusual command syntax; type "help" at the "ftp>" prompt to see the

available commands.



The archie client is compiled to use, by default, a server in Australia.  If

you're not in Australia, be a good netizen and use a local server (poor

Aussies' link with the rest of the world is notoriously jammed).  The option

to set the server is -h=<servername>.  Here are some:



    archie.internic.net      (USA - I use this one)

    archie.ans.net           (USA)

    archie.rutgers.edu       (USA)

    archie.funet.fi          (Finland)

    archie.doc.ic.ac.uk      (Great Britain)

    archie.wide.ad.jp        (Japan)

    archie.ncu.edu.tw        (Taiwan)



