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OS/2 Warp Compatible Hardware List Web site: How to Setup your modem
Modem Settings for OS/2 and eComStation
© 2003, Jonas Buys & Doug Bissett |
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From the very beginning, OS/2 Warp came with out-of-the-box
modem support for a very diverse set of modems. Despite what Internet
Service Providers claim, newer technologies like DSL and cable access
have not killed modem Internet connections. However, many of the older,
OS/2 supported modems, are no longer available today, and newer and faster
modems have come, as replacements, for the older ones. Of course, a lot
of these newer devices are compatible with OS/2 and eComStation, and,
hopefully, you will find the required information to get them going here.
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Normally,
you'll use the IBM DialUp for TCP/IP utility to connect to your
Internet Service Provider when you use a modem. This utility resides in
the Internet (Modem) folder within the Programs folder
on the desktop. In eComStation 1.1, it resides in the Internet
folder on the desktop. In order to correctly configure and later establish
your connection with your ISP, you must dispose about all the required
and necessary information. Normally, your service provider should inform
you well about all these settings.
When you start the IBM DialUp for TCP/IP utility, it displays
a similar window like the one at the right. Please note that this image
has been captured on eComStation 1.1, so it might slightly differ from
your. Eventually, all field and methods described here are equal to regular
IBM OS/2 Warp. From this window, you must configure the settings correctly
the first time you start the utility before you can dial in to your ISP.
To do so, click with the mouse on the Add Entry icon to configure
a dial-up connection for your internet service provider. Notice that you
can configure multiple configurations to use for different accounts, or
for different modems. Clicking the Add Entry icon will cause
to appear a dialog box as showed in the lower picture:
When you have configured a connection, you need to dial in (in fact you
make a telephone call to your ISP and the information from and to the Internet
is sent over telephone wires like spoken words and phrases). To dial in,
click the the appropriate entry in the main window (the middle field, here
you can choose between Modem1 and Modem2), and then click
the Dial icon (you can also select Connection from the
menu bar, and then Dial). To terminate the connection, click Connection
from the menu bar, and then Hang up. |

The first set of information that you need to provide defines your user
ID, password and other properties of your computer. This information must
be entered in the first tab of the Add Entry dialog box, labeled
Login Info. In this tab, you must provide a name for the connection
in the Name field (and this name will appear in the list
in the main window of the previous image). You also need to enter information
about your Internet Service Provider and account, including the provider's
telephone number for connection, your login ID and password, if required.
Description: This is a description you can give to the name you
specified in the Name field as a heuristic. This description will be listed
next to the name of the connection itself.
Login ID: Here, you must specify the login (user ID)
that you have been assigned by your service provider.
Password: Enter the password that your service provider
has set up as a check before establishing the internet connection. The
check-box Required to the right will make sure that if you don't enter
the password, you'll be automatically asked for it. Thus, if you use a
computer with more than one people, and want to prevent other people from
using your Internet connection, don't enter the password, and check this
check box.
Phone number: This is the phone-number of your Internet
Service Provider. Normally, your ISP will have given you a list of POP
(point of presence) telephone numbers. It is recommended for performance
reasons to dial the number of the nearest POP.
The Login Sequence field is a place where you normally
specify the name of the login script for your ISP. A login script is a
file that contains the necessary commands and expected responses to complete
the login. Since different service providers will have different login
procedures the login script will typically be different for each provider.
Select the type of protocol you wish to apply (of course your choice must
be supported by your provider) in the Connection Type field.
You have only two option: PPP or SLIP. PPP generally offers better performance
than SLIP, but sometimes on bad and degraded telephone lines, you are
obliged to use SLIP.
Minutes to Wait before automatic Hangup: Specifies the
number of minutes during which the connection may remain inactive (time
must be entered in paces of five minutes). If there are no data transmissions
nor receives during the time, the connection will be broken automatically.
Some minutes before the connection is broken, the following notification
box will be displayed:
!!!!XXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!! |

As well as information about your user account and computer, you need to
specify details of your service provider's system, so that the IBM DialUp
for TCP/IP utility can correctly configure itself to communicate with
your ISP.
Your IP Address: This is the IP address of our system.
Should this address be assigned dynamically (automatically) to our computer,
then we need to make use of response file or REXX-script.
Destination IP Address: This is the IP address of our
service provider.
Netmask: Here, we specify the net mask of the subnet on
which we are connected (you needn't enter information in this field). If
we use a REXX-script for a SLIP connection, then the address masker is defined
in this script. The address masker of 255.255.255.0 is correct
in most cases.
MTU Size or MRU Size: With a SLIP connection, MTU
is the Maximum Transmission Unit. This is the number of bytes per IP packet
that is being sent. Leave this value to the maximum of 1006 (unless your
service provider tells you to use another value). Using a PPP connection,
MRU is the Maximum Receive Unit. This is the number of bytes per
incoming IP packet. Leave this value of 1500 unless you service provider
tells you to use another value. Possible values lie between 256
and 2048.
VJ Compression: The Van Jacobson compression is meant
to compress the TCP headers. This is usually used in Telnet sessions,
since every keyboard slam results in sending a complete IP packet. Preferably
check this check-box, thus enabling Van Jacobson compression,
unless your ISP doesn't support this (Note that a SLIP connection with
VJ Compression enabled is often called a CSLIP connection).
Domain Nameserver: Specify in this field the IP address
of the DNS (Domain Name Server). This address will be given to you by
your ISP.
Your Host Name: Specification of information in this
field is optional and thus needn't be entered. Mentioning a host name
is only of importance when we're connected to a local network with TCP/IP
connections, or if we have a fixed connection to the Internet and using
that connection offering services ourselves. If the latter is also the
case, then we will also dispose about a fixed IP address.
Your Domain Name: This is the complete name of the domain
where we are part of. As stand-alone user we may enter every name in this
field. If you have an e-mail address, then you enter the name of the domain
in the e-mail address.
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The third page of the Add Entry dialog box allows you to specify
information about your ISP's servers.
News Server: This is the name of the server that serves
us from Netnews.
Gopher Server: The name of the default server that will
be used by a Gopher client application. We can choose any Gopher server
in the world, and thus we needn't enter the Gopher server of our own ISP.
Please note that a lot of ISPs don't offer Gopher server services anymore.
WWW Server: Specify the name of the World Wide Web Server
in this field.
POP Mail Server: If we have an e-mail address, then we
must enter in this field the name of the POP Mail Server that deals with
our e-mail. The ISP should give you the details. Notice that some service
providers charge extra fees for an e-mail service.
Reply Domain: This is the name from which the POP Mail
Server is part.
Reply (Mail) ID: This is the first part of our e-mail address.
If the e-mail address is user.abc@isp.be, then the Reply
ID is user.abc.
POP Login ID and POP Password: These are the user ID and
password combination required for our POP client to log in into the POP
Mail Server. Via this security measure we can prevent other people from
fetching our e-mail from the Mail Server. Notice that the Reply ID and Login
ID are the same in the screenshot above. This needn't always be the case!
Please reply that all settings about e-mail are not required. If you use
an application like PMMail/2 as e-mail client, then you can skip the field
about e-mail settings. |

On the fourth page of the note block we encounter the modem settings.
Com Port: This specifies the serial port to which the modem
has been attached. XXXX88888 USB 8888XXXXX
Speed (Baud): This is the communication speed between modem
and PC. This is however NOT the speed at which a modem communicates with
another one. Keep in mind possible data compression. For example, a V.32
modem with V.42bis compression should be assigned a minimal speed of 19200
bps.
Data Bits and Parity: For correct settings, please consult
the data you received from your service provider. Generally, the setting
of 8 is applicable for Data Bits and None in
the field Parity.
Prefix: This is the modem command that is being used
while calling in. Please consult the modem's documentation if your phone
service includes call-waiting.
Initialization String 1 and 2: These are the modem commands
used to initialize the modem. This information should be contained in your
modem documentation.
Call Waiting: If your phone service includes call-waiting,
you will want to disable call-waiting while you are using your modem. If
you disable call-waiting, you must also specify a Disable sequence. To prevent
STORING to the phone line, we can disable this option before a modem connection.
The field Disable_Sequence can be used to enter the code
with which the call waiting function can be disabled.
Mode: Normally, this should be Dial. |
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