tlug: Compuserve and PPP

[Karl-Max Wagner <karlmax@example.com>]

> My provider gives me an access point that I could use while I am
> abroad. There are some catches. Now I could set it up so that
If you are talking about Compuserve, quite a few.....
> it works, but it seems to work only with Windows95 which is totally
You probably talk about that proprietary stuff Compuserve provides...
> useless for me, because all my mail stuff is on the Linux partition
> of a dual-boot laptop. 
> I would be glad if somebody with compuserve experience could help me. I
No problem. I'll teach you the ropes in the following.....
> Compuserve allience I am thinking of attaching a serial port analyzer, if
No problem. Just come along and grab my HP1640A.....
> What I have learnt so far is that:
> o the access point is Compuserve
> o When you connect it is 7-bit mode.
> o People with compuserve accounts here converse the following way:
> CONNECT 
> <garbage>: +                           this swithes from 7 to 8 bit mode
> Host Name:  CIS
> Login ID: 12345,213/GO:PPPCONNECT      This tells them what we are up to
>                                        but it wont work for me. It says
>                                        'invalid login' . Yeah, my login
>                                        is not a number.....
> Password: <passw>
> start pppd here.
> 
> So this works for Compuserve users in Linux, but it wont work for me. 
> My Id is not a number. But in windows it works. How can I get what windows
> does without a serial analyzer? 
It works with Linux, too. Except if you are in Japan. In Japan
for some political reasons they only provide full services if
you don't use their direct access point, but only if you come
via the "FENICS" network or if you are a subscriber with NIFTY -
in which case you can use their access points.

Compuserve provides a listing of access point phone numbers
somewhere (I actually forgot where - browse around). Here is
already catc #1: the fast majority of fast access points given
there are actually NIFTY access points - if you aren't a
subscriber, you can't use them. All the low speed access points
( 2400 bit/s !!!!! - welcome to the stone age ! ) are FENICS.
FENICS has high speed access points as well, but the trick is to
get information about their phone numbers. Despite weeks of
arguments Compuserve customer service was only able to provide
me with dial in numbers in Osaka and Tokyo. I later found out
that it isn't the fault of Compuserve, but that of FENICS - I
found their homepage and an email address and I asked them for a
list, but they didn't even bother to reply. Apparently they
don't bother to talk to somebody as lowly as me - or Compuserve.

In the following I provide the login script I use for Minicom in
Japan.

sleep 4
send "@example.com"
expect {
  "HOST NAME"
  }
sleep 1
send "C CIS"
expect {
  "User ID:"
  }
send "$(LOGIN)"
expect {
  "Password:"
  }
send "$(PASS)"

After you got a connection, you first wait 4 seconds. This is
important, because the network isn't exactly very fast. Then you
send the string @example.com ( terminated with CRLF as usual - in the
script this is done by default ). Then you wait for the string
HOST NAME. Then wait a second. Then you send a C CIS ( means
"connect Compuserve", of course ). Then you wait for Compuserve
to come back with the well known "User ID" prompt. You then send
a <your-CIS-ID>/GO:PPPCONNECT, wait for the "Password" prompt
and send your password. After that you quit Minicom with the
infamous CTRL-A Q and launch your pppd ( see section "terminal
authentication" in PPP for dummies which I posted lately ).

Strictly speaking, that @example.com stuff is only required for the slow
access points, for the fast one you can just leave it away. On
the other hand, it doesn't do any harm with the fast ones -
except that it generates a "Unknown command" response - then
everything proceeds normally.

It should be understood that such a connection is VERY FLAKY
!!!! If you keep being kicked out all the time, decrease the
speed with which you talk to your modem. I found out that 9600
bit/s provide a halfways albeit very slow connection. I tried to
track down where the problems come from and did a ping to my
provider at home. I got any amount of duplicated packets, often
quite far ( in time ) apart. Well, that explains it: if the DUP
falls within the next receive window of TCP/IP it's gonna mess
up things there with an ensuing death of pppd.....

This DUP stuff is a most alarming fact: it is downright
pathological and normally unheard of in any decent network 
( I am certainly not a newbie in networking, but I have NEVER
seen it in such an amount anywhere else ).

Again, I strongly suspect that FENICS is to blame because I've
never seen such things happen with Compuserve outside Japan
(althogh I am not very happy with their networking....).

Important catch: outside Japan you have to use terminal settings
of "7E1" to log into Compuserve. DON'T DO THAT OVER FENICS!!!!
ALWAYS USE SETTINGS OF "8N1" !!!!! If you fail to do so, you get
nowhere.....I learned this the hard way by wasting an hour and
quite a couple of Yens inside a hot telephone booth playing with
the parameters under Minicom.....

Here are some decent dial in points into FENICS:

Tokyo: 57105300
Osaka: 9443620
Okayama: 0862214956
Fukui: 675900

The one Compuserve lists for Niigata ( with 14400 bits/s ) is OK.
Don't be astonished if accessing from Japan makes your
Compuserve bill go through the ceiling: FENICS is expensive.

This should be enough to get you into Compuserve in Japan....

Now about Compuserve outside Japan.

My script to connect to Compuserve outside Japan is as follows:

send "\r"
expect {
   "Host Name:"
   }
send "CIS"
expect {
   "User ID:"
   }
send "$(LOGIN)/GO:PPPCONNECT"
expect {
   "Password:"
   }
send "$(PASS)"

It is much like the previous one, Just with the FENICS stuff
left out. And here is that important SUPER CATCH:

Outside Japan you always log into Compuserve using a terminal
setting of "7E1". You have that until PPP starts. PPP can only
work with an 8bit clean connection. So inside Minicom you have
to stick to it, but when you leave it and start up pppd locally,
it talks to Compuserve's pppd with 8N1 !!!! This is in stark
contrast to what I said in "PPP for dummies". If you don't know
it, you're hosed.....

Another catch: With a normal provider, if you kill your local
pppd, the modem connection is terminated. This doesn't work with
Compuserve. You have to power cycle your modem.

With a PCMCIA modem this is easy: you just stop the PCMCIA
services which ensues in turning off the power to your modem
card. Without power, the modem is unable to hold the connection,
of course. A bit brutal, but works well.

I'd generally dissuade to start PCMCIA during bootup: PCMCIA
devices tend to be power hungry ( particularly modems ) and with
no cardmgr running, they are powered down. I just start cardmgr
by hand when needed. This way I can leave my modem plugged in
without bothering about the power drain.

Alternatives to Compuserve: talk with your provider and ask them
whether they are members of one of the global reach alliances
like GRIC or IPASS. If so, have them instruct you how to log
into another provider close to your respective location
belonging to the same alliance. You then can login just into
another provider closeby and he authenticates you via your home
provider and bills him for the services provided to you. Your
provider in turn bills you for that. Twics, for example is a
member of GRIC.

Hope that gets you started.

                            Karl-Max Wagner
                            karlmax@example.com
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