NULL modem connection RTP <-> NT RAS

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) qdn.public.qnxrtp.newuser
1

Hi,

I am a QNX newbie and I am trying to set up a null-modem connection
from my laptop to my NT Workstation running RAS so that I can get onto
our (token-ring) LAN.
I am able to get the two talking together if I use NT on the laptop,
but I am getting nowhere using QNX.
I am trying to use the photon dialer, pointing it at /dev/ser1 and
selecting “Interactive Logon”, but all I get is;

Opening device /dev/ser1
Initializing modem
ATZ
Connection failed

Anyone have any idea how I can proceed ?
By using “ps” I have determined that a serial driver is running
(devc-ser8250, I think - I’m not in QNX at the moment) but it is
running on a different irq and i/o range to COM1 in Windows. I have
tried killing the driver and restarting it using the same irq and i/o
as NT, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference…

I have tried mucking about with “stty” to change various values of
/dev/ser1, but I didn’t really know what I was doing and it didn’t
seem to make much difference.

All help greatfully received.
BTW Adding an ethernet card to both ends is NOT and option.

Thanks,
Martyn.
#remove the spam stuff from my email address before replying#
martynh@dont.spam.me.uk.ibm.com.

2

“Martyn Honeyford” <martynh@no.spam.please.uk.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:90ibdt$25c$2@inn.qnx.com…

Hi,

Hello, Martyn.

I am a QNX newbie and I am trying to set up a null-modem connection
from my laptop to my NT Workstation running RAS so that I can get onto
our (token-ring) LAN.
I am able to get the two talking together if I use NT on the laptop,
but I am getting nowhere using QNX.
I am trying to use the photon dialer, pointing it at /dev/ser1 and
selecting “Interactive Logon”, but all I get is;

Opening device /dev/ser1
Initializing modem
ATZ
Connection failed

I’m not familiar with NT or RAS. What program do you use when you run NT on
your laptop, HyperActiveTerminal? Unless RAS pretends as if it’s a modem, I
believe the program you want to run is called qtalk. Type “use qtalk” for
command line parameters, but basically “qtalk -b57600 -m/dev/ser1” will set
the baud rate to 57600 and use /dev/ser1 for connecting. It will simply
send what you type out the serial port, and display what comes back. The
Photon dialer is probably set up to dial a modem to connect to a remote
system then start ppp or somesuch.

Anyone have any idea how I can proceed ?
By using “ps” I have determined that a serial driver is running
(devc-ser8250, I think - I’m not in QNX at the moment) but it is
running on a different irq and i/o range to COM1 in Windows. I have
tried killing the driver and restarting it using the same irq and i/o
as NT, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference…

Yes, devc-ser8250 is the serial driver that should be auto-started at boot
time. You can do “ls /dev/ser*” to see all of the available choices for
serial ports (usually ser1 & ser2). If you have an internal modem, it may
or may not show up depending on where it’s located so you may have to play
with the -m parameter to qtalk to get the correct port.

I have tried mucking about with “stty” to change various values of
/dev/ser1, but I didn’t really know what I was doing and it didn’t
seem to make much difference.

You can use “stty baud=57600 par=none bits=8 </dev/ser1” to set the serial
parameters for /dev/ser if you like. The </dev/ser1 tells stty to use
/dev/ser1 as its standard input file, which is the file (in this case
device) that the parameters are set for. Type “stty -a </dev/ser1” to
display all of the parameters, and “use stty” for a quick reference. So you
could optionally use stty to set the parameters for the serial port you want
to use, then do “qtalk -m /dev/ser2” and it will use the parameters as they
are currently set for that port, as opposed to specifying them on the qtalk
command line. Give it another go, and let us know what happens. If RAS
provides a “login” prompt over a serial line, this should be a relatively
easy thing to get working once you figure out what hardware is where under
RtP.

-Warren

All help greatfully received.
BTW Adding an ethernet card to both ends is NOT and option.

Thanks,
Martyn.
#remove the spam stuff from my email address before replying#
martynh@dont.spam.me.uk.ibm.com> .

3

Warren Peece <Warren@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:90in1n$8j4$1@inn.qnx.com…

Hello, Martyn.

Hi, thanks for your help …

I’m not familiar with NT or RAS. What program do you use when you run NT
on
your laptop, HyperActiveTerminal? Unless RAS pretends as if it’s a modem,
I
believe the program you want to run is called qtalk. Type “use qtalk” for

NT RAS is a ppp “server”. You can install “virtual” modem drivers which are
called "Dial-Up Networking Serial Cable between 2 PCs.
If you install these on both ends, then you can set the RAS server to listen
on this device and on the client machine you set this device as your modem
in the dial-up networking dialog and then when you
dial it sets up a ppp connection between the two boxes.

command line parameters, but basically “qtalk -b57600 -m/dev/ser1” will
set
the baud rate to 57600 and use /dev/ser1 for connecting. It will simply
send what you type out the serial port, and display what comes back. The
Photon dialer is probably set up to dial a modem to connect to a remote
system then start ppp or somesuch.

Right, I did some more testing …
If I run HyperTerminal on both ends, then whatever I type at one end comes
out the other end, but this doesn’t appear to be very useful.
Similarly if I run HyperTerminal on the NT “Server” end and run qtalk (under
qnx) on the client end then whatever I type on both ends comes out at the
other end. This shows that the two boxes are talking, but it isn’t very
useful.
If I run RAS on the NT side and qtalk on the qnx side then I can’t get
anything of interest from the NT box. I’ve tried sending “CLIENT” followed
by “CLIENTSERVER” (which is the script I’ve got on my PalmPilot) but the RAS
server doesn’t reply with anything.

Yes, devc-ser8250 is the serial driver that should be auto-started at boot
time. You can do “ls /dev/ser*” to see all of the available choices for
serial ports (usually ser1 & ser2). If you have an internal modem, it may
or may not show up depending on where it’s located so you may have to play
with the -m parameter to qtalk to get the correct port.

I’ve got /dev/ser1 and /dev/ser2 displayed.

Cheers for your help - I think the serial port is probably set up OK, I
guess I just need to
know what to send to RAS to set up the ppp connection ?

Do you think that I should be using pppd rather than the dialer (or does it
use pppd under the covers ??)

Thanks,
Martyn.
#remove the spam stuff from my email address before replying#
martynh@dont.spam.me.uk.ibm.com.

4

“Martyn Honeyford” <martynh@no.spam.please.uk.ibm.com> wrote in message
news:90ivqi$dr0$1@inn.qnx.com…

| NT RAS is a ppp “server”. You can install “virtual” modem drivers which are
| called "Dial-Up Networking Serial Cable between 2 PCs.
| If you install these on both ends, then you can set the RAS server to listen
| on this device and on the client machine you set this device as your modem
| in the dial-up networking dialog and then when you
| dial it sets up a ppp connection between the two boxes.

Ah okay, qtalk isn’t what you want, then. I assume you need to get pppd to
run, connecting to your serial port. Exactly how to do this is beyond me, but
I’m sure there’s someone around here who can help you. The problem with the
Photon dialer is that it expects a modem to be on the local serial port, so
that’s why it’s getting confused. If there was a way to specify a “direct
connection” instead of a modem, then it looks as if it would start pppd for
you. Take a look at the pppd documentation as well as “autostart” and see if
some of that doesn’t make sense to you. Sorry I can’t be of more help, I’ve
never had to play with ppp before.

-Warren

5

Ah okay, qtalk isn’t what you want, then. I assume you need to get pppd
to
run, connecting to your serial port. Exactly how to do this is beyond me,
but
I’m sure there’s someone around here who can help you. The problem with
the
Photon dialer is that it expects a modem to be on the local serial port,
so
that’s why it’s getting confused. If there was a way to specify a “direct
connection” instead of a modem, then it looks as if it would start pppd
for
you. Take a look at the pppd documentation as well as “autostart” and see
if
some of that doesn’t make sense to you. Sorry I can’t be of more help,
I’ve
never had to play with ppp before.

-Warren

Thanks for your help anyway - I’ve had a bit more of a play with pppd but I
can’t seem to
get a peep out of the NT box. I’ve turned on ppp tracing on the NT side,
but I’m not getting
anything.
My latest attempts have been based around;
pppd connect ‘chat -vf chat_script’ /dev/ser1 57600 defaultroute
where chat_script contains;
“” ATZ
OK ATDT7561000
CONNECT “”
name: YOURNAMEHERE
word: YOURPASSWORDHERE
I’ve also tried removing the first two lines but to no avail.

Surely someone here has tried this before ?!?

Thanks,

Martyn.

6

Martyn Honeyford <martynh@no.spam.please.uk.ibm.com> wrote:

Ah okay, qtalk isn’t what you want, then. I assume you need to get pppd
to
run, connecting to your serial port. Exactly how to do this is beyond me,
but
I’m sure there’s someone around here who can help you. The problem with
the
Photon dialer is that it expects a modem to be on the local serial port,
so
that’s why it’s getting confused. If there was a way to specify a “direct
connection” instead of a modem, then it looks as if it would start pppd
for
you. Take a look at the pppd documentation as well as “autostart” and see
if
some of that doesn’t make sense to you. Sorry I can’t be of more help,
I’ve
never had to play with ppp before.

-Warren

Thanks for your help anyway - I’ve had a bit more of a play with pppd but I
can’t seem to
get a peep out of the NT box. I’ve turned on ppp tracing on the NT side,
but I’m not getting
anything.
My latest attempts have been based around;
pppd connect ‘chat -vf chat_script’ /dev/ser1 57600 defaultroute
where chat_script contains;
“” ATZ
OK ATDT7561000
CONNECT “”
name: YOURNAMEHERE
word: YOURPASSWORDHERE
I’ve also tried removing the first two lines but to no avail.

Surely someone here has tried this before ?!?

I don’t have a NT to try right now, but, this is what happened
when somebody want to using windows 9x’s “Direct Cable Connection”.

Try to change your “chat_script” like this:

“” SERVER
SERVERCLIENT

And then start syslogd, change you pppd line as:

pppd connect ‘chat -vf chat_script’ /dev/ser1 57600 defaultroute debug

You probably also need PAP or CHAP settings.

If it’s not connect, could you post the syslog output (/var/log/syslog).

-xtang