
MintNet FAQ v 1.0

November 24 1994

Written by Christer Gustavsson

Why this FAQ?

MintNet is a package that offers networking capabilities to
the Atari ST range of computers. The package makes it possible to
connect your computer over a SLIP, PPP or PLIP line to other
computers. This is necessary to use it as a World Wide Web client,
use local ftp, etc. Setting up MintNet has showed not to be a
trivial quest and there are a lot of fallacies and pitfalls. This
faq is meant to help the persons that want to use MintNet but for
some reason have problems getting started. This faq has been
written to describe how to set up MintNet 0.5 pl 5. Because of
this there are some details that won't work with earlier versions
of MintNet described. The slattach command hasn't, for instance,
in earlier versions of MintNet the option -l.

What is needed and where to get it.

First of all Mint version 1.08 h8 or higher is needed.
Previous versions lack of a few calls that are necessary for
networking. Mint 1.12 is available to the public in a binary
version and I recommend to use this version or later versions.
Secondly you will need the MintNet package. The latest version
today is 0.5 pl6. This FAQ is written with MintNet 0.5 pl5 in mind
and some of this info isn't correct for versions before 0.5 pl5.
You will also need a shell and if you choose sh this will work
with the files distributed with MintNet.
If all you want to do is to connect to another network this is
all you need. If you want to, for instance, run your machine as a
ftp server you will need a few daemon programs. For now I will
only describe how to get clients to run on your machine.
I also recommend that you get the following client programs in
order to have something to test with. Udpprobe and ping are
programs to test if other host respond to the packets you send.
With telnet you can log on other machines. With ftp and ncftp you
can fetch files off ftp sites. Lynx is a WWW text browser.
The latest version of MiNT can be found at
atari.archive.umich.edu in the Mint folder, sh in the Mint/Shells
folder, the MintNet package, telnet, udpprobe, ping and ncftp in
the Mint/Network/MintNet folder and lynx in the Mint/Network/Www
folder.

Where to put the programs and files.

MiNT:
First put mint.prg in your auto folder of your boot disk. You
also need a file mint.cnf that should be in the root folder, mint
folder or multitos folder of the boot disk.

MintNet:
Put sockdev.xdd in the same folder as mint.cnf. You also need
protocol drivers. If you intend to use SLIP/PPP then put slip.xif
in the same folder as sockdev.xdd.
Make a folder called mintnet on your boot disk. In this you
shold have the following files:
etc\:
netstat, ifconfig, iflink, route, slattach, host.conf (0.5 pl6
and higher), hostname, hosts, networks, protocols, rc.net,
resolv.conf and services.
usr\ucb\:
Here you can put your client software ie, ping, udpprobe,
telnet, lynx, ncftp etc.

Sh:
Make a folder called bin in your mintnet folder. Put sh there.

How to set things up.

You should have the following in your mint.cnf:

#Set the path so that your programs can be found when you run
a shell
setenv PATH u:\bin,u:\etc,u:\usr\ucb

#Make symbolic links to your unified file system
sln c:\mintnet\bin u:\bin
sln c:\mintnet\etc u:\etc
sln c:\mintnet\usr u:\usr

cd u:

#Setup the loopback interface
exec \bin\sh \etc\rc.net

#Note that since the working directory is changed to u: no
programs after mint.prg in the auto folder is run. Mint should
therefore be the last program in your auto folder.

You also need to have some info about the site you want to
connect to. You should know which address your own machine will
have and which address the machine that you are going to connect
to has. It is also a good idea to have the address to a name
server. If the name server is on the other side of the connection
the addresses must be ip numbers.

To make setting up a little easier a list of the setup files
and what's supposed to be in them follows.

/etc/host.conf (MintNet 0.5 pl6 and later):
Contains info on how the namesearching should be done.

/etc/hostname:
This file contains the name of your machine. If your machine
has the address dumdum.idioti.iq /etc/host should contain the
line:
dumdum.idioti.iq

/etc/hosts:
This file contains a list of hosts with matching ip numbers
and shortcuts. If you want to add the machine with the address
dumdum.idioti.iq and ip number 123.45.67.89 and want this host to
have the shortcut dd you simply write:
dumdum.idioti.iq    123.45.67.89    dd
Each line has the form <host> <ip number> <shortcut>. There
should be no more than one entry on the same line.

/etc/networks:
This contains a list of the networks that can be reached.

/etc/protocols:
This file contains a list of protocols that the machine can
handle. It is usually not necessary to edit this file.

/etc/rc.net
This file starts the available network daemons and the
loopback interface. The loopback interface should be started with:
/etc/ifconfig lo0 addr 127.0.0.1 up
/etc/route add 127.0.0.0 lo0
These lines are the only ones that are needed if you only
intend to use MintNet for ie www and ftp.

/etc/resolv.conf:
This file contains entries regarding the domain and
nameserver. If your domain is idioti.iq you should have the line:
domain idioti.iq
in this file, and if your nameserver has the ip number
123.45.67.89 you should have the line:
nameserver 123.45.67.89
too.

/etc/services:
Contains a list of services that is offered by the machine.
This file should usually not be changed.

How to make the connection.

To make a connection to a remote host you can use an ordinary
communication program. When connected you have to set the line to
slip mode. Your local operator can tell you how to do this. When
you have made the physical connection you must attach a slip/ppp
channel to it. This can be done with the slattach command. If you
want to attach the modem1 port, your remote host is called
bjorne.idioti.iq and your local machine is called dumdum.idioti.iq
you can write:
/etc/slattach -l dumdum.idioti.iq -r bjorne.idioti.iq -t
/dev/modem1
to achieve the connection. Note that you have to use ip
numbers if the nameserver you intend to use is on the other side
of the connection! The -l flag stands for local host, -r flag
remote host and -t tty. After this you can test the connection
with ping or udpprobe. The command:
ping bjorne.idioti.iq
tests if your remote host responds to the packets you send.
The command:
udpprobe bjorne.idioti.iq echo "Yeah!"
should echo Yeah! on your terminal. If this works other stuff,
like www browsers and ftp clients should work too.

Where to report errors in this FAQ.

If you find something that isn't that clear or not correct in
this document please report directly to me and I will correct it.
My email address is: d2cg@dtek.chalmers.se.



