[nos-bbs] JNOS <-> WL2K forwarding over telpac connection - notes

[Barry Siegfried]

Hi, Maiko (et al)...

> It needs work, more later.
>
> > This should also give us telpac if we can handle the various
> > transparent modes and CR/LF options.
>
> That's what I'll have to figure out. The CR/LF options are not a
> big deal now that I know about the CR only (like early XFBB).

I don't know if this will help you, but back in the days when I
was a mere lad, there was a short thread on the old nos-bbs list
about the JNOS telnet dropping the first character of a line.  I
don't know much about "telpac" or what its EOL protocol is (I am
extrapolating by your discussion that it is a CR-only protocol),
but the following exchange might help you with ASCII-style socket
EOL translation which always seems to have been difficult to get
working under <all> circumstances.  If you would like, I can make
the algorithm and the code available to you which solved this EOL
translation problem in recvchar().

Here is the original short thread:

Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 04:02:29 -0400
Message-Id: <12141.bgs at k2mf.ampr.org>
Reply-To: nos-bbs at hydra.carleton.ca
Originator: nos-bbs at hydra.carleton.ca
Sender: nos-bbs at hydra.carleton.ca
Precedence: bulk
From: "Barry Siegfried" <bgs at k2mf.ampr.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nos-bbs at hydra.carleton.ca>
Subject: Re: telnet dropping first character
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0 -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: The KA9Q NOS-BBS Mailing List
Status: Read

[aa5mt at gate.kc5aug.ampr.org wrote]:

> On some telnets, I drop the first character of every line.
> On others, all is ok.  I know it's somewhere in my setup.

It is not.

> I drop the first character at home and on the bbs using JNOS.  I
> tried telnetting from ucsd.edu and all is ok to the same site.
> Where should I begin looking?  It should be an easy fix I would think.

Actually, it isn't an easy fix, but there is one.  The problem is not
really with NOS.  What is happening is that you are telneting to a site
at which the socket code there is not translating its application to use
the standard internet end-of-line sequence, which is CR-LF, over your
connection.  The site to which you are telneted is probably marking its
end-of-lines with only a CR instead.  NOS properly interprets the next
character received after the first end-of-line character in such cases
as the second end-of-line character and throws it away, even if it is
not.

This is a typical problem at sites where the application you are using
formerly ran (or simultaneously runs) over a terminal modem connection,
where the use of only a CR to mark end-of-lines is commonplace.

Selcuk Ozturk, N3YCO and I worked on this several years ago.  The
subfunction recvchar() in SOCKUSER.C must be modified to accommodate
these broken end-of-line sequences from these servers.  It can be done
but it requires the addition of another variable to the user socket
structure and some juggling of code inside recvchar().  Note also
that this change will also affect the "recording" of such sessions
into a disk file and the subfunction which handles that must also
be modified to accommodate the changed code in recvchar().

73, de Barry, K2MF >>
           o
          <|>      Barry Siegfried
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