Discussion:
MS telnet w/ alternate terminal type?
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Charles Lavin
17 years ago
Permalink
Hi --

I posted this to a managed Microsoft ng, but I'm getting nowhere.

Has anyone had any success using the MS telnet client as shipped in Windows
XP to connect to an AIX box as anything other than a vt100 terminal?

According to telnet's own help, as well as several pages of docs I've found
on the MS site, the MS telnet program supports four emulations: VT100, VT52,
ANSI and VTNT.

The command "telnet -t ansi hostname" supposedly connects to the host using
the ANSI emulation (which is what I need).

An alternate way to do this is with the telnet command "set term ansi".

However, four different AIX hosts (one AIX 3.2.5, one AIX 4.1, two AIX 5.2)
set their TERM values to vt100 when I log in from the MS telnet client, no
matter which terminal emulation I select on the telnet command line.

Other programs, such as TinyTERM and puTTY, don't have this problem setting
up telnet sessions with these hosts.

Does anyone know how to get the MS telnet program to properly identify
itself so that AIX sets it up as an ansi device?

Thanks,
CL
Michael W. Ryder
17 years ago
Permalink
...
As I mentioned in the MS newsgroup I have no problems getting this to
work as you want. You mentioned different servers giving you the same
results, is this also true with different PCs? Maybe trying a laptop
that has not been changed from the default configuration.
I asked before if you could changed the .profile file for your login to
set and export the TERM variable. Were you able to do this?
Charles Lavin
17 years ago
Permalink
Hi --

I cannot change the TERM value on users' profiles because that would screw
up their logons at the office or when using other telnet clients. The system
as set up now has no trouble adjusting the TERM value depending on the
emulation in use by the telnet client -- except when that telnet client is
Microsoft's.

As it is, logging in as an ANSI device represents a loss of functionality,
but one that is acceptable for the purposes for which I want to be able to
use the MS telnet client. Using the ANSI emulation on a MS telnet client
costs us wide screen displays, function key control, slave printing and
other features of the IBM 3151 upon which the software is built.

And if I do manually change the TERM value from inside AIX, then I get the
basic functionality I need from the telnet program.

But the users are not at liberty to make that change. Their profiles take
them straight to the application menu, which looks like crap when rendered
for a vt100.

I can replicate this problem from several Windows XP and Windows Vista PCs
here, to half a dozen AIX and SCO boxes of various OS levels.

Additionally, I had a colleague at another firm replicate this problem using
Windows XP and Windows 2000 clients onto several other AIX boxes. He also
informed me that this problem has bitten him in the past as well.

If this telnet client does indeed support the four emulations it claims to,
then the only thing I can think of is that it is identifying itself to AIX
as something AIX doesn't understand. But I still need to figure out what
that could be ...

A Microsoft support rep skirted the question of why the four emulations all
wind up looking like a vt100 to a Unix host by telling me to change the TERM
value on the host.

Thanks,
CL
...
Michael W. Ryder
17 years ago
Permalink
Post by Charles Lavin
Hi --
I cannot change the TERM value on users' profiles because that would screw
up their logons at the office or when using other telnet clients. The system
as set up now has no trouble adjusting the TERM value depending on the
emulation in use by the telnet client -- except when that telnet client is
Microsoft's.
How about using a separate login when they are not at the office? Of
course you could use a different emulator but I guess there are reasons
you are avoiding that option. Have you tried HyperTerm Personal
Edition? It allows selecting the ansi video type and setting the number
of rows and columns. It is not the edition that is provided with XP,
but is still free, and it works fine on my computer.
...
That is strange as I can login with ANSI emulation and TERM displays as
ansi. Is the connection straight to the computer via "dumb" switch or
is there other hardware involved that may be messing with the transmission?
...
Charles Lavin
17 years ago
Permalink
The idea is to allow anyone with access to a PC -- no matter where they may
be -- to log in and use the local telnet client to get limited functionality
to the system.

I do not want to add to the confusion and complexity by adding another set
of logins for people to have to track, just for the off chance that they
need to get into the system from a "foreign" PC.

I also don't want to have to add additional software. Primarily because I
have no idea what PC they will be using.

The entire system is being modified to allow access from a Web browser, but
that's going to take a while. In the meanwhile, I wanted to set up an easy
way, using existing facilities, to get around a sporadic access issue I'm
having.

If the MS telnet program does indeed support these alternate terminal
emulations, I need to figure out why it can't identify itself properly to an
AIX box.

CL
...
Michael W. Ryder
17 years ago
Permalink
Post by Charles Lavin
The idea is to allow anyone with access to a PC -- no matter where they may
be -- to log in and use the local telnet client to get limited functionality
to the system.
I do not want to add to the confusion and complexity by adding another set
of logins for people to have to track, just for the off chance that they
need to get into the system from a "foreign" PC.
One reason I suggested the "alternate" login was security, and allowing
you to see who is logging in from the office and who is logging in from
a remote connection.
Post by Charles Lavin
I also don't want to have to add additional software. Primarily because I
have no idea what PC they will be using.
What about the HyperTerm program that has been loaded automatically on
each Windows PC for many years? It allows telnet connections and you
can specify the emulation. And it does work, at least for me.
Post by Charles Lavin
The entire system is being modified to allow access from a Web browser, but
that's going to take a while. In the meanwhile, I wanted to set up an easy
way, using existing facilities, to get around a sporadic access issue I'm
having.
If the MS telnet program does indeed support these alternate terminal
emulations, I need to figure out why it can't identify itself properly to an
AIX box.
I don't know why it won't work for you unless something in your system
or systems is interfering with the client.
...
sol gongola
17 years ago
Permalink
...
microsoft telnet from xp box to both 4.3.3 and 5.2 work fine for me trying
various term type (ansii vt100 vt52) but vtnt becomes vt100 on aix.

Have you tried a manual connection and seeing what is really happening to the
terminal type? I played with it and noticed that xp telnet telnet remembers
the previous connection from that machine as a preferred term type.
Doing this may help you narrow down the problem source between xp and aix.

----------------- sample session ---------------------------
c:\adl>telnet
Welcome to Microsoft Telnet Client
Escape Character is 'CTRL+]'
Microsoft Telnet> ?
Commands may be abbreviated. Supported commands are:

c - close close current connection
d - display display operating parameters
o - open hostname [port] connect to hostname (default port 23).
q - quit exit telnet
set - set set options (type 'set ?' for a list)
sen - send send strings to server
st - status print status information
u - unset unset options (type 'unset ?' for a list)
?/h - help print help information
Microsoft Telnet> open aixbox
Connecting To aixbox...

After a connection, use 'set' to see your terminal type
the use 'CTRL+]' to get back to the telnet console and
use "d" and "st" to see what telnet thinks is happening.

Connecting To aixbox...
Microsoft Telnet> st
Connected to aixbox
Negotiated term type is VT100
Microsoft Telnet> d
Escape Character is 'CTRL+]'
Will auth(NTLM Authentication)
Local echo off
New line mode - Causes return key to send CR & LF
Current mode: Console
Will term type
Preferred term type is VT100
Negotiated term type is VT100
Microsoft Telnet> <press return gets you back to your session>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Buckeridge
17 years ago
Permalink
On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:27:06 -0500
...
Use PuTTY. PuTTY fixes Windows. You can download binary on desktop
without administrator rights and just run it. It does not attempt to
touch Windows registry. PuTTY will set TERM=xterm which is pretty close
to what AIX thinks an xterm is. We use lots of F* or AIDx keys on
PuTTY.

The ADDS 3153 with Ethernet option is one thin client we use. The Sun
Ray xterm-sun is the other thin client we use.
...
That is because all Microsoft TELNET.EXE can do is broken vt100.
It also does not do the TELNET protocol and is more like a NetCat with
bad vt100 emulator. In your profile match TERM to what ever TELNET.EXE
sets and then set TERM to a low function vt100. This is a last resort
you should have if the Windows PC has no client software whatsoever.
You can forget about printing.

I could only presume that Microsoft have left TELNET.EXE a bit broken
to try and break character cell applications which are still popular for
transaction entry.

I manually set TERM=vt100 if I use a PC without www.
If I have www I install PuTTY.

Perhaps the ansi entry or what ever TELNET.EXE now uses should be
reviewed and made to match the reduced functionality of TELNET.EXE.
Check that your curses app matches local terminfo before the AIX one.

We have similar problems with the Sun xterm clients. It does TELNET
protocol, but the attribute sm* and rm* terminal emulation are like the
original VT100 rather than the later ones. It sets TERM=xterm so we
match peer IP to Sun Ray servers and then map this to xterm-sun which
we have customised. TERM=vt100 also works with Sun xterm.

Our global profile as a lot of 'case "$TERM" in ... esac' testing.
We also maintain a lot of terminfo entries.
...
Slave printing works with PuTTY. This is the script being used on
GNU/Linux. The AIX one is very similar. Look up mc5 and mc4, but
default to "\033[5i" and "\033[4i".

***@thot:~$ cat -vt /usr/local/bin/ttyprint
#! /bin/dash
#! /bin/sh
#
# ttyprint - print to printer attached to terminal or PC running PuTTY - AB

ptr_on=`tput mc5`
ptr_off=`tput mc4`

echo -n "${ptr_on:=^[[5i}"

cat

echo -n "${ptr_off:=^[[4i}"

exit 0

Hajo Ehlers
17 years ago
Permalink
...
Is the package bos.terminfo.ansi.data installed on the system ?
Does the file /usr/lib/terminfo/ansi.ti exist ?

hth
Hajo
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