Appendix A: Technical Notes

Access Servers

When you use the access services, you connect to the information
server associated with the particular service. The client software
programs are already pre-configured with the correct server addresses.
The access servers and their respective electronic addresses follow.

Server			Address

Access			access.psu.edu

E-mail			email.psu.edu

News server		news.psu.edu

Gopher			info.psu.edu

Phone directory	ph.psu.edu

World Wide Web	www.psu.edu



Other Network Information

If you are installing your own TCP/IP software, this information may
be helpful:

OTC nameserver:    	128.118.25.3   (main PSU nameserver)

CAC nameserver:     	128.118.58.11 (recommended if dialing in)

Backup nameservers:    130.203.1.4, 130.203.3.2

Time server:	clock.psu.edu

For dial-up connections, you will be on an 8-bit subnet, so the
netmask is 255.255.255.0.  For SLIP and CSLIP connections, the server
displays a dynamically assigned IP address, the gateway address, and
the netmask. Your scripting software should pick out the IP address
and gateway address, and reset them. If developing a script for
software not supplied by the CAC, it is best to dial in with a plain
ASCII terminal emulator to see what the server types out.



UART Specifications for DOS Machines

In general it is not possible to run any DOS-based SLIP or PPP package
(CACSLIP, Lanera SLIP, PC/TCP PPP, etc.) in Windows enhanced mode
unless you have a 16550A UART. Unless you have an IBM PS/2 computer,
chances are good that you have either an 8250 UART or a 16450 UART.

What kind of UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter) do
you have? Find out by running MSD.EXE (Microsoft Diagnostic; it comes
with Windows).  Choose the COM port box and it will tell you all kinds
of information about your COM ports, including the type of UART.

If you do not have a 16550A UART your choices are to

-- buy one--it's well worth the money;

-- run Windows in standard mode; or

-- run SLIP/PPP routines under straight DOS.




Using FTP on PSUVM

If you FTP the files to your PSUVM account, you should reformat the
files on VM with the CMS command LREC512 before downloading them to
your personal computer. An example of the LREC512 command follows:

lrec512 nupopf exebin a nupopf exebin e

You must reformat the files first because the PCTRANS command on VM
(or the PCXYTERM front-end) that is used to copy files to a personal
computer running YTerm (DOS) or Tincan (Macintosh) is limited to
records of length 512 bytes. "FTPing" binary files results in records
of up to 8192 bytes.



Dial-up Services

Dial-up service allows an individual with a computer, modem, and phone
to connect to the Penn State network and the global Internet. This
connection has all the capabilities of a "hardwire" connection such as
Ethernet, but is not as fast. The following numbers are now in service
and are supported in menus in CACTWIN and CACSLIP software bundles:

Allentown		610-285-5225

Altoona 			814-949-6436

Beaver			412-775-9336

Berks			610-374-7113

Delaware			610-892-7147

DuBois			814-371-7613

Erie				814-899-8987

Fayette			412-437-9701

Great Valley     	610-408-0971

Harrisburg 		717-948-9162

Hazleton			717-450-7451

McKeesport 		412-664-9208

Mont Alto        		717-749-6011

New Kensington	412-339-8942

Ogontz			215-887-6805

Schuylkill			717-385-9017

Scranton 			717-963-3109

Shenango         		412-983-5033

University Park 	814-863-7777

Wilkes-Barre		717-674-2438

York             		717-846-3824

All modems can answer at 2400, 9600, and 14400 baud. However, with
compression your communications port may run faster. V.22, V.32,
V.32bis, V.42 and V.42bis communications standards are supported. At
locations other than University Park, Xyplex terminal servers pass
asynchronous connections through to a serial protocol server at
University Park, which is a duplicate of the server that connections
via 814-863-7777 use. This may add a slight delay depending on the
current traffic to and from that campus.