How to use Arachne with PPP or SLIP

The following ways to connect to the Internet via serial line (modem) from DOS are known:

• DOSPPPD - a port of the Unix PPP daemon to DOS enviroment. Best choice, included in distribution package
• Klos PPP - a shareware PPP dialer from Klos Technologies. Arachne can auto-configure itself to support it, but due to it's license, it cannot be distributed with Arachne.
• EtherPPP - This was the original freeware packet driver distributed with Arachne, but it is no longer directly supported or included in the distribution package.
• UMSLIP - the SLIP driver from Univesity of Minnesota. Reported to work with Arachne. Not included in distribution package.
• SLIPPER, CSLIPPER - SLIP (=Single Line Internet Protocol) and CSLIP (=compressed SLIP) programs. CSLIPPER.EXE is included in distribution package.

DOSPPPD is a port of the Unix PPP daemon to the DOS enviroment. It's probably the best PPP solution available in DOS. It consumes less memory than EtherPPP or KlosPPP. The author of this DOS port, Toni Lopez, permitted me to include this dialer in the Arachne package.

If you don't want to use the Arachne built-in configurator, you can study the DOSPPPD documentation, which was created by merging files README.TXT and PPPD.MAN from the DOSPPPD package. You don't need to worry about how to connect because Arachne uses its own dialer - MINITERM.EXE, configured in ARACHNE.CFG. The IP address is passed by option IP_Address PPP.

If you are not an advanced DOS user, I suggest using the Arachne PPP wizard previously mentioned. More details (eg. automatic login script) can be entered using the manual PPP setup screen. Just fill in the correct values, click Ok, save and then restart Arachne. Arachne will automatically create a configuration file PPPDRC.CFG for DOSPPPD.

If you prefer to set up text-mode configuration files rather than using the setup screen, please read List of all keywords used in the ARACHNE.CFG configuration file.

You have to study the EtherPPP documentation and manually create a CONFIG.PPP file needed by EtherPPP. You don't have to worry about DIAL.PPP, as you can use the MINITERM dialer shipped with Arachne.

You must get an uncrippled self-extracting archive pppshare.exe, available at http://www.klos.com. The license agreement doesn't allow us to include this archive directly in the Arachne package. Place pppshare.exe into Arachne directory and execute it.

Klos PPP consists of more than one driver file - I suggest you read the documentation and add these drivers to your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Klos PPP drivers can be loaded into high memory.

Klos PPP provides the PPPMENU.EXE program as an interface to the PPP dialer. After connecting with PPPMENU.EXE, you must select the "Exit PPP connect" menu option to exit to DOS (or to Arachne). There is also one more executable you must run to update WATTCP.CFG. After doing that, your ARACHNE.CFG might look as follows:

Connection READY
IP_Address WATTCP
TCP_Config WATTCP.CFG

Probably the easiest way to use Klos PPP is to configure it as a resident packet driver (and run PPPMENU manualy from the command line).

You can call any of these packet drivers as an external dialer or you can establish a connection and make them resident first and then use Arachne exactly the same way as on Local Network. Freeware SLIP programs can be found on many anonymous FTP sites. CSLIPPER.EXE is included in the Arachne distribution package.

I have been told that UMSLIP correctly emulates BOOTP.