Atari Internet connectivity via PPP on Windows

There has been many how-to's written for connecting the Atari to the Internet via PPP on Linux machines. However, few has been written about using PPP on Windows machine. Furthermore, a quick search on the web finds near to nothing on configurating PPP on Windows 7. In fact there were several sites and forums that specifically states that the only way to use PPP is to go back to Windows XP or use the Windows 7 XP mode. It is amazing that these replies are from MCP!

The installation of PPP for Windows 7 is in fact very simple as MS have make it just like installing any modem device and installing a network for it. The installation of PPP on the Atari is much more simpler as it is just installing the PPP RPM.

This short tutorial is written to address the lack of information for configurating Windows 7 PPP for use with Atari Mint PPP. The Windows 7 used here is Windows 7 Ultimate. This procedure has also been tested on Windows 7 Enterprise. You will need administrators rights to perform this installation on Windows. Setting up PPP on Windows 7 is generic and applicable to STING/STIK or other Atari TCP/IP stack.

1 Setting up the serial cable connection driver on Windows 7

You will need to install the direct cable connection as a modem device using the Modem setup procedures. You can view bigger pictures by clicking on the thumbnails.

Step 1-1

Goto the Control Panel. Find the Modem applet. This is normally under the Phone and Modem section. Click on it to get to the Phone and Modem applet.

Step 1-2

In the Phone and Modem applet, click on the Modems tab and click Add. You need administrator's rights to do this. If UAC comes up, provide the relevant credentials and carry on.

Step 1-3

The Add Hardware Wizard will appear, and tick that don't detect your modem (obviously it can't because it is just a null-wire cable). Proceed to next step by clicking on the NEXT button.

Step 1-4

The Install New Modem window will appear. Select the Communications cable between two computers. Proceed to next step by clicking on the NEXT button.

Step 1-5

Select the Serial com port that the NULL cable is connected to. Proceed to next step by clicking on the NEXT button.

Step 1-6

At the Modem installation is finished window, click FINISH to complete the installation.

Step 1-7

Once you are back at the Phone and Modem window, you will see your newly installed communication cable attached to the serial com port that you specified earlier.

This completes the installation of the device driver for the device "Communications cable between two computers". This configuration is also commonly known as Direct Cable Communications.

2 Setting up the Network for the Direct Cable Connection

Now you will need to bind the Direct Cable Connection driver to a particular Network. This is where MS will make this connection using the PPP protocol and it will do it for you automatically! Previous Windows version requires you to install the PPP protocol separately.

Step 2-1

Goto the Network and Sharing Center and click on the Set up a new connection or networklink.

Step 2-2

In the Choose a connection option select the Set up a dial-up connection

Step 2-3

If asked Which modem do you want to use, select the Communications cable between two computers modem. This only happens if you have more than one modem devices.

Step 2-4

When prompted to type in the information from your ISP, just give a dummy number to the phone number field. Give the connection name something that will identify to you that this is the PPP. I use "AtariPPP" here. Proceed to next step by clicking on the CONNECT button.

Step 2-5

We will skip the connect test here as your Atari is not ready to accept calls from Windows. Skip by clicking on the SKIP button.

Step 2-6

Windows will response with a message stating that The connection is ready for use. However we are not ready yet as we still need to configure some of the PPP settings for communicating with the Atari.

Note: It is not apparent that PPP protocol is installed as you did not specifically install anything that states PPP, but it is !!

3 Configurating the Direct Cable Cable Connection adapter

Now you will customise the PPP settings on Windows 7 so that it can talk to your Atari.

Step 3-1

Goto the Network and Sharing Center and click on the change adapter settings link, this is on the left side of the window.

Step 3-2

In the Network adapter window, right click the AtariPPP icon and click on the properties. You need administrator rights to carry on from here. If UAC comes up, provide the relevant credentials and carry on.

Step 3-3

In the AtariPPP Properties window, select the General tab.

Click on CONFIGURE button to configure the speed of the serial com Port. For our purpose, we select 115200 bps. Click OK to close the window. You should check the serial com port speed on your Atari, the speed should match this value.

Step 3-4

In the AtariPPP Properties window, select the Options tab.

In the Dialing options, unselect the Prompt for name, password, certs and the Prompt for phone number.

You may want to change the redial time to 1 seconds.

Click on the PPP button (this is the 1st clue that you are using PPP protocol)

Step 3-5

In the PPP settings window,unselect the software compression. Click OK to save this settings.

You may use compression if you're using it in your Atari but I am not at this time.

Step 3-6

Back at the AtariPPP Properties window, select the Security tab.

Unselect the CHAP and MS-CHAP v2 settings. We will use simple pure text Password Authentication Protocol. Windows will complain that there is no encryption, if it ask if you want to keep these settings, click on YES.

Step 3-7

Next select the Networking tab.

Unselect the Internet Protocol Version 6.

Click on the Internet Protocol Version 4, and click on the Properties button.

Step 3-8

Configure the ip address of the Windows 7 PPP side. I am using 10.0.0.1 here.

Click on the Advance button.

Step 3-9

In the Advance TCP/IP Settings window, unselect the Use default gateway on remote network. Click OK to close this window. We do not want your Windows 7 to route all networking request to your Atari :-)

Click OK to close the Internet Protocol version 4 Properties window.

Finally, click OK at the AtariPPP Properties window to save the AtariPPP settings.

This Completes all the configuration on Window 7. Next we need to install PPP on the Atari.

4 Installing PPP on the Atari

It is assumed that you have SpareMint installed on your Atari. Download the Atari Mint PPP rpm package from SpareMint archive. Install the rpm using the standard method via the shell. Run the command

rpm -iv ppp-2.3.11-2.m68kmint.rpm

Next copy the SLIP.XIF file into your Mint System Folder (C:\MINT\a-bc-d\ where a-bc-d is the version number of MINT).

That's it, you have installed PPP on your Atari.

Reboot MINT for the SLIP.XIF to take effect.

5 Connect your NULL modem to the Atari and the PC

It is time to connect up your NULL modem cable. For more information on NULL modem and how to construct it, click here.

On Windows 7, we can see where the Direct Cable Connection driver installed to (for our example here is COM2) since we choosed which COM port to use. Connect the NULL modem cable to this port.

However, on the Atari, you will need to know which COM port you connect to and the name of the COM port. On the Falcon you have one serial COM port and one LAN port. On the TT, you can have up to five selections - four serial COM port of which two are always available and two depending on whether your VME backplane has a serail COM connector or some other device (Ethernet card or Video card) and one LAN port. MegaSTE has very similar ports as the TT. Other ST class machines has a single serial COM port.

Here is an extract of the ports names available on Mint (from the MINT ports.txt file):

HSMODEM terminal

device device ST MegaSTE TT Falcon Hades Milan

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

modem1 ttyS0 MODEM MODEM1 MODEM1 - unknown MFP port

modem2 ttyS1 - MODEM2 MODEM2 MODEM2 unknown UART1 (3f8)

serial1 ttyS2 - - SERIAL1 - unknown -

serial2 ttyS3 - SERIAL2 SERIAL2 - unknown UART2 (2f8)

lan ttyS4 - LAN LAN LAN unknown -

midi ttyS5 Midi Midi Midi Midi unknown -

Depending on the port you connect on the Atari, note the terminal name as we will be using it to tell PPP to listen to that COM port.

In the tutorial here, we are on a Falcon and using the normal COM port called MODEM2 which has a MINT terminal name called ttyS1. This port can go up to 115200 bps and we will be using this bits rate. On Windows 7, we set the bit rate also to 115200 bps under step 3-3 above.

Note that the Midi port is available for all Atari made machines and is usable but at the 31Kbps rate which the PC does not support (at least not on mine).

6 Running PPP on Windows 7 and Atari

To run PPP on your computers do the following:

On the Windows 7

In the Network adapter window, double click the AtariPPP icon or right click connect.

If you have set the redial to 1 second, you will have plenty of time to active PPP on the Atari. Otherwise quickly move to the next step.

On the Atari

Open up a command shell in your desktop.

Excute the following command:

pppd -detach crtscts lock noauth local 10.0.0.2:10.0.0.1 /dev/ttyS1 115200

After a few seconds, you should see a message on your shell specifying the local and remote IP address.

That's it. You now have a TCP/IP link between your Atari and Windows 7. All using PPP on Windows 7. You can ping the remote computer - ping 10.0.0.1 and it will reply. If you are running a FTP on your Windows 7 machine, make sure it is serving the network 10.0.0.1 otherwise you will not see the FTP site from the Atari.

HEY! the title says Internet Access but it not!

For your Atari to see beyond the remote computer (Windows 7 at 10.0.0.1), you will need to run Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) or a Network Address Translation (NAT) application or a Proxy server or manually make the bridging network yourself using NETSH and make your own routing tables entry. Unfortunalte, ICS for PPP is only availble on Windows Server, and Windows 7 being a client does not have this.

Fortunately for us, there are plenty of 3rd party NAT and proxy applications. It is easiest to get a free proxy program and bind it to the IP address of the Windows 7 PPP (which is 10.0.0.1 for our case). This means that you need to only tell your Atari browser or FTP program and proxy IP address and let the proxy get all the web pages for you. Easy peasy.

Voila... is my Falcon using NetSurf going to Atari Forums via a Windows 7 PPP connection?

Gotchas

Windows 7 has a builtin firewall, please remember to ALLOW access for the network 10.0.0.x.

If you have another 3rd party firewall, please also ALLOW access for the network 10.0.0.x

During installation & testing, I recommend that you shutdown all your firewalls but disconnect from the Internet when your firewalls are down.

Have Fun!!

See you at

WongCK

Updated: 27 Apr 2011

1 April 2011

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