🚀 go-pugleaf

In <hrpdko.45@pnv.palm.cri.nz> news@massey.ac.nz (USENET News System) writes:

Oh no!!  The news@massey.ac.nz disease has spread to sites outside Massey
University :-)

>How can you connect to internet via a modem? Can it be done? What software/
>hardware do you need? BTW my concept of internet is FTP+news.

Presumably you mean more than the trivial use of a modem and terminal at home
to dial your work's computers or some other public access site (such
as actrix.gen.nz or kosmos.wcc.govt.nz in Wellington, kcbbs.gen.nz in
Auckland, equinox.gen.nz in Christchurch, etc)?

Assuming you want to connect a home computer to the Internet so you can
ftp directly to/from that machine, the answer is "most likely, depending
on what OS (UNIX, DOS, Amiga-whatever) it is running".  Firstly, You will
need TCP/IP software that supports SLIP (serial line IP), or the newer PPP
(Point to Point Protocol) running on your local machine.

Many UNIX varient's come with SLIP built in to the Kernel, or available as
an add-on -- consult your vendor.  PPP hasn't been around as long so
I'm not sure if there are any products supporting it yet (the implementations
I am aware of are in source form and require the availability of kernel source
code).

For DOS (and perhaps other systems?) there is a freely available (for
non-commercial use) system written by Phil Karn called KA9Q which is an
implementation of TCP/IP that includes SLIP and PPP.  Check out the VUW
Comp Sci archives (although I don't know if the copy there is the latest
version.   There are also a number of commercial products (such as FTP
Software's PC/TCP) that also supports SLIP and possibly PPP.

You will also require the remote end to have something (a general purpose
computer, or perhaps a router or terminal server) speaking the same
protocol (SLIP or PPP) that you can connect to.  Since you are going to
require the cooperation of the sys-admin of that site to set things up
(allocation of IP addresses, network routing tables, domain name system,
etc) you should speak to that person for more advice on how to proceed.

Disclaimer: The above may contain a number of inaccuracies -- I've never
actually tried to do this, the above suggestions are simply based on
stuff that I have gleaned from working with IP networks, and reading the
Net over the years.

Duncan