2 Understanding the Genesis Preferences

2.1 Provider

This screen allows you to create one or more providers/networks to allow you to connect to the Internet or setup a local area network (LAN). You can also create multiple provider configurations for either testing or for different purposes. Say, for example, you wanted to connect to an alternative phone number, well you could do this by selecting another provider configuration, rather than editing the phone number in the preferences every time.

Simply click on the "New" button to create a new provider, the "Edit" button allows you to edit an old/existing provider and, of course, the "Delete" button deletes an old/existing provider.

Note: that when you have saved a configuration within the Genesis Wizard, this configuration will appear automatically within the Genesis Preferences GUI as shown above.

You will notice that the configuration is called GenesisWizard Config. You can rename this by double-clicking on the config, or by pressing 'edit', and then entering a new name.

This automatic config should be fully usable, all you should need to do is to create a new user (or users) within the 'user' section, then press save.

Assuming you have clicked "New" or "Edit" you will see the following interface:

2.11 ISP

• Name: defines the name for the provider/network. For example if you were connecting to Demon Internet, you could enter "Demon" in this box.

  You'll see from the example image that a configuration, provided by the Genesis Wizard, has been edited. Simple choose a new name for this provider configuration.

  If, at a later date, you wanted to create an alternative Demon Internet setup (say with another phone number) you could call this "Demon 2" or "Demon 0845".

• Comment allows you to enter some basic information about the provider you have created. You could enter "0845 number" if, in the example above, you created two versions of your Demon Internet setup.

• Login: This is the loginname that you give to your provider when you first setup with your provider. Remember: your provider "knows" you as someone. ie. when we connect to Demon Internet we use "netconnect" as our loginname, this was the name we gave to our provider when we first setup our account.

• Password: is important. You need to enter a correct loginname and password or you won't be able to connect to your provider!

  When you first setup your account, you would have given your ISP a password you want to use or they will have assigned you a password. If you were given a password, it may look something like "wa1BcP5" or equally as strange looking.

  Note: that you must enter your loginname and password correctly. ie. if your loginname is in lowercase, don't enter it in uppercase! Also, sometimes your password may be a mixture of uppper and lower case charaters.

  If you enter an incorrect loginname or password Genesis will warn you that the info you entered was not correct and you will not be connected to your Internet Service Provider.

2.12 Resolv

Here is where you enter information such as the host name, domain name and whether you want Genesis to query these domains every single time you connect to your provider.

Quite often you can leave everything set to "Dynamic" and not tick "Don't query host and domain name", and Genesis should, at least in theory, collect all the information it requires.

However, there are some providers than do not support the function to obtain a domain and hostname via querying their network. These are generally smaller providers, without the "advanced" technology needed to do this. However nearly ever UK and US provider will be able to support this, from our experience.

There are two reasons why you would want to enter your host and domain names into this interface:

1. As it speeds up connection to the provider, especially when you have a static connection. By entering your host and domain name, Genesis does not to spend time searching for these on every connection.

2. As Genesis might not be able to find them when it connects to your provider. If you have problems connecting to your provider, and one of the problems seems to be obtaining the host and domain name, it is advised you enter the details into this page.

3. To obtain the best possible connection. Genesis does a good job of trying to obtain the correct domain and host name information when it connects to your providers. Most of the time, if not every time, the correct information will be obtained.

   However, if you enter this information manually, not only will you get the right information every time but you will also be entering the best possible information resulting in the best possible connection.

If you are a beginner, you are best using the Genesis Wizard to connect to your provider or leave the domain and host name boxes to "dynamic".

• Domain Name Servers  - these are the numbers that your providers uses to connect to the rest of the Internet. These numbers will look like "194.121.42.62" (ie. four sets of numbers, seperated by dots).

  Most providers will supply two domain name servers (often called DNS address 1 and DNS address 2), although the occassional provider has more than two.

  Enter the DNS addresses into the box in the way they are provided by your provider.

• Domain Names  - enter one or more domains into this section. For example, if you are connected to Wirenet (UK) you would enter the domain "u-net.com" into this box.

  If you were connected to Enterprise PLC (UK) and your email address looked like "example@enterprise.net" you would enterprise "enterprise.net" as the domain name.

  Nearly all providers only have one domain name, so more often than not, you would enter only one name.

• Configuration:  - select between static and dynamic (dynamic is often set as default). If you select static, you should enter some domain servers and a domain name.

• Host Name:  - this is often the same as your login name. For example, if you were connected to Enterprise PLC (UK) you would enter your login name here.

• Don't query host and domain name  - if the hostname is not available (ie. in combination with a dynamic IP account) then Genesis queries the nameserver (dns) for the hostname which belongs to "our" IP address. If this isn't defined on the dns DNS (sloppy administrators) then Genesis will wait for a long time for a response.

  If this happens, then you should check "don't query hostname..." so Genesis won't contact the DNS and won't "freeze". However, then Genesis won't be able to obtain the domainname automatically from the hostname (i.g. hostname: rzuaix.unizh.ch => domain: unizh.ch) and the domainname(s) should be entered manually.

2.13 Interfaces

What is an interface? You have created your provider and now you need to setup the interface you use to connect your Amiga to your provider or to another Amiga/computer.

An interface is part "virtual" and part hardware. ie. a PPP software interface uses your modem to dial your provider and a ethernet network card uses a software driver to control the card.

This window allows you to enter the various interfaces for your provider. Don't worry, most providers only use one standard interface, so you won't need to do a great deal of configuration, unless you are creating a local area network (LAN) or other similar network.

To create a new interface click on "New" and a further inferface will appear:

Interface

On this page you can choose the type of interface you want to create. Most people, ie those configuring Genesis to connect to their provider, will create a Point to Point Protocol (or PPP as it is generally known) interface.

However, if you are creating a LAN or PLIP (network via parallel port) network, you will want to choose an interface for this setup. For example, if you are using the ariadne ethernet board, you should select "ariadne" from the list of interfaces.

• Name:  - this is the name of the interface you want to create. For instance, for a PPP connection, select "PPP". For a parallel network, based on the PLIP interface, select "plip0".

• IP Address:  - if you have a static connection then you should enter your IP address into this box. Only a few Internet Service Providers offer a static connection, most are dynamic. If you have a static connection (say if you were connected to Demon in the UK) you would enter the IP address your ISP gives to you when you setup your account.

  The IP address should looks something like "194.141.5.21".

• Destination  - If you use a Point-to-Point interface (like PPP, SLIP, plip, magplip) the interface needs to know to where it has to send packets. Or, in other words, what is the IP address of the machine at the other end of the line (PPP can find out automatically). With P2P interfaces you're not connected directly to the net but over a "relay station" which filters the packets which are addressed to your computer. This is the basic principle of ppp, slip and all the others.Imagine, a modem couldn't handle all the traffic on an intranet with 10MB/s).

  If the destination is required (since it's a p2p iface) but none is given, Genesis will use the default gateway address as destination ip address too.

  However, as stated, when using a PPP connection you should not need to enter a destination address as this will be obtained automatically by Genesis. Therefore most users will leave this set to 'dynamic'.

• Gateway:  - A gateway connects one network (eg. an intranet - internal network) to another, eventually larger network (e.g. company wide net, or the Internet). To communicate with computers on the "other side" (in another network), they'll have to use the gateway to transfer data.

  If no gateway address is entered and destination IP address is known (since one's using a Point2Point interface), this destination IP address will be used as gateway address.

• Netmask:  - The netmask is used to define which range of IP addresses is in our sub-net. Not generally needed for dialup connections. This will be set automatically.

• MTU:  - Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) of the header protocol. Not critical for a PPP connection and Genesis should attempt to negotiate any MTU you set within this box. A Recommended MTU is 576.

• Params:  - Some interfaces not only use the SANA-II config file but also some configuration parameters which were previously stored in amitcp:db/interfaces along with the interface name, driver and unit. Now since this file is no longer required in gGenesis (it's built dynamically as env:netconfig/autointerfaces), we need to provide another space to enter this information and therefore added Params (which stands for Interface Parameters).

  Usually the manufacturer should tell the user which parameters he has to use and in most cases none are required!

Sana II

For most users this section will remain as "PPP", as PPP will be used for their network to their Internet provider.

The PPP network uses the supplied appp.device as found in devs:networks.

However, if you are configuring another Sana II device, due to an ethernet connection or otherwise, you will need to specify the Sana II device manually. Enter the relevant unit number where applicable.

If you select a custom Sana II device, select this by using the requestor button below the "specify sana II device" cycle gadget. You will then have to create a config file for the Sana II device and enter the config information into the box provided.

Misc

• Keep alive:  - some providers automatically disconnect your from their network due to inactivity. For instance, leave your computer connected to the net, go and have some dinner and when you come back you might find that you have been put offline.

  The amount of inactivity needed to be put offline varies from provider to provider. Some don't disconnect you at all, others disconnect you after only a few minutes.

  You can stop yourself being disconnect. The first way would be to run a program such as AmIRC which is constantly pinging the server to keep you connected. The second way is to alter this option within Genessis and Genesis will ping the server to keep you connected.

• Is always online - an option for local area networks (LANs). You do not want you LAN being disconnected for any reason, this option prevents disconnection.

Exec

This section allows you to configure scripts to execute when certain 'events' occur, relating to PPP. For instance you could have a script that played a sound or executed (started) a program when PPP has been put offline.

An example would be an arexx script to put call waiting (on your phone network) off and then back on when PPP is on or offline. You do not want to disable call waiting when you are running a local area network (ie. if you ran a script to turn call waiting off, when you started Genesis - via the events control - Genesis will not put call waiting back on again, until you disconnect you entire network!), only when putting your modem off/online.

You can also run a script or execute a program when online has failed.

PPP

This interface is solely for a dialup connection to your Internet Service Provider, and would not be needed for a local area network, or other network.

• Carrier Detect: If enabled, PPP will use the Carrier Detect (CD) signal of the modem to determine the status of the physical connection. Should the connection terminate unexpectedly, PPP will be notified, shut down and inform Genesis. If this option is disabled the user will have to manually inform Genesis to close the connection.

• VJ Compression:  - Van Jacobsen (VJ) compression (de)compresses redundant data within outgoing and incoming TCP/IP packet headers.

  Together with a low MTU value this will make interactive links (telnet and the like) feel less slugish.

  VJ compression should always be enabled.

• EOF Mode:  - If enabled, PPP will use a more efficent way to read data from the serial device. Unfortunately hardly any serial device supports this function fully and, if this option is used with a device that does not support it, PPP will be unable to establish a connection. EOF Mode is known to work with the standard Amiga "serial.device".

• Callback:  - If your ISP allows you to use callback, specify your callback string (usualy your phonenumber) here.

  What will happen is that when you dial your provider, they will notice the callback string and terminate the connection. PPP will now wait for the ISP to call back, answer the phone and establish a connection.

  Callback note: If you use software such as "STFax Professional" to answer incoming calls (with or without the shared device option) on your callback line, STFax will probably answer the call as well as your PPP device. Therefore it is a good idea to use an alternative line for callback or to disable "auto answer" within your voice software.

• Timeout:  - The number of seconds to wait for the ISP to call back.

• MPP Compression:  - This compression method provides fast compression speed but low compression efficency, it should work from an 68030 upwards.

• BSD Compression:  - This compression method is very good but memory hungry and slow and thus requires a fast CPU (060).

• Deflate Compression:  - This compression method is quite efficent but slow and thus reqires a fast CPU (060).

  MPP, Deflate and BSD compression notes: These compression methods only make sense in environments where the physical connection to the remote computer does not provide compression (eg. uncompressed ISDN connections, connections thru a null-modem cable). In all other cases the usage of these compression methods is a complete wast of memory and cpu cycles. Therefore a modem user should probably not use MPP/BSD/Deflate compression.

  MPP/Deflate/BSD compression modules compress the whole packets transmited. Those are CCP (compression control protocol) modules, CCP has nothing to do with VJ compression.

  Only one CCP module can be active at any time (for one direction of the link), but it is perfectly legal to (first) do VJ compression and then, for example, MPP compression. VJ compression is desirable even if one of the CCP modules is active. CCP modules are general data compression routines, whereas VJC was specificaly designed to compress TCP/IP headers. Because of this VJC will compress TCP/IP headers better than any CCP module.

  If you have enabled one or more of the above compression methods (and they are in use) and you notice that the connection thoughput is slower, this means that the cpu is overloaded (or that your cpu is too slow, depending on your point of view). If you cannot free cpu resources you will have to disable compression in this case.

2.14 Services

These are specific to your Internet Service Provider, not local area network.

• Sync clock:  - syncronise your built in Amiga clock to the current time obtained from a specific time server. If you have no built in battery backed up clock or your clock occassionally suffers from a reset, it is advised you use "sync clock" so that email written is sent with the correct date/time (important).

• Save time:  - makes Genesis syncronise your built in Amiga clock and save the current time. If this is not ticked, the next time you boot your Amiga your time will be back to the original setting.

• Time Server:  - ISP's use a time server which can be used to obtain the latest time on connection or when connected. You can also enter a time server maintained by an external source, ie. a university or similar.

• BOOTP Server:  Usually a bootp request is beeing broadcasted to all computers in the same network, so it can be left blank. Maybe the provider tells you the IP address of the bootpserver so you can enter it here and the bootp request will be sent directly to the correct destination.

• Use BOOTP:  Bootp is a protocol which was intended to allow diskless computers to find out their IP address, the dns addresses, domainnames and also to load a bootfile. (e.g. a mac which boots over the net). Now, we don't need to boot from the net but if we have a dynamic address and use a protocol which can't find out our ip address automatically (e.g. slip) or if we don't know the dns address or the domainname, then bootp can be used to obtain this information. But the provider has to offer this service. Not every provider has a bootpserver and therefore we'd get no reply to our bootp request, resulting in a delay while connecting. So only check this gadget if you want to find out or if you know that your isp offers bootp.

2.15 Loginscript

Again, this is window is specific to an Internet Service Provider and not needed for a local area network. The loginscript is essential to get you onto your provider. Some require very basic loginscripts, other (often smaller, less advanced) ISP's require much more extensive loginscripts.

• Loginscript: to create a loginscript, click on the ADD button. This will allow you to enter a command from the selection in the cycle gadget:

  Option	Function
  Send	sends a function to your provider. ie. you might want to do a "send PPP". You would enter "PPP" in the box to the right of the cycle gadget.
  Waitfor	waitfor a string (some text). ie. you might have to "waitfor HELLO", before doing a "GoOnline"
  Dial	this function simply dials your provider
  GoOnline	when you have dialed your provider and/or send the loginscript the last function is to "GoOnline" which will connect you to your provider
  SendLogin	the function to send your loginname, when asked. Your provider may send "Loginname:" and you would do a "SendLogin" in return.
  SendPassword	a function that sends your password to the provider, when asked. You provider may send a "Password:" and you would send a "SendPassword" in return.
  SendBreak	some ISP's may require you to send a break (carriage return with no other function) to initiate a function.
  Exec	!!fill info here!!
  Pause	sends a pause command. Some ISP's, especially French ISP's, require a pause (in seconds) before you send the loginscript. Enter the number of seconds into the box to the right of the cycle gadget.
  ParseIP	Usually, if you have to use a loginscript, the provider will tell you your ip address in the login procedure. If you're not using PPP which can negotionate the IP address automatically (eg. slip), you could use "parse ip" to grab this information which would be lost otherwise. You'll have to enter some text which appears right before the ip address during the login procedure .. login example: login: netconnect password: xxxxxx protocol> slip Your IP address is 194.192.4.12 MTU is set to 1500 Then you could enter: "ParseIP Your IP address is" and Genesis will grab the IP address.
  ParsePasswd	Same as for ParseIP . The occassional provider may tell you your password for the next session during the login procedure. This could be used to grab the password.

  
  As mentioned previously many ISP's don't require a large loginscript. Some ISP's support a function caled PAP or CHAP (which mean you don't require a script.

  If you use the Genesis Wizard, the Wizard will record the loginscript automatically. If you choose to enter the script manually into the Genesis Prefs, and your ISP suppors PAP and/or CHAP, enter this:

  Dial [dials your provider]
  GoOnline [jumps into GoOnline mode and configures your connection to your ISP]
  

  If your ISP requires you to login with a loginscript, something like this may be required:

  Dial [dials provider]
  WaitFor "login:" [waits for your provider to send a login: command]
  SendLogin [sends your loginname, as requested]
  WaitFor "password:" [waits for your provider to send the password: command]
  SendPasswd [sends the password, as requested, to your ISP]
  WaitFor "HELLO" [waits for the HELLO command]
  GoOnline [loginscript completely, go online and configure the connection]
  

• Phone numbers: enter the phone number or numbers for your ISP. You can enter more than one number (via the drop down button) and other numbers will be called when there is a problem with the first number - ie. due to an engaged tone.

  These multiple phone numbers must be seperated with a pipe "|". ie. "08451234567|08457654321".

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