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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 30: Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem</TITLE>
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<H1 align="center"><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
<a href="./index.html">The Answer Guy</a>
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</A></H1> <BR>
<H4 align="center">By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
<p><hr><p>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem</H3>
<p><strong>From Chris Gushue on 04 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
I have two systems, a 486 and a K6, and I was wondering how (if) I could
connect them using a serial (null modem) cable. One system will be running
Windows 98, the other running Linux. I can't seem to find any info on the
LDP or other webpages. Thanks.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Certainly you can connect them for some purposes.
<br><br>
I don't know anything about Win '98 but I presume it
comes with some sort of terminal emulation package
(like the Hyperterm that MS licensed from Hilgreave for
Win '95, or that cheesy old "Terminal" that they used to
ship with Windows 3.x).
<br><br>
You could also get any of several shareware, free, or
commercial communications packages such as Telix (Windows
or DOS), Kermit (DOS) or K95 (Windows), etc.
<br><br>
All of these should have a "direct" or "null modem" option
listed among their "connection/modem" types.
<br><br>
This will give you a basic, character modem terminal login
to your Linux box. This not a networking connection --- it
is just like connecting a dumb terminal to the machine (which
still gives you access to most of the applications and almost
all of the utilities and programming tools on your Linux system).
<br><br>
If you want <EM>networking</EM> between these two systems, over the
serial line; that's a different story. You should be able to
establish a SLIP or PPP connection between the two. Once you've
done that you could run any of the TCP/IP protocols over the
line. However, it's much trickier to do that --- and I have
no idea how Win '98 will handle it.
<br><br>
(Under early revisions of Win '95 I remember complaints that
the supplied PPP drivers and their user interface was
configured to work with MSN (Microsoft Network --- their
ISP) and that it required some utility from the "Plus Pack"
to allow one to create and maintain a "chat" script --- a
way to log in and configure/establish a PPP session with
any other ISP.
<br><br>
It seems that MS also added features in their NT 4.x (RAS?,
RRAS?) that allow these systems to act as recipients of the
stock Win '95 MS-CHAP authentication method. I guess this was
a bid to convince ISP's to adopt Windows NT for their work.
<br><br>
Meanwhile Gert Doering (and others?) released the AutoPPP
extensions or patches to '<TT>mgetty</TT>.'
<br><br>
'<TT>mgetty</TT>' is Gert's very popular "modem getty" line that allows
a modem line to be shared between terminal, fax, network and
even voice (with some modems) for both incoming and outgoing
use. One of the features of '<TT>mgetty</TT>' is that it can be
configured to recognize certain login strings ("user name
patterns") as a directive to use an alternative '<TT>login</TT>' program.
<br><br>
Thus you can configure you modem line to use ppplogin when
given a "user" name of the form: Pmaryjoe, and to use a
traditional '<TT>login</TT>' when presented with others.
<br><br>
I personally haven't set up AutoPPP. However, a quick
Yahoo! search on the string: "<TT>+mgetty +autoppp</TT>" gives
about 450 Alta Vista hits. Most of these are from the
Linux ISP mailing list. I didn't spot any that covered
AutoPPP over a null modem.
<br><br>
Trying a search string like:
<CODE>+ "null modem" +mgetty +win + "95"</CODE>
<br><br>
... didn't help either. Though it did return a bunch of
links to Linux Gazett mirror sites carrying issues 18,
25, and 28 (false hits in this case)
<br><br>
Somewhere on the Linux ISP mailing list archives
I found a thread about "null serial" that was on target
but not very informative. Someone mentioned that the
Win '95 PPP couldn't handle direct connection --- and
suggested Trumpet Winsock (a third party TCP/IP suite for
Windows --- and DOS --- for years before MS had ever heard
of TCP/IP).
<br><br>
So, it may not be easy to get networking configured over
a null modem line so long as Win '9x is on one end of it.
However, I bet it would be possible. You should probabl
create a "modem emulation" driver for Linux that would
allow the Win '9x box to work as though it were sending
AT commands to a modem. The "modem emulation" driver
could implement a small AT command subset (responding to
every valid <pause>+++<pause>AT sequence with "<TT>OK</TT>" or
the appropriate response).
<br><br>
In the long run it's probably far easier to buy a couple
of ethernet cards (less than $30 each) and a 10baseT
"cross over" cable (necessary if you're not going through
a hub, and sometimes necessary to cascade one hub off of
another). Not only is ethernet much faster than serial
--- it is currently much easier to configure and support
(for networking). Another advantage is that you can
later expand; buy a 4, 5 or 8 port ethernet hub and you
can wire up the whole house (actually I've almost filled
two 8 port hubs here --- but I'm a little different).
<br><br>
Conclusion: You can easily use the serial/null modem
for simple terminal access. You might be able to get it
working as a networking interface, but you might have
quite a bit of trouble convincing Win '9x to do PPP over
a "direct" or "null modem" connection. So you might have
to look for a third party PPP replacement (which may
need to be upgraded between the Win '95 and Win '98 versions)
--- or you might be able to write some weird "modem emulation"
on the Linux side. For networking it will be much easier
to buy a couple of ethernet cards.
</blockquote>
<p><hr width="40%" align="center"></p>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Linux help </H3>
<p><strong>From Chris Gushue on 04 Jun 1998
<br><br>
Thanks a lot for your thorough and quick response! It was just what I was
looking for, just a basic login to my Linux box to play around with it until
I get around to buying a hub and network cards. It kind of funny though,
using my K6/233 Win98 machine as a dumb terminal to my 486/100 Linux box
<img src="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":-)">
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I was using that VAResearch machine that I reviewed for
the Linux Journal ("<TT>betelgeuse</TT>": a 266Mhz PII with 64Mb of
RAM and a 4Mb Matrox Millenium video) as a dumb terminal to
my old 33Mhz 386 ("<TT>antares</TT>") for months. The old 386 was
where all my mail and news was. It's still the network hub,
mail and news server for the house (though now I use '<TT>fetchmail</TT>'
everything over to "<TT>canopus</TT>" a home built P166; the wife
mostly took over the PII).
<br><br>
The 386 is the most stable machine in the house -- it's the
only one on a UPS.
</blockquote>
<!-- end body -->
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright ©</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 30 July 1998</H5>
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