http://www.ant.co.uk/ant/prod/datasheets/inet.html (The Risc Disc Volume 2, 10/1995)

ANT Internet Tools Suite

DS008 - ANT Internet Tools Suite

The Internet is an international public data network which allows information of all kinds to be exchanged throughout the world between computers of all sizes and types. Sometimes misleadingly referred to as the "Information Superhighway", the Internet can be accessed using a single desktop computer and a modem. An Internet connection allows access to the full range of Internet services including electronic mail ('email'), newsgroups, World Wide Web hypertext servers, file transfer sites and a host of other utilities.

The ANT Internet Tools Suite provides the software neccessary to take advantage of the Internet from the RISC OS Desktop. A modem is the only extra hardware required - when coupled with a dialup Internet connection from a commercial service provider users can begin to access the world of the Internet right away. Contact addresses for some commercial Internet connection providers are shown overleaf.

A wide variety of tools are required for navigating and investigating the Internet. The ANT Internet Tools Suite provides a number of the essential tools as standard, but a flexible user interface allows for other tools to be included at a later date, including those from other software providers.

The Internet tools supported by the ANT Internet Tools Suite are described below:

Configuration manager (Internet connection control)

A single configuration application is provided for straightforward setup of the Internet connection. Depending on the user's circumstances this takes the form either of an Ethernet network connection or a Modem attached to the serial port. In either case various important system features must be configured including the Internet Address, Ethernet interface device driver, service provider telephone number, and modem type/control information.

ANT Marcel (Electronic Mail & Internet News)

Electronic mail and Internet newsgroups can be read and written using ANT's Marcel package. This application provides an easy-to-use method for receiving and sending email and news from the RISC OS Desktop: a single mouse click on Marcel's pillar box icon displays the email "InTray" or message sending dialogue. Selected email addresses and Internet newsgroups can be entered into the Marcel address book, removing the need to enter complex addresses when corresponding across the Internet.

Marcel supports the SMTP/MIME and NNTP protocols for full Internet compatibility.

For further details, see ANT DataSheet Marcel.

ANT Fresco (World Wide Web Browser & Gopher utility)

The increasingly popular World Wide Web hypertext format is widely used on the Internet to present information from remote sites across the globe. ANT's Fresco allows WWW pages to be downloaded and displayed under RISC OS. The contents of downloaded pages may be saved in a variety of formats including raw data, text, sprites and Draw for storage or use in other applications. An integrated Gopher utility presents WWW server information in the same format, simplifying the process of locating new servers.

Fresco supports the NNTP/HTML protocols for full Internet compatibility.

ANT OmniClient (Remote file server connectivity)

Where the user is attached directly to an Ethernet network ANT's OmniClient provides valuable connectivity for IBM PC, Macintosh and Unix file servers and may optionally be integrated with other Internet tools.

For further details, see ANT DataSheet OmniClient.

ANT FTP & TFTP (File transfer protocols)

The ability to download files from remote servers is an essential feature of the Internet. ANT's FTP filer presents the files offered by Internet FTP servers in the same style as files are seen on local hard discs and networks. A simple drag-and-drop operation is all that is required to select a file for downloading, whereupon the download operation takes place in the background while the user is free to continue with other work.

ANT's file transfer utilities employ the FTP and TFTP protocols for full Internet compatibility.

Terminal emulation (Telnet)

A selection of terminal emulators is supported by the ANT Internet Tools suite; third-party terminal emulators which may also be integrated with the Suite include:

Acorn's !VT220 terminal, part of the Acorn TCP/IP Protocol Suite, is the primary method of achieving terminal access to remote systems.

Gnome's !X is an X11R4-compatible X-Windows server

ANT's !RO3270 terminal is an IBM 3270-family emulator with some 5250 extensions.

Searching tools (Internet search/locate utilities)

Archie is a distributed Internet database of those files available from FTP sites around the globe. The Archie searching utility allows files to be located from RISC OS, whereupon they may be downloaded using the one of the file transfer tools in the suite.

Finger is a utility which extracts information about a user of a remote computer system and displays it locally.

Host is a utility which resolves the names of computers on the Internet into their raw machine addresses.

WhoIs performs a similar function to Finger for users within the .mil and .gov (military and governmental) domains in the USA.

Future developments are expected to include an X.500 interrogation utility.

Servers (Internet services for RISC OS)

A variety of server applications for RISC OS are included in the ANT Internet Tools Suite, with further applications under development. Many of these are hosted by the Core Services application which supports utilities ported from other systems such as INetD, FingerD, TimeD etc.

TelnetD allows terminal sessions using from other machines to the RISC OS server.

NFSD allows remote file access using the NFS protocol to files stored on the RISC OS server machine.

Future developments are expected to include World Wide Web and FTP/TFTP Servers for RISC OS.

Tools & Utilities

The Ethernet Packet Monitor permits the inspection of Ethernet packet traffic. The source and destination addresses of network packets are displayed in real time, allowing network problems to be diagnosed by experienced users. Data is not presented in a form which would allow passwords to be inspected or otherwise compromise network security.

The Remote Time utility synchronises the real-time clock of the local computer to that of a remote Internet host using standard protocols. This permits synchronisation accuracy of typically 1mS with global time reference sites. Reliable time stamping for data backup depends on good timekeeping, which is made easy by this application.

The DNS Resolver allows experienced users to interrogate the Domain Name Servers (DNS) database for Internet address resolution. It is similar to but provides more advanced features than the Host utility noted above.

Availability

The Internet Suite will be available in the fourth quarter 1995 from ANT Ltd. Pricing details will be announced at this time.