DOS ain't dead

There is a new version of mTCP available at http://code.google.com/p/mtcp/ . The major changes are:

- FTP server: Change drive letter and path handling to improve compatibility with more clients; add a MOTD feature; fix a bug that slowly leaked data sockets during error conditions; rewrite the local screen handling to improve performance and add some local status commands; improve error detection and reporting on the password file; etc.

- IRCjr: allow editing of the user input with something more sophisticated than the backspace key.

- FTP client: make "PASV" mode transfers the default


Enjoy!
Mike

> - FTP server: Change drive letter and path handling to improve
> compatibility with more clients; add a MOTD feature; fix a bug that slowly
> leaked data sockets during error conditions; rewrite the local screen
> handling to improve performance and add some local status commands; improve
> error detection and reporting on the password file; etc.

Is there anything stored in your PCJr. FTP server ? I tried to
connect to it using the FTP client of the Lynx 2.8.5 browser and it
did not return anything; I tried also with WGET and it did return an
empty index directory.
The connection was a PPP dial-up using dosppp and the O/S was EDRDOS.

> > - FTP server: Change drive letter and path handling to improve
> > compatibility with more clients; add a MOTD feature; fix a bug that
> slowly
> > leaked data sockets during error conditions; rewrite the local screen
> > handling to improve performance and add some local status commands;
> improve
> > error detection and reporting on the password file; etc.
>
> Is there anything stored in your PCJr. FTP server ? I tried to
> connect to it using the FTP client of the Lynx 2.8.5 browser and it
> did not return anything; I tried also with WGET and it did return an
> empty index directory.
> The connection was a PPP dial-up using dosppp and the O/S was EDRDOS.

There was, but I had it up and running for testing before I released the code. I finally shut the machine down after four or five days of continuous running.

(I'm not ready to leave it on full time .. for something mundane like an FTP server. A telnet BBS would be more worthy for vintage hardware.)


On a related note, there is a bug in the FTP server and the way it interacts with FreeDOS when looking for valid drives. The nature of the bug says that it should miss network drives; it is missing *all* drives. I'm working on understanding the bug and will have it fixed ASAP.


Mike

> On a related note, there is a bug in the FTP server and the way it
> interacts with FreeDOS when looking for valid drives. The nature of the
> bug says that it should miss network drives; it is missing *all* drives.
> I'm working on understanding the bug and will have it fixed ASAP.

I assume this is (partially) fixed in (still) latest Oct. 4th version. (Just FYI in case anyone missed it.)

> > On a related note, there is a bug in the FTP server and the way it
> > interacts with FreeDOS when looking for valid drives. The nature of the
> > bug says that it should miss network drives; it is missing *all* drives.
>
> > I'm working on understanding the bug and will have it fixed ASAP.
>
> I assume this is (partially) fixed in (still) latest Oct. 4th
> version. (Just FYI in case anyone missed it.)

Indeed it is fixed. I'm so embarrassed by the screwup. Especially since I was able to replace it with simpler, more portable code that worked correctly.

I think this will be the last update for a little while, unless somebody sends me a killer idea to work on. I have one or two tweaks to add to the TCP library but I am mostly of out of ideas/apps for the project.

I am thinking about doing a network virtual hard drive installed by device driver, but that is just in the 'interesting idea' category at the moment. The target there would be for older/small machines where SMB overhead is not needed or desired.


Mike

---
mTCP - TCP/IP apps for vintage DOS machines!
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP

> I think this will be the last update for a little while, unless somebody
> sends me a killer idea to work on. I have one or two tweaks to add to the
> TCP library but I am mostly of out of ideas/apps for the project.

Fine with me, and thanks for your efforts!

> 2011-10-29:
>
> The Oct 29t release fixes a Telnet options negotiation bug.
> Telnet should now be reliable when connecting to servers that
> send out a large number of telnet options. The other mTCP
> program are unchanged.

And thanks for keeping me honest there .. I should have posted something about the latest release (2011-10-29) for the Telnet bug fix, but I feel as though I've been spamming the mailing lists and boards too much lately.

Assuming there are no major problems, I'd like this to be the version that gets picked up for FreeDOS 1.1.


Mike

---
mTCP - TCP/IP apps for vintage DOS machines!
http://www.brutman.com/mTCP