This page will include helpful hints and tips on how to access your
TimeShare400 account and get the most out of your subscription. If you
have any questions about your account of connectivity, check here first.
Please check our Frequently Asked Questions (see below) before contacting
support.
Frequently Asked Questions
I need some terminal emulation software. What is available for
freeware, shareware or retail software?
There are several options out there for terminal emulation software. For
some ideas, click here.
I tried pointing my emulation software at www.timeshare400.com but did not
get a sign-on screen. What's wrong?
The web page (www.timeshare400.com) is hosted at a regular ISP. That
is not the address of the TimeShare400 machine. Check the email you
received when you signed up. It will have the URL that you are looking
for.
I keep getting disconnected from the server after only
a few minutes of inactivity. How can I fix this?
There is an 'inactivity timer' defined on the server,
but this is typically set to an hour or two. If you are getting
disconnected after only a few minutes of inactivity, the most common reason
is a lack of 'keep alive' activity coming from your telnet client.
This is most commonly seen as the connection dropping after only 10 minutes
of inactivity. Most (maybe all) telnet client software includes an
option to turn on 'keep alive'. This feature will send an occasional
packet to the server just to keep your TCP/IP connection open. This
feature should be turned on in order for you to maintain your connection.
To turn on 'keep alive' in various telnet clients, do the following:
For Mochasoft:
- If you are
signed on to the server, sign off. Your session may automatically
disconnect from the server. If it doesn't click on the 'Close' button,
or click File, Disconnect.
- Click on the
'Open' button, or click File, Connect.
- In the Connect
dialog, click the Advanced button.
- Check the box
'Send Keep-Alive'
- Click OK to
proceed
For Client Access:
Client Access is not so user-friendly in terms of
turning on keep-alive. There is an excellent tech tip for turning on
keep-alive here
http://www.lisug.org/Techtipclientaccess.htm . Please review this
information. I will summarize it here, but if you have any trouble,
please refer to the link above.
To turn on keep alive, you need to edit the session's
.WS file. For example, if you named your session ABC5D1.WS, the .WS
file would typically be
c:\program files\ibm\client
access\emulator\private\abc5d1.ws
Find this file and edit it using Notepad.
In the section [Telnet5250], add the following
parameter:
KeepAlive=Y
If the section doesn't exist, create the section and
the parameter.
This 'tweak' has had mixed results. If you
continue to get disconnected using Client Access, try using Mocha instead.
Results using Mocha have been very good.
For Nexus:
If your session is logged on, log off.
If your session is connected, click Session,
Disconnect.
Click Session, Session Setup. Make sure that
both Socket Keep-alive and Telnet Keep-alive are checked. Click OK.
General Windows Settings
In some cases, the above changes may not fix the
problem. Your issue may be caused by your PC timing out on it's
connection to your router or firewall. If this connection 'times out',
then when the AS/400 attempts to do a 'keep alive' check, it can't get
through to your telnet software, and hence gets a 'keep alive' error and
ends your connection. In this case, you need to tell Windows to do a
'keep alive' routine with your gateway. This can be done with Registry
Editor (REGEDIT). Editing the registry is dangerous, so please don't
attempt this unless you're comfortable with this type of thing.
Set a Windows Keepalive timeout on your PC, so any
firewalls or other boxes see activity from your PC. Navigate to the
following registry entry (you may need to create KeepAliveTime as a DWORD),
you can set the value in milliseconds. For example, 10 seconds would be set
as 10000 decimal in the DWORD. If your sessions are timing out after
10 minutes of inactivity, try setting the keep alive time to 2 minutes
(decimal value 120000). This will cause your PC to send a keep alive
to your gateway every 120 seconds.
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TcpIp\Parameters\KeepAliveTime
I can't seem to connect to the TimeShare400 machine. What could be
wrong?
If you've connected before and suddenly you can't get a connection, it's
possible that your previous session was disconnected without signing off.
If you are using a named device (like YOURNAMED1) it's possible that your
device is still active, so you can't connect to it. Try changing your
device name to YOURNAMED2 and see if you can connect. If you can
connect and if you really do have a broken connection, the signon procedure
will disconnect (not end) the other job and send you a break message.
At that point, you should disconnect, change the device back to YOURNAMED1
and reconnect. Your job will be connected right where you left off.
If this doesn't work, or if you are trying to connect for the first time,
follow the steps below.
First, make sure that you are connected to the internet. Surf around
to a couple web pages. Point your browser to the URL given in your
sign-up email. If you get a web page, then the TimeShare400 machine is
up and running. If you don't get a web page, then the connection may be
down at the TimeShare400 end.
If that's OK, make sure that your Telnet client is getting out to the
web. Try telnet-ing to some SMTP server (you can't really do anything,
but you'll confirm that your telnet plumbing is working). For example,
from Windows do Start, Run, and on Open: line, type
telnet mail.netcom.com 25
You should get a response from Netcom's SMTP server. You can also try
something like this from your 5250 telnet client, but the key is the port 25
for connecting to an SMTP box.
If that works, check the configuration of your telnet client. Make
sure that the URL is correct. If you are pointing to an IP address
instead of the URL, make sure that the IP address is correct. From a DOS
box, try:
ping <URL>
where <URL> is the address of the TimeShare400 machine (not
www.timeshare400.com). Write down the IP address that comes up in the
brackets (ex: [12.34.123.45]). That should be the IP address in your
telnet client.
If you are on a network with a firewall, check with your firewall guru that
you are allowed to telnet out to the web, and that the IP address you got from
the Ping is allowed. Also - some firewalls convert IP from the web to
IPX for the internal network. Ask your firewall guru about this
one. If this is your situation, you and the guru will have to figure
this one out...
I'm using Client Access (not Express). I need an IP address.
How do I get it?
Client Access Express, Mocha, Rumba etc., can all be set up to use the URL
of the destination AS400 (this URL was provided to you in your 'welcome'
email). Client Access requires an IP address and an AS400 system
name. If you forgot the IP address, you can probably get it by using the
PING program in DOS. Go out to a DOS box and type
PING the.url.you.got.in.your.email
The IP address should now be displayed.
How do I print?
Your welcome email included some information about printing.
Basically, you'll need a telnet client that supports printing, and it will
need to support a named print device. A good (and free) printer
emulator is TN400. You can download the software here,
and please also download the sample configuration files here.
The print device will need to be
named as described in the email - YOURNAMEP1. Once the client connects,
you may have to do a
STRPRTWTR YOURNAMEP1
from the command line of the AS400. If nothing comes out, go to the
command line and do a
WRKOUTQ YOURNAMEP1
Make sure that there's something there to be printed, and check to see if a
spooled file is at MSGW status. If so, use option 7 to respond to the
message.
I have some libraries on another AS400 that I want to back up and transfer
to my account. How do I do that?
Check out the News/400 Tips and Tech article written by TimeShare400's
President... it's at
http://www.systeminetwork.com/Resources/ClubTech/TNT400/bo400ng/as400savf.htm
. It describes how to back things up from a save file and ftp it to
another machine.
I want to use FTP to transfer files to my IFS directory. When I
connect with FTP, I'm in the QSYS library system. How to I change to the
IFS location?
Let's say you're connecting using FTP from a DOS box. When you
connect with FTP, you typically connect to your user profile's Current
Library, for example XYZ1L1. To get to the IFS, do the following:
cd /
quote site nam 1
cd /home/xyz10101
You are now in your home directory. To get back to your library, do
the following:
cd /
cd qsys.lib
quote site nam 0
cd xyz1l1
You're now back where you started.
I have some source code on my PC (in text files) that I want to upload to
the AS/400. How do I do that?
You can FTP the ASCII text into a source file member. After
connecting to the AS/400 via FTP with your name and password, try this:
put c:\mydir\abcdrpg.txt /qsys.lib/mylib.lib/qrpgsrc.fil/abcdrpg.mbr
Now, sign on and check the source member. You might have some trouble
with column spacing, since your ASCII text file might not match up with the
source member record layout. If you have trouble, download a similar
member to your PC and check the column spacing. You can download a
member with the following command:
get /qsys.lib/mylib.lib/qrpgsrc.fil/myprog.mbr c:\myprog.mbr
Now use your PC text editor to see the layout.
Can I use Operations Navigator?
Yes. But - if you are on a network with a firewall, you'll need a
bunch of non-standard ports opened up. For more information on these
ports, check out http://www.as400.ibm.com/clientaccess/fwoverview.htm.
Some other ports used by Client Access are listed here:
http://www-912.ibm.com/n_dir/nas4apar.NSF/c79815e083182fec862564c00079d117/fcc664db54c4c549862568720047b5fd?OpenDocument&Highlight=2,ii12227
Can I map a drive to my IFS directory?
Yes. Again, you'll need those ports opened up if you've got a
firewall, and you'll need Client Access Express.
My individual account is limited to a single device session. What
happens if my connection gets broken while I'm still signed on?
If you've connected before and suddenly you can't get a connection, it's
possible that your previous session was disconnected without signing
off. If you are using a named device (like YOURNAMED1) it's possible
that your device is still active, so you can't connect to it. Try
changing your device name to YOURNAMED2 and see if you can connect. If
you can connect and if you really do have a broken connection, the signon
procedure will attempt to disconnect (not end) the other job and send you a break
message. At that point, you should disconnect, change the device back to
YOURNAMED1 and reconnect. Your job will be connected right where you
left off. Some terminal emulators (like Windows Telnet) can't be
'disconnected' because they show up on the AS400 as 'server jobs'. Those
connections will be ended instead of disconnected. Most decent emulators
(Nexus, Mocha, Client Access Express) will support disconnection properly.
I am using Mocha and would like to set up multiple telnet device
names. How do I do that?
Mocha allows you set a single device name within the software. To use
multiple devices (which allows you to sign on multiple sessions) the easiest
way is to use shortcuts on your desktop or in a folder.
To use this technique to create a shortcut for device ABC3D01:
- Right click anywhere on your desktop
- Choose New.
- Choose Shortcut.
- The location of the item is
C:\Mochasoft\mtn5250.exe /hxxx.yyy.zzz.com /nABC3D01
/dABC3D01
- The name for this shortcut should be ABC3D01.
This procedure applies to Win2k. The process for other versions of Windows
would be similar.
You can create other device connections by replacing ABC3D01 with ABC3D02,
etc. Replace the ABC3 with the 4 character prefix for your account, and
replace the xxx.yyy.zzz.com with the host name provided to you for accessing
the service.
Can I FTP from my account to another computer?
You can get an FTP connection from the internet to the TimeShare400 AS/400
(i.e. from the Outside In). From this connection, you can GET and PUT
stuff. For security reasons, you are not allowed to establish an FTP
connection from the TimeShare400 machine to another machine (i.e. from the
Inside Out). In other words, you can not go to a command line on the
AS400 and do
FTP SOME.OTHER.MACHINE.COM
You can FTP things back and forth from the AS400 by initiating the
connection from the outside in.
I can connect with FTP, but it hangs. What's wrong?
FTP actually uses two ports - 21 (ftp) and 20 (passive ftp). A common
complaint is that you connect to ftp, the try and do a LIST command. The
command hangs until your connection times out. This symptom is
indicative of the port 20 (passive ftp) connection not working properly.
If you are connecting from a network that has a firewall or proxy server,
check with your firewall guru. Your firewall will need to support
passive FTP connections. This gets tricky for proxy servers, because the
passive port is opened by the remote FTP server to come back to the FTP
client. The FTP server only sees your proxy server's IP address, so it tries
to open a port 20 connection to your proxy server. Your proxy server software
has to be smart enough to manage the connection from the host all the way back
to you.
Can I access the tape drive?
Individual subscribers are not allowed access to the tape drive without
special arrangements. This is because subscriber save file libraries (SVYOURNAME)
are backed up to tape each night. If you were able to see the tape
drive, it might be possible for you to restore someone else's library.
I have developed some software on your machine, and I want to create a CD
for distribution. How do I do that?
Contact support at timeshare400@arctools.com
. We do have CD image creation software available on the AS/400.
We can arrange to create a burn-able image. It requires use of the tape
drive, so it must be run by TimeShare400 personnel. There may be an
additional charge.
How often do you do backups?
SAVSYS and full system backups are done occasionally, perhaps
monthly. This requires the machine to be off line for some period of
time. An email message will be sent out to all subscribers ahead of time
warning of the down time.
Nightly backups are performed on the SVxxxx libraries. These are the
libraries where subscribers are expected to run their own backups. You
should run your own backups of your libraries to save files in the SVYOURNAME
library. You run them on whatever schedule you feel comfortable
with. The SVYOURNAME library will then be backed up to tape.
BACKUPS OF YOUR LIBRARIES ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. FULL SYSTEM BACKUPS
ARE INFREQUENT, SO DON'T COUNT ON BEING ABLE TO RESTORE FROM ANY TAPE!
You could also FTP your save files if you want an off site backup of your
stuff.
Can I receive email on my account?
For security reasons, SMTP mail out of the AS400 is disabled by
default. If you need SMTP capability for an application you are
developing, you will need to make special arrangements. Contact support
at timeshare400@arctools.com
. No inbound internet mail will be accepted by the AS400. If you
need this capability, contact support.
How do I ensure that other subscribers don't see my stuff?
When your account was created, you were given a set of libraries.
These libraries were create with the option PUBLIC(*EXCLUDE). This means
that no other users can see your libraries. IF YOU CREATE A LIBRARY ON
YOUR OWN BE SURE TO USE THE PUBLIC(*EXCLUDE) OPTION. The default on the
AS400 is PUBLIC(*CHANGE), which means that others can see and modify your
stuff. BE CAREFUL!!!
TimeShare400 takes no responsibility if you create a library and fail to
use the *EXCLUDE option. We will occasionally check libraries for that
parameter, but, again, make no guarantees.
Can I develop web applications on TimeShare400?
Absolutely. You will need to coordinate with support, since the HTTP
server will require some configuration to be able to access your web
objects. You can develop web content in either your IFS directories or
in your AS/400 libraries, or both. Contact support for more information.
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