A new version of QCTerm (version 0.96e, May 10, 2002) is now available for
immediate downloading from:

     http://aics-research.com/qcterm

This version's most significant enhancements allow for the easy use of ports
in IP addresses and for the automation of modem dial-in scripts. For more
explanation about modem scripts, please see the expanded material on scripts
at the bottom of the page at:

     http://aics-research.com/qcterm/manual.html

As to ports, two different syntaxes have become common. HTML URLs are written:

     67.41.4.238:9423

where the colon is the delimiter that separates the port address from the IP
portion. UNIX weenies, on the other hand, have adopted a space syntax:

     67.41.4.238 9423

This version of QCTerm supports both syntaxes, both in the Connection
Settings/Host box and in the automated logon scripts. Further, the Connection
Settings/Host box now also accepts comments in each line if they are enclosed
in brackets "[....]", as in these examples:

     67.41.4.238 9423 [927 public server]
     67.41.4.238 [927 public server] 9423
     [927 public server] 67.41.4.238 9423

All three of the above examples are equivalent. The material between the
brackets (including the brackets themselves) is simply removed before the
IP/port address is processed, so it really doesn't matter where the comments
occur.

For the first time, the enhancements that occur in this version of QCTerm
were put in because of our needs. We just switched over to ADSL (4Mbps
down/1Mbps up), using Qwest as our ISP. The way that Qwest has DSL set up, we
now only have access to one usable IP address, 67.41.4.238. In order to put
all of our various servers up onto the internet, we have had to adopt a
combination of network address translation (NAT) and port address translation
(PAT), a process that Cisco seems to be actively promoting.

Our five servers have these internal private-address-space IP addresses:

     192.168.1.1 = MPE/iX 5.5 918 training room HP3000
     192.168.1.2 = MPE/iX 6.5 918 backup, not exposed to internet
     192.168.1.3 = Dell Red Hat Linux 7.2 box
     192.168.1.4 = MPE/iX 6.0 927 primary server exposed to internet
     192.168.1.5 = MPE/iX 7.0 918 basically unused, not exposed to internet.

In order to connect these machines to the internet, we're now using PAT in
this fashion:

     67.41.4.238:21 = 192.168.1.4:21 (927 ftp)
     67.41.4.238:23 = 192.168.1.4.23 (927 telnet)
     67.41.4.238:80 = 192.168.1.3:80 (Dell Linux http)
     67.41.4.238:9121 = 192.168.1.1:21 (918 ftp)
     67.41.4.238:9123 = 192.168.1.1:23 (918 telnet)
     67.41.4.238:9321 = 192.168.1.3:21 (Dell Linux ftp)
     67.41.4.238:9323 = 192.168.1.3:23 (Dell Linux telnet)

...where the 9xxx port address is simply a combination of the server number
(1-5) with the port service (21,23, or 80) appended. In the first three
addresses above, the ports don't have to be specified when you telnet in
because the ports listed are the standard ports for the various services.

If IPv6 is never adopted, and it seems as if there's about a 50/50 chance
that it won't be, then PAT is likely going to become quite common. It's a
very easy way to conserve IP addresses by putting a fair number of servers
onto the same physical address.

Wirt Atmar

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