WA7V.COM FAQs (frequently-asked questions)

Your telnet client must have local echo turned on.

Telnet clients that come prepackaged with recent Windows operating systems are configurable from the command line. When a telnet session is open, you may type ^] to change certain options (hold the ctrl key down, and press the right square-bracket). The display command will show your current settings. Simply typing

set localecho

will enable local echo. Pressing an empty carriage return will return you to your telnet session.

Also see the FAQ on third-party telnet clients to see what I recommend for more satisfying results!

There are countless third-party telnet clients available online. Some are free, others are not, but there are certainly a number of good alternatives for ham gateway users and their specific needs.

The telnet protocol was designed for remotely controlling console applications on servers, generally Unix servers. It is quite adequate for its intended purpose, but by default it isn't the greatest for keyboard chats. Normally, each key press is sent real-time from the telnet client to the server. Naturally, this behavior isn't too great for a packet QSO. HOWEVER, there are a few Windows telnet clients that have added features that help you get past this problem.

Probably the nicest one that I've seen is called CRT, by Van Dyke software:

http://www.vandyke.com/products/crt/index.html

It has a separate chat window that you can turn on, which is very nice for QSOs. On the downside, it is not free. At the time of this writing, the price was $35.00.

IMHO, the best solution for the budget-conscious ham is a free program called PuTTY. It is found here:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

In fact, I use it all the time on the job with SSH ("Secure SHell" --essentially an encrypted, secure version of telnet) to maintain my servers (when I'm on a Windoze box, at least). While it doesn't have a separate chat window, it does have an option that prevents it from sending characters until you press the enter key.

Here's how to get started with using PuTTY at ALWGW and other amateur gateways...

1. Download putty.exe from the PuTTY web site above, and save it wherever it is convenient. The binary is fairly small, easy to download, and requires no installation. Simple is nice!!!


2. Double-click your putty.exe binary to run it.


3. In the PuTTY configuration window, type "gw.wa7v.com" in the "host name" box, and select "telnet" protocol.


4. On the left side, select "terminal" category, then under "local line editing" on the right side, select "force on." This will ensure that your typing is not sent until you hit the enter key!


5. On the left side, select "session" category again, then type "ALWGW" in the "saved sessions" box. Finally, click the "save" button to save this session configuration for ALWGW. You shouldn't have to go through all of that again.


6. Click open, and you should be good to go! In the future, when you type putty, you'll be able to just double-click the ALWGW saved session, and open it.


7. If you want to send special characters or change certain options while the session is open, you can do that by right-clicking the PuTTY title bar. You don't have to exit all the way out and start over.

You need to set your telnet client for "local line editing" or the equivalent. If your telnet client doesn't have this option available, you should probably use a different telnet client.


See the FAQ on third-party telnet clients for my recommendation.