Re: Simplest way to turn an excel column into a savedlist

"Tony Gravagno" wrote
<snip>
There are many differentiators between this and AccuTerm. You don't
need to install/license AccuTerm to use it. XChange works across the
internet, where AccuTerm is LAN-based due to telnet.
<snip>
Tony Gravagno
Nebula Research and Development
TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com

Accuterm can often be constrained to LAN use, but this can be overcome;
firstly, the old accuterm 97 only offered telnet protocol, not ssh. {None of
your business clients should be allowing outsiders to telnet in to their
campus from the internet, as it is a notorious security risk.}
Secondly, many of your clients will be reluctant to provide an ssh server
and adjust their campus wideband router / firewall / whatever to allow
port 22 (the ssh port) connections from the internet, even though this is the
most reasonable way to accept outside 'dialins.' [Free download cygnuswin
can optionally include an ssh server for windows, and redhat has one already.]
Accuterm 2k2 and accuterm 2000 offer both telnet and ssh protocols, {and
if you can accept the minimal terminal emulation features of the free download
'putty', it too can act as an ssh client for dialing in to an ssh server, although
that wouldn't help in the current topic of shovelling Excel column info to a pick
server.}
So, you've got a client with their pick box hidden behind their wideband router,
which probably won't allow 'conversations' that didn't start with one of their users
clicking on a web page or something. Technically they're not ultimately isolated,
since internet web page servers are allowed to reply to user browsers,
but only because the conversation started from inside the company campus.
To solve this problem,
A) ask one of their staff to download putty to the windows box
that is running the pick database {if this is pick on top of linux or aix or whatever,
you just need to make sure there is an ssh client available on that operating system;
you can do the linux command which ssh to confirm this; expect a reply like
/usr/bin/ssh}
B) supposing you've got a laptop you want to dial in to their system from,
and it is on an internet-side ip address of 11.22.33.44 right now, you need to provide
an
ssh server on your laptop and tell your firewall / wideband router / whatever to allow
connections on port 22. If instead your laptop is running linux, just enable sshd
there.
C) talk their staff into running putty, connecting to your laptop with
tunneling
set up. You'll need to provide an account / password on your laptop for them to log in
to;
sadly will need to be an administrative - type account if you're using cygnuswin on
your laptop.
While their putty session to your laptop remains open, you'll be able to sit at your
laptop
and telnet {or accuterm using telnet} to localhost 1234
and see a login greeting from their pick server. When done for the day, exit out of
pick,
and either call their staff up and tell them to exit out of their putty session to your
laptop,
or just kill your laptop's ssh server briefly to knock them off.
Since their staff voluntarily started the putty/ssh session to your laptop, their
wideband router
will happily allow the whole conversation; your wideband router/firewall/etc allows it
because
you took the trouble to open up port 22 inbound. Ssh is an ecrypted protocol, unlike
telnet,
so security should be maintained. One of the checkboxes of putty session
configuration is to
send keepalive packets every so many seconds (zero disables it), so their router won't
consider
the conversation extinct if you go answer the doorbell or ponder a screen too long.
When they set up the putty connection, they should click the left side menu tree at
'tunnels',
as in connections ---> ssh ---> tunnels, then on right side of screen
leave unchecked the box "Local ports accept connections from other hosts"
but check the box below that, "Remote ports do the same (ssh v2 only)"

also check the circle that just says "remote"

fill in the "source:" box with 1234
fill in the "destination:" box with localhost:23
{assuming you're having them run putty on the pick server;
if instead they're on their own winbox but pick is on lan address 192.168.0.2
then destination should be 192.168.0.2:23 instead}
click on 'add' button, observe scrolling list gets line item
R1234 localhost:23
or R1234 192.168.0.2:23
now click on left-side menu tree at the word 'connection'
on right side of screen,
not sure if it matters, but I change the default terminal type
string from xterm to vt100
you can type in the account name you set up in your
laptop for their connection to you in the box 'auto-logon
username'
change the keepalive interval to say 200 instead of zero.
now click on left-side menu tree at word 'session'
on right side of screen,
fill in circle 'ssh' , observe the 'port' box changes to 22.
fill in the hostname box with 11.22.33.44 or whatever your laptop
current ip is on internet.
They can save all this off by filling 'saved sessions' box with Hello and clicking
Save button.
in future they can open putty, click Hello line item and click Load button.
11.22.33.44 may need
tweaking if no longer true, though.
After clicking 'Save' or 'Load' button, as the case may be, start the session by
clicking the 'Open' button.
See a requestor for password {and userid, if they didn't set up an auto-logon
username}
Note this userid / password pair is whatever you set up on your laptop for the
ssh session, is unrelated
to pick accounts. If you're using cygnuswin you can change the windows
password for the account using
the usual windows tools for that and ssh server will instantly adopt the
changed password, no need to restart it.
They should see a new window open, with a command prompt showing current directory
and trailing $ or #

If your laptop is going through a wideband router to hit the internet, you'll have
to readjust the port 22 'hole'
in that router's settings every time you change the lan address of your laptop, so
suggest you arrange to have
that lan address stay fixed from week to week.




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