Re: [NTLK] NPDS on a MP130?

From: Paul Guyot (pguyot_at_kallisys.net)
Date: Thu Oct 11 2001 - 16:38:43 EDT


>Way Wong and all adventurers,
>i'm also ready to try to set up a server using an upgraded 2000 MP . i
>too use earthlink but i'm connected via DSL. i have a asante router
>that networks my imac running the newest versions of OSX /OS 9.2. i
>will use this to network my newton too. i have a ethernet card( 3com
>megahertz modem #3CXE589EC). i too would appreciate any/all info any
>one has with this set up.

Setting up a Newton with a router to serve web pages is a several
steps-process:

a/ configure the Newton as a client of the router to have a regular
internet access on it. This depends on your router (hardware,
software), but it's similar to configure any other computer (except
that it's easier IMHO). Please note that the DHCP client on the
Newton doesn't release/renew DHCP lease. So if you plan to plug your
Newton for a long time (typical when serving), try to avoid DHCP or
set the lease on your router to a very high value so the chances that
it will give the IP to someone else are low. Some router may even not
route computers with an unallocated IP, so in a nutshell, DHCP can be
a source of trouble.

Once done, i.e. you can check your mail or browse the internet or
telnet or whatever from your Newton (time synchronization is a good
test, too), you're ready for step (b).

b/ configure your router to automatically forward requests on a given
port to the same port on your Newton. Technically, you could have a
public port different from the private port, but NPDS doesn't support
this option. Just tell me that you can't do otherwise, and I'll
implement it. This setup shouldn't be hard, just look into the doc of
your router.

c/ download (the branch Adam, Victor and I contributed to can be
found at http://npds.free.fr/) install and configure NPDS to serve on
that port. Also, configure the tracker client to send the IP of your
router, as your Newton will have a private IP, by checking the box
"Newton is in a LAN" (here I'm talking about the version of the
tracker client which can be found in the site mentioned above) and
putting the router's IP in the Public IP field which appears. This
step is very important because
i/ if you use Matt's tracker, beware to not register twice with the
same name and different IPs as you might well steal other's line in
the list of registered Newtons
ii/ if you don't do this and send your private IP, not only the
tracker will not be able to find you (and unregister you) but
moreover, visitors will not be able to visit you neither. And also,
Victor usually threatens to close his tracker to private IPs when he
sees that.

Alternatively, you can use a dynamic domain name instead of the IP
(useful if your router's IP can change) and update this domain name
through the services of your dynamic domain name service provider
(such as dyndns). There is no client on the Newton, so either use a
browser on the Newton as there is usually an HTTP interface or a
client on another machine to update the IP. I can help with dyndns
and MacOS which is what I use.

d/ Press the start button on NPDS. Don't do it before. Choose the
appropriate Internet Setup configuration. Then check that everything
is correct, i.e. you appear on the tracker page. It's normal that you
can't connect to your Newton from the tracker's page. If you can,
it's very likely that you registered your private IP and nobody but
you can connect to your Newton.
However, you can check that your router is forwarding incoming
packets properly by using (for example) W3 validator service
http://validator.w3.org/. It's useless to call your neighbor for that
as the W3 does it pretty well. Enter your Newton's URL (as it is on
the tracker page) and ask the validator service to validate your
Newton. It will tell you if it failed to connect to the server and
check the syntax of your page otherwise.

If you used a domain name, though, you can tell your other machines
on your LAN that this domain name links to the private IP of your
Newton. This way, clicking on the link on the tracker client page
works for you as well. But this is the very last step if everything
else worked.

HTH,

Paul

-- 
Home page: http://www.kallisys.com/
Newton-powered WebServer: http://newt.dyndns.org:8080/

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