ZTerm was designed to run on a machine with at least 1 megabyte of memory, using the MacPlus or later ROMs and running System 6 or later. It may run on earlier systems/ROMs, but I don’t have the equipment to test this. I have made every attempt to make it usable by the largest number of users.
Installation
In most cases, the only file you will need for installation is the ZTerm application itself. You can also use the ZPhoneList file that is distributed. (It’s just a sample.) If it does not find the ZPhoneList file in the same directory as the application, it will create a new one.
If you are using a Mac 512 or MacPlus with System 7, you will need to install the ZTerm Keyboard file into your System in order to be able to use the Option key as a Control key. You also need to set the ‘Option for Control’ check box in Terminal Preferences. This should only be used with the US System software, because it is a modified version of the US keyboard resource. If you are using a non-US system, you can set ZTerm to use the Command key as a Control key (in the Terminal Preferences dialog).
Now you are ready to run ZTerm and set it up.
Setting Preferences
The top half of the Settings menu are settings for each service. All the options in these dialogs are stored separately for each service. The lower half of this menu is for preferences, which are global. This means when you set the Receive Folder, it will be the same for all services.
Select the General Preferences item. The TEXT file creator determines how TEXT files created by ZTerm (by capture, Save Selection, etc) are marked. Use the pop up menu to select the text editor or word processor that you want to use to read text files. Click on OK, then select Terminal Preferences. Change the font size if desired. The custom terminal fonts in ZTerm are in 9 or 12 point. Any other size will not look very good. If you have a 9 inch screen, you will probably want to use the 9 point font to be able to get a 24 by 80 terminal window. If you have a larger monitor, you may want to use 12 point, which is easier on the eyes.
Now select Modem Preferences. First, select the port that your modem or connection is attached to. The Initialization string is sent to your modem when you start ZTerm. In many cases, you can leave this empty and ZTerm will work fine. But if you use other communications software, it might leave your modem in a different configuration. For example, some software might set your modem to send “numeric result codes” instead of “verbal result codes.” When most Hayes compatible modems connect, the verbal result code is CONNECT 2400 (or some other speed). The numeric result would be 10 (or 1 or 5). ZTerm wants to see the verbal responses, so setting the modem to verbal result codes is a good thing to put in the initialization string. The default initialization string for ZTerm is “ATE1V1^M”. The AT is used to get the modems attention for a command. E1 means to turn on the echoing of commands. V1 tells it to use verbal result codes. The ^M means Control-M, which is the same as a RETURN. This tells modem that you are finished typing, and to process the command. The init string that I use is ATE1V1S11=70^M. The S11=70 means to set register 11 to a value of 70. Register 11 sets the duration and spacing of touch tones in milliseconds. On my modem, the default is 95, so setting it to 70 makes it dial a little faster. See the section on modem commands for more information.
The DeInitialize string is like the Initialization string, but it is sent when you quit ZTerm. You can usually leave this blank, but you may want to use it to disable something that you turned on in the init string. For example, if your init string turns on the auto answer feature of the modem, you may want to turn it off when you exit ZTerm.
The Dial Substitution strings can be used for things that could be common to several services. I have set •1 to “*70,” which will disable call waiting. Then I can put •1 in front of the phone number for a service, and it will dial the *70 first. The comma after the zero causes a pause in the dialing, usually one second. You could use one of the dial substitutions for your long distance numbers. You might normally set it to “1”, so it will use your normal long distance carrier, but if you wanted to try another, you could change the string to something like 10288, which will dial long distance using AT&T.
In the Color Preferences, you may want to check the Use Color option if you call PC based bulletin boards and you have a color monitor. Finally, use the Receive Folder selection to set the folder that you want downloaded file to go to.
Adding a New Service
Now let’s add a dial entry for a service that you use a lot, like a local bulletin board. First, select Directory from the Dial menu. Now click on the New button. This will bring up the connection dialog, with the service name and phone number blank. Enter the name for the service. This will appear in the dialing directory and the Dial menu, so you don’t want a super long name. Enter the phone number for the service. Select the highest data rate that you know your modem and the service can handle. Choose 8 data bits and no parity, unless you know that another format is required. The most common alternative is 7 data bits with either even or odd parity. This is more common on mainframes; almost all bulletin boards that run on personal computers will accept 8 data bits, no parity. Select 1 stop bit.
If you know the service does not echo what you type, check the Local Echo option. Most BBSs do echo what you type, so in most cases you leave this unchecked. You can usually leave XOn/XOff checked because most services support it. If you have a high speed modem and a hardware handshake cable, check that option. See the section on High Speed modems for more things you may need to set up. Click on OK and your new entry will now appear in the Dial directory and the Dial menu.
Now highlight your new service in the directory and click on the Terminal button, which brings up the Terminal settings dialog. The ‘No Extended Chars’ option should be checked unless you know the service uses extended characters. Extended characters are usually generated with the Option key and include the foreign characters and special symbols. If the service uses “ANSI graphics” you will want this option unchecked, and click on the PC ANSI-BBS emulation button. If the service is a Unix or DEC system, you will probably want to click on VT-100 emulation. If you use the VT100 keypad with this service, you should check that option. On many DEC systems, you will want to check the “Send RUBOUT for Backspace/Delete” option. Click on OK. Now with the highlight still on the service you just added, click on the Set button. The settings you just made for this service will be loaded and the window title will change to the name of the service to show you what settings are loaded.
The Text Pacing options are used when you are pasting to the modem, or sending a text file. See “Uploading a composed message” in the Terminal Functions section for more information on these settings. For now you can leave them as is.
Now select the Transfer Options command. The first two items set the default send and receive protocols for this service. A file transfer protocol is the set of rules two computers use to transfer a file from one to the other. You can start a file receive with the default protocol using Command-R and file send (default send protocol) with Command-S. The Command key is the one with the Clover-leaf (or Apple symbol) on it. It is usually used to select menu items with keyboard equivalents, like Command-Q to quit.
If you know what protocols the service supports, you can select these now. If you don’t, you can always set them later. Note that the B-Plus or Quick-B protocols used by CompuServe are not listed. This is because a B-Plus transfer on CompuServe is started by the CompuServe host by sending a special sequence. There is no menu in ZTerm to start a B-Plus transfer. If the service you are setting up is CompuServe, make sure you check the “CIS B+ / Quick-B Protocol” option. For X/YModem Error Checking, the “Try CRC, fallback to Checksum” option is usually the best. For the Sent Filenames option, the safest choice is “Remove funny characters.” If the service is a BBS running on an MS-DOS computer, you will want to select “MS-DOS (8.3) limits.” Click on OK.
If the service supports ZModem transfers, you may want to set the ZModem Options now. If the service is a Unix or Opus host, you can click one of those buttons, otherwise don’t worry about that part. Set the SubPacket Length to Auto and leave the remaining items blank or unchecked. Click on OK and you now have made all the settings for the service you just added.
Calling the New Service
So why not try calling this new service. There are two ways to dial a service. You can select it from the Dial menu, or you can highlight it in the Dialing Directory window and click on the Dial button. ZTerm will bring up the Dialing status window, which will show the name of the service and the number it is dialing. If the number is busy, it will usually show either BUSY or NO CARRIER in the Response field. The Attempts field shows how many times it dialed but failed to connect. It will keep trying until it connects successfully or you Cancel it with the Cancel button or hitting the ESC key. When it does connect, the dial status window will go away and it will print the connect message in the terminal window. Now that you are connected, you can log in and read messages or whatever you use the service for.
Downloading a File
When you want to download a file, you first must know what protocol is supported by the service and ZTerm. On most BBS’s, you can get a list of the supported protocols when you select the download command. XModem is supported by nearly all BBS software, so we will describe XModem downloads first. You need to know the name that the BBS uses for the file; there will be one or more commands you can give the BBS to list the files available for download. Also, the files are usually separated into different areas to make searching easier. You also need to know the command to start a download. Many BBS’s use ‘D’ for download. Next it will usually ask you what protocol to use. For this example, select XModem (or XModem-1k if available). It will also ask you what file you want to download.
Some systems may ask you additional questions (for example, if you want to be automatically logged off when the transfer is complete). When all is ready, the BBS will usually print a message telling you that it is ready to start the download. Now you must tell ZTerm to start receiving the file. Pull down the File menu and select XModem from the Receive files sub-menu. (If the default receive protocol is set to XModem, you can just select the Receive XModem command.) ZTerm will display the file transfer status window and the transfer should start in 5 to 10 seconds. If nothing has started after 30 seconds, something has probably gone wrong. In this case, you should hit the Cancel button and try to start the download again.
If the BBS supports the ZModem protocol, you should use it instead of XModem because the procedure is much simpler and faster. Tell the BBS you want to download, tell it to use ZModem and give it the name of the file. The BBS will send a sequence that will cause ZTerm to automatically start receiving the file using the ZModem protocol. ZTerm will display the transfer status window and the transfer will begin.
Note that XModem and YModem require you to start the file transfer on the other computer first, by issuing the download command, then starting a file receive in ZTerm. ZModem and the CompuServe B-Plus and QuickB protocols only require you to tell the other computer to start sending the file, and ZTerm will detect this and start receiving the file automatically.
Reviewing the Session
If you connect to a service that you have to pay for per minute, then you want to keep your time on the phone to a minimum. This would include the pay services (CompuServe and GEnie, etc) as well as any BBS that you call long distance. If you are reading messages on this type of service, the best thing to do is to have messages you are interested in displayed, but don’t take your time to read them while you are online. Then, after you log out, you can scroll back in the buffer and read the messages at your own speed.
If you have the Extended keyboard, you can use Home, End, Page Up and Page Down to move around in the scroll buffer. However, if the VT100 Keypad option is turned on in Terminal Settings, you will need to hold down the Shift (or Option) key when you use these keys. If you don’t press Shift (and the VT100 keypad option is checked), it will send a sequence of characters to the modem.
Printing a Message
While you are reviewing the messages in the buffer, you see something that you would like to print out. Select the text, either by click and drag, or by a click at the start and a Shift-click at the end, then choose Print Selection from the File menu. This will give you the normal print dialog; click on OK or Print and off it goes. If the selection includes PC graphics, you will have to make sure that you have the right font set in Print Options. I normally keep the print font set to Times or Palatino. But to print PC graphics you will need to set the print font to Terminal Font.
