Kermit - Technical Support

CONTENTS

• HOW TO GET TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  
• ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT
  
• SUPPORT CONTRACTS
  
• HINTS FOR PREPARING A PROBLEM REPORT
  

The Kermit project offers technical support in the following ways.

• Manuals. The published manuals and other documentation should answer the majority of your questions. Please consult them before asking for technical support:
  • Kermit 95 users: Please consult the online Kermit 95 manual, which you can access from the Help menu of the Dialer or the GUI version of K95 itself. Also look at the Kermit 95 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) before reporting problems; the most commonly reported problems are discussed there.

  • C-Kermit users: Please consult Using C-Kermit, the various supplementary files that accompany C-Kermit (the update notes, "beware" files, installation instructions, etc), and also look at the C-Kermit FAQ before sending questions or reporting problems.

  • G-Kermit users: Please look at the G-Kermit documentation for hints and tips before sending questions or reporting problems.

  • MS-DOS Kermit users: Please consult Using MS-DOS Kermit and the KERMIT.BWR and NETWORKS\SETUP.DOC files in your KERMIT directory before sending questions or reporting problems. If you are having problems with MS-DOS Kermit on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP or OS/2, please switch to Kermit 95, which is native to those platforms and fully supported.

• Telephone support is available by calling +1 (212) 854-5126. This number may be called from anywhere in the world. Charges are as follows:
  • There is no charge to tech-support liaisons at sites that have purchased site licenses, bulk right-to-copy licenses, or support contracts.

  • There is no charge anyone who has purchased Kermit 95 and is having difficulties installing it. Kermit 95 serial number required.

  • Phone support for other catagories of calls costs $25.00 USD per call, chargeable to a MasterCard or Visa account.

• Technical support is also available at no direct charge as follows:
  • On the Web. Point your Web browser at http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ and look through the Kermit FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and other topic areas.

  • By netnews. Read and post questions to comp.protocols.kermit.misc. Members of the Kermit team will respond to questions on a best-effort basis. Others may also respond. Please don't post large messages (e.g. debug or packet logs, long scripts) to the newsgroup -- use email for that (next item).

  • By email to kermit-support@columbia.edu. Members of the Kermit team will respond within several days, usually faster. Please do not send the same question to the newsgroup and to the kermit-support email address. This causes confusion, duplication of effort, and wasted time. When sending mail, please use nonproprietary formats such as plain text, ZIP, uuencode, MIME, etc. Please do not send Microsoft Word documents. Please don't use exotic encodings such as BinHex.

    NOTE: We are receiving increasing amounts of email that cannot be replied to. If you think we are ignoring your email, you are wrong. We reply to every message that arrives at the kermit-support address (except spam, chain letters, etc). If you do not receive a reply, please check that your messages have a valid Internet RFC822 From: or Reply-to: address. If you are mailing from a Web browser, make sure that your Web browser is configured to know your return address; for example, in Netscape, fill in the Options -> Mail and News Preferences -> Servers Mail section with your mail host and email ID, and send a test message to somebody to make sure they can reply to you. Also don't send huge messages; they are often stopped by the mail gateways, spam filters, etc.

An organization (university, company, government agency) that provides Kermit software to its computer users should also provide technical support to them. The organization may appoint a technical liaison with the Kermit Project, and we will be glad to supply support to that person.

The organization should not send all of its users to us for technical support. This can not possibly work, since (a) we do not understand the hardware, software, communications, and networking setup of your organization; (b) we do not know what customizations have been made to Kermit at your organization, and (c) we do not have the resources to help large masses of people one-on-one.

If you are member of an organization that provided you with Kermit software, please obtain support from within your own organization. If they can't help you, then have your organization's technical liaison contact us. This allows the necessary information to reach your entire organization at once, rather than one person at a time. If your organization does not have a liaison with us, then they should appoint one.

Support contracts are available for Kermit 95 and C-Kermit.

A Kermit 95 Bulk Right-to-Copy or Academic Site License includes a one-year support contract, renewable each year thereafter.

C-Kermit support contracts are available to companies that require a formal support agreement; CLICK HERE for details.

Many people are not aware that there are hundreds of different Kermit programs on thousands of different hardware and software platforms, operating over all kinds of different connections. Not everybody is using the same Kermit software you are, on the same kind of computer, or over the same kind of connection. Before we can begin to help you, we need the following preliminary information:

1. Is your question about Kermit software?
   1. If it is a question about email or some other application, then it probably is not a question about Kermit software. The Kermit help desk does not provide help with email programs or other non-Kermit applications. In this case, you will need to ask the owners, makers, or vendors of the non-Kermit application, or your organization's or ISP's local help desk, for help or instruction.

   2. If your software is not a Kermit software program from the Kermit Project at Columbia University, it is not our software and we can't help you with it. Kermit programs all have "Kermit" in their names, like MS-DOS Kermit, Kermit 95, C-Kermit, G-Kermit, Kermit-370, etc. If you are asking about the Kermit implementation in somebody else's software, you'll need to go to the maker or vendor of that software for help or instruction.

   3. If you have a problem transferring files with Kermit protocol between a Kermit Project program and a third-party product, we'll support our end of it. If the problem lies with the non-Columbia implementation, we'll do our best to provide a diagnosis or workaround, but we can not be expected to support or sanction improper or buggy Kermit protocol implementations in third-party products.

   If there is a problem with the interface between some other vendor's software and one of our Kermit programs, have the vendor of that software get in touch with us.

2. Which Kermit program are you using? (What is its name? How does it identify itself when you start it?) The most commonly used Kermit programs Kermit 95, C-Kermit, are MS-DOS Kermit, and IBM Mainframe Kermit. (If your question concerns Kermit-32 on VMS, please note that Kermit-32 has not been supported since 1987; the supported Kermit software for VMS is C-Kermit).

3. What is the version number of the Kermit program? (Most Kermit programs have a "version" command; if not, the version number is announced when Kermit starts). If you are using an old version, we will generally recommend that you install the current version and see if the problem still occurs. A list of current Kermit software versions can be found in the Kermit FAQ.

4. If it is Kermit 95 2.0 or later, are you using the GUI or Console version? This information is especially important if your report concerns screen appearance, character sets, etc.

5. Do you have the manual for this version of Kermit? Have you consulted it?

6. If it is C-Kermit or G-Kermit, did you build it from source code, or are you using one of the prebuilt binaries? If you are using a prebuilt binary, which one? Are you sure it is the appropriate one for your computer?

7. On what kind of computer is your Kermit program running?

8. What operating system and version is used on this computer?

9. What kind of connection are you using (or are you trying to make)? Direct serial, dialup, Telnet, SSH, Rlogin, X.25, ...? If it is a modem connection:
   1. What kind of modem are you using? Is it internal or external? If you have a PC with an internal modem, is it a real modem or a "Winmodem"? If you think it might be a Winmodem, CLICK HERE.

   2. What kind of modem does Kermit think you are using? In other words, has Kermit been informed appropriately as to your modem type?

      If you are using Kermit 95, you should be aware that it has two methods for accessing serial ports and modems; the traditional, built-in "DOS" method ("set port com1, set modem type usrobotics, ...") and the Windows-specific Control Panel interface ("set port tapi"). If one doesn't work, try the other.

   3. What are the serial port communications parameters: speed, parity, flow control? In most Kermit programs, these are listed by the SHOW COMMUNICATIONS command.

   4. What kind of modem is on the other end? What is the remote modem connected to? -- A serial port on the computer, a terminal server?

   5. What other communications equipment is involved? -- An X.25 PAD? A 3270 protocol converter? An intermediate computer? etc etc...

      A serial connection (direct or dialup) must have an effective form of flow control at every junction between computer (or terminal server, etc) and modem. This means that each pair of devices that are connected must be using the same kind of flow control, usually either RTS/CTS (hardware) or Xon/Xoff (software). If this is not true, there can be any amount of data loss or corruption on the connection.

10. What kind of computer or service is on the other end of the connection?

11. What operating system and version does that computer use?

12. If you are reporting a file-transfer problem: what Kermit program and version is on the other computer?

13. If you are reporting a terminal emulation problem: What kind terminal is your local Kermit program emulating, and what kind of terminal does the host computer think you have? If you are using C-Kermit, see the C-Kermit FAQ. If you are having problems with F keys, Arrow keys, the Numeric keypad, or the Backspace key, consult the appropriate items in the Kermit FAQ:
    • Backspace key
    • Arrow keys
    • F keys
    • Numeric keypad

14. What is the exact nature of the problem? Is it a failure to make a connection? A failure to transfer files? A problem with terminal emulation? Exactly what happens, compared to what you think should happen?

15. What commands did you give? Is the problem reproducible?

If you are using email to follow up on a previous or ongoing matter, please include relevant portions of previous correspondence. We receive hundreds of tech support requests each day, and can't always remember the full context of each one.

Data communication is rarely as simple as we'd like it to be. From the very basic set of questions above, you can see that there are at least three, and perhaps as many as eight (or more) completely separate hardware and software components to your connection, all of which must be configured to interoperate with each other and to pass the desired data through.

This is why communications software can be harder to use than self-contained applications that stay inside your computer, where (hopefully) all quantities are known. Also note that when you are using Kermit to make a serial connection, you are performing the job of a network specialist -- making a connection that did not exist before, probably using a variety of equipment and software from different makers. Network specialists need years of training before they can do this -- don't expect it to be effortless, although sometimes it might be. Every case is different. (Network connections are usually easier, because network specialists have already set up the network for you.)

Kermit manuals are generally 400-700 pages long. A great many of these pages are devoted to the many and varied communication methods, and what that can go wrong on each one, and methods for diagnosis and repair of problems. Please use the manuals. If you have suggestions for making them better, send them to us.

Thank you for helping us to serve you better!

Frank da Cruz and Christine Gianone
The Kermit Project - Columbia University