Open Transport: An Alternative to FreePPP for MacOS Users

By Dr. Ty Young, Support Services Assistant Manager

Confused by ConfigPPP? FreePPP frustrating you? If you’re a Macintosh user, and have ever tried to get your Mac connected to the Internet over a modem, you know that there are plenty of hoops to jump through. We’ve got a solution for you, though, which we think you’ll really like: Open Transport/PPP from Apple Computer, Inc.

So Many Dialers, So Many Things to Go Wrong

There are many versions of readily-available PPP dialers for MacOS computers, among them FreePPP, ConfigPPP, MacPPP, NTS PPP, and others. And there are even more Internet connection packages on the market — many of which are provided by Internet Service Providers when you sign up, including Apple Computer via their ‘Apple Internet Connection Kit’— each containing their own licensed and often customized version of PPP dialer. There’s also the problem of getting a compatible Modem initialization string (a code sent to the modem by the computer to tell the modem how to talk to UNT’s dial-up systems) from your modem’s manufacturer.

It’s no wonder, then, that on a regular basis the Computing Center Helpdesk receives calls from Mac users, complaining that they can’t make their PPP software work with UNT. While we support a couple of the ‘FreePPP’ packages (namely version 1.0.5, which ships on our older, five-disk set of dial-up software, and version 2.6.1 which is packaged with our CD-ROM distribution of Netscape Communicator (Dial-Up Edition)) there are some MacOS-compatible machines that just don’t work well using FreePPP-style software. If you’re in the unfortunate position of being in that group, you may want to try Open Transport/PPP, which I will term a ‘plug-in’ for Apple’s Open Transport networking software package. Are you thoroughly confused yet? Read on.

Making the Connection

There are two methods by which you make a TCP connection on your Macintosh. You either use something called ‘Classic Networking’, (a term coined by Apple) which means that you have a control panel called ‘MacTCP’ in your control panels folder, and a separate PPP dialer (i.e., FreePPP, also a control panel/extension package) or you use ‘Open Transport.’ If you’re using Open Transport, you won’t have a MacTCP control panel, but instead you’ll have one called TCP/IP.

Assuming that you have a TCP/IP control panel, and it’s version 1.1.2 or greater, you can download Apple’s Open Transport/PPP software from http://swupdates.info.apple.com, following the links to Macintosh/Networking-Communications/Open Transport. There you’ll see OT PPP 1.0-Net Install.sea, the self-extracting archive file you’ll need to download in order to install OT/PPP.

OT/PPP Isn't for Everyone . . .

A couple of caveats should be mentioned here. First, OT/PPP isn’t for everybody who uses a Macintosh at home. It runs only on Macs running MacOS 8.0 or higher, and it needs a machine with a 68040 (or faster) processor — this includes the Centris and Quadra lines of ‘040’ Macs, and all PowerPC-based Macs. Second, OT/PPP doesn’t always work well with external or internal GeoPort/Express ‘modems’, made by Apple Computer (these devices more accurately are ‘adapters’ for interfacing with the processor, not only slowing down system performance but establishing and maintaining connections in an inconsistent manner.) We instead recommend the purchase of a real modem from a third-party vendor (the Helpdesk can recommend modems, but does not endorse any particular product.)

Installation and Use

Installation of OT/PPP is simple, as are most installations on a Macintosh. After rebooting your machine, you’ll notice that you have two new control panels — the Modem control panel, and the PPP control panel — and it’s with these two and the TCP/IP control panel that all your TCP networking takes place. These are ‘set it and forget it’ control panels you won’t often need to open, let alone make adjustments to.

How do all of these control panels interact? Quite simply. You tell the TCP/IP control panel to connect to the Internet via PPP (on a pull-down menu) and to get certain configuration information from the PPP server (also on a pull-down menu). You have only to manually enter a couple of Domain Name Service addresses, which the Helpdesk (940/565-2324) can give to you over the telephone.

Setting up the Modem control panel is even easier, since all you do in this window is to select a modem from the pull-down list that most closely resembles your modem. And, finally, you set up the PPP control panel by typing in your UNT Internet (AKA "Jove") user ID (i.e., abc1234) and password, and the appropriate phone number for our dial-up systems (again, the Helpdesk can give you these numbers.) If you wish, you can also save your password so that you won’t have to re-type it each time you wish to make a connection.

After you’ve finished these few tasks, you click on the Connect button in the PPP control panel, and your computer will dial the modem, connecting to UNT! (OT/PPP is easily tailored to suit your needs: it can be configured to automatically make a connection when certain applications (i.e., Netscape Communicator, Simeon, Fetch, etc.) request a TCP connection, so the entire process becomes almost hands-free. Open Transport, and especially its OT/PPP module, is just another example of how Apple Computer creates products that allow people to spend less time installing/configuring and more time having fun. n