How to install Uwin for use with Symantec ProComm Plus as a Rlogin protocol

One of the main problems with using SymantecÆs excellent ProComm Plus communications program is not having the ôRloginö facility. Why this was left out during the programs development was a great shame as the Rlogin protocol is used on Unix software to access various applications. Symantec have missed the opportunity to run itÆs ProComm Plus script files on Telephone PBX systems such as the Meridian & Succession family that Nortel produce.
Nortel have their own management tool known as MAT or OTM (Now called TM). The PBXÆs are usually accessed via the Ethernet using the Rlogin port 513, although you can also use a serial COM port if your PBX is near to your OTM computer. Unfortunately the Nortel tool has basic functionally in not being able to make mass e.g. ext. changes etc, as it can only do one parameter change at a time.

There is a solution to this by installing a program called ôUwinö. Uwin means ôUnix for Windowsö. It works by setting up a Telnet loop back link between itself & ProComm. Uwin runs the Telnet server by default and will convert any Unix command that Uwin supports. The program will work for Windows NT, 2000 or on XP. You do need to have on your computer (which most people do!) a login name & password to input when you power-up.

First of all, obtain the software from http://www2.research.att.com/~gsf/cgi-bin/download.cgi?action=list&name=uwin-base
. When you access the site, you will get a page something likeà


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uwin-base Software Download Package List
The table below lists the releases and versions for the uwin-base self-extracting archive executables. Click a RELEASE entry below to download a specific package; then run the executable to extract and install the package on your system. The latest releases are marked with *.
RELEASE TYPE SIZE MD5 REQUIRES
2010-06-08 BASE win32.i386 10750134 d22725fa8970a5ed368f7ac611cd7932
2008-11-15 BASE win32.i386 7409432 19f851ebbea6684f259fa6c2b3b909c4
2007-11-05 BASE win32.i386 7307615 16b81a9092af8174a524f20bce347ca2

When prompted for license agreement authorisation

use this User Name:
I accept www.opensource.org/licenses/cpl
and this Password:
.
(Just enter in a dot as the password!)

Download just the one file into a temporary folder called i.e. ôTempö etc. The UWIN base source file called ôuwin-base.2008-11-15.win32.i386.exeö contains the installation files 4.1 & this is the only one required!
Click on the Follow the instructions as given in the guide to load in the software.

Install the Uwin (uwin-base.2008-11-15.win32.i386.exe) base program. You will get a DOS screen appear & then another ôwelcomeö screen to install the UWIN Base Release installation. Press next and accept the terms of the licence. Press next again after checking the program requirements will work with your p.c. You will be asked to select a path to install the software. I.e . . . . ôC:\Program Files\UWINö etc. Press Next. Select the ôHome Directory Destinationö When asked for the ôUserö files, I just used the same paths as for the main files with an extra folder called ôUsersö. I.e. ôC:\Program Files\Uwin\Usersö (I had to create a new folder called ôUsersö and then browse to it). The default path suggested is ôC:\Usersö! Press Finish or Enter to complete the process.
The DOS screen will show you the ôksh.exeö process and you will see various messages such as Stopping Services, Unpacking UWIN 4.1 base files etc. A percentage scale on the left hand side will indicate the installation process. You will see messages, such as assigning functions & making symbolic links etc.
Hit Return / Enter to close the DOS window, once the UWIN 4.1 installation has completed. You should get a message ôUWIN installation successfulö OK.
It takes a couple of minutes to install. There is no need to reboot your computer. I was using Windows XP Pro.


An icon ôkshö will appear on your desktop.


Note!

IÆve found that there is no need to run the Uwin program. It just needs to be installed on your computer. Actually, once UWIN is installed on your pc, itÆs always running. It installs itself as a Windows service, so it can automatically start-up on a windows boot. You can stop the service from the windows services panel. You can also control some of its features from a link in the windows control panel. UWIN is really a small version of UNIX that runs itself inside windows. The Ksh icon that you see on the desktop is an easy access to the Korn Shell for UWIN.

Now open up your ProComm Plus communication program and select your ôconnection directoryö. Create a new Telnet entry. I called mine ôUwin Connectionö. Use ô127.0.0.1ö as the Host/IP Address.
Click on OK to accept the settings. Connect to your connection and you will get a message such as...


UWIN-XP 4.1.0/5.1 (DELLC860) (ttyp0)

login: etc.
Login in using your Windows login and Password (Not the Nortel PBX Name!). You will then get...

Password: etc.
$

Enter in your computers password. If itÆs successful, then you will get a ô$ö appear underneath the password after a few seconds! The "$" is a KORN Shell prompt. ItÆs kind of like the Windows cmd prompt that look like "C:\".

To access any Nortel PBX, just key in the following example...

rlogin 192.168.1.44 -l CPSID. Press enter twice and the normal Nortel TTY message will appear on the screen. Please note that the ôlö is not a ô|ö or an ôIö! (It is the ôlölower case ôlö letter!).


You can use your ProComm Plus in the same way as you would if you have accessed it via a serial port for script & listing files etc. You will need to keep the standard ProComm settings such as ôVT220ö & ôXmodemö. Access to and from Meridian Mail via ôAXö are fine. In LD 143, you can do a ôXBKö to backup the systems database on the ôSSCö models. The transfer rate is very high using this method and it will take only a couple of minutes to receive the data. It does not seem possible to do a ôXVRö I did try using the ô1K-Xmodem-gö protocol, but I got errors halfway through the ôXVRö & therefore IÆd expect the same thing to happen if trying to attempt a ôXRTö command!.

I have created a small ôauto loginö script file that IÆve set against the ôscriptö box option in the connection directory. You can use this script file and modify it as listed below.



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; Uwin Default site.was 24th August 2006
; NOTE!
; This program will only work with a WINDOWS version of ProComm Plus.
; The " ; " denotes that the data on the program file line is ignored, when the script is run.
; This autologin script will also set the PABX's time and date to match your computers own settings!.
; If you want to remove the auto time and date change, then put a ";"
; against the first 4 lines below "proc main" and also after the "set txpace 90" line.

proc main
integer iDay, iMonth, iYear, iMin, iHour, iSec
string sSend
ltimeints $LTIME iYear iMonth iDay iHour iMin iSec
strfmt sSend "STAD %02d %02d %d %02d %02d %02d" iDay iMonth iYear iHour iMin iSec

when target 0 "-ksh" call ksh
transmit "^M"
statmsg "Logging into UWIN by using this computers Name and Password"
; waitfor "UWIN"
pause 5
; waitfor "login"
pause 2
transmit "administrator^M" ; Enter in your own computers ID Name
pause 2
; waitfor "Password"
pause 2
transmit "admin^M" ; Enter in your own computers ID Password
pause 2
; waitfor "$"
statmsg "About to transmit the Rlogin string to access the Nortel PBX system"
pause 2
transmit "rlogin 192.168.1.46 -l CPSID^M" ; Enter in the Call Servers E lan IP Address
pause 2
transmit "****^M"
pause 2
statmsg "Access to Nortel TTY in progress"
transmit "^M~~LOGI ~ADMIN2^M" ; Enter in the sites login name
pause 2
; waitfor "PASS?"
transmit "0000^M" ; Enter in the sites login password
pause 2

set txpace 90 ; Start of autologin sequence in LD 2
statmsg "Update of systems time and date is being carried out"
transmit "****^M"
waitfor ">"
transmit "LD 2^M"
waitfor "."
transmit "TTAD^M"
waitfor "."
transmit sSend
transmit "^M"
waitfor "."
pause 2
transmit "TTAD^M"
waitfor "."
pause 2
transmit "****^M"

set txpace 120
endproc
proc ksh
usermsg "Rlogin error. Script will exit"
exit
endproc


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Useful Tips, Question & Answer section

UWIN runs the telnet server daemon by default, so as long as you have a firewall up on your Windows(NT/2000/XP) machine, your telnet port remains closed to your network connection. I did try quite a few other terminal programs such as Putty, Secure CRT etc, but none of them could properly supply the username with rlogin that the PBX was looking for. UWIN works like a charm. You could also put UWIN on a machine inside your network, SSH to it from the outside, and then rlogin from there for a more secure connection to your PBX.

You can run scripts from within ProComm. After you install UWIN, just telnet from ProComm to your 127.0.0.1 loopback. You can then login to your local machine under UWIN(UNIX) shell, and issue the rlogin, SSH, or any supported commands directly from ProComm. Basically you are using UWIN as a tunnel from ProComm.

Question.
I tried to install UWIN on my PC running Win XP. I pick up UWIN-base software from the site.
Installation was successful. I changed the default directory only. In a DOS window I can ping 127.0.0.1. For within ProComm I'm not able to telnet 127.0.0.1. & I get a Telnet Winsock error.
Opening ksh, I can rlogin manually and what did I miss to be able to do it from ProComm?

Answer.
I restart my PC and now I have a login invite within ProComm when telneting to 127.0.0.1.

Question.
Which login and password do I have to enter?. My Windows login doesn't work.

Answer.
I believe that UWIN just recreates all the local accounts on the local computer, itÆs installed on. I have both a user account, and an administrator account that I can login in with. If you create any new local accounts, or change any major windows network settings, just reinstall UWIN on top of its current directories, and it should fix any UWIN problems. I'm not an expert it UWIN, but if your more familiar with Cygwin, I'm sure it works with Windows the same way.
Oh, and yes, you can rlogin directly from the ksh. Using ksh without ProComm. I donÆt think you can do any scripting.

Question.
What would you recommend to be the best way to exit the Nortel switch & the UWIN program without causing any system lockups?

Answer.
The proper way to exit the PBX and the rlogin sessions are as follows..
a) log off the PBX first, if not the TTY (PTY) session will still remain logged in for up to 1 hour.
b) Key ô~.ö (Above the hash button & the dot button). That will end the rlogin TTY session on the PBX. . If itÆs done right, then you will get back to the Korn shell prompt of "$". Also the ~ key is in different places on keyboards. Mine is above the tab key and I have to use shift because it shares the ` key with it!.
If you just close the program you are using without doing so, you will orphan the ksh and rlogin in the background. Just use the task manager to find the ksh.exe, and the rlogin.exe programs. Right click on each program to end process tree. You can also just reboot the machine. Also make as many PTYÆs as you need to have concurrent sessions.

c) You can, at the ô$öprompt, key in ôexitö to close the rlogin connection. That will end the Telnet session between UWIN and ProComm Plus. Keying ôhelpö will list out the Unix commands

Keying "help" really gives you the Windows help commands inside the UWIN korn shell. UWIN shares command lines with Windows. That means that you can run Windows or Unix commands from it. In order to get help with commands, the procedure is just like Linux or Unix. You can use "man" for manual in front of a Unix command to get an html doc on what it does and what options are available for it. Or you can type the command followed by --h to see the available options. like this:

$ man ls will pull up the manual page for ls
$ ls --h will pull up options for ls

if you want to find most of the commands for UWIN, just look in the directory in Windows
C:\Program Files\UWIN\usr\bin
There is also some good information on the UWIN website, and if installed, in the Windows directory
C:\Program Files\UWIN\usr\doc


Here is a fun tip...Telnet to port 513 on your pbx... its causes the pbx to INI... I found that out the hard way!. (It saves you having to do a ôtrpö in ôpdtö!.




Some information was obtained from the link. http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1256296 It has proved to be of great help in producing this guide.
Another useful link for rlogin documentation, is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rlogin.