SCOUG OS/2 For You - May 1998

Q.  Dear Mr. Know-It-All,

I’m having TCP/IP difficulties.

A.  Update your TCP/IP stack.  First, run INETVER to see your current level (Warp 4 returns the string “Inet Version: 4.00e”, indicating you’re at level “4.00e”).  Then, go to http://www.warpcast.com/search.html and search on TCPIP (not TCP/IP - many web search engines don’t like slashes).

Read the search results and find the latest update (on February 8 ’98 there was an update to v4.02t, but there might be a more recent one by the time you read this).  Download the files (if you’re in a rush and they haven’t changed the site’s location, go straight to ftp://ps.software.ibm.com/ps/products/tcpip/rsu/stack/latestv4.html).

Read and follow the instructions (you don’t have to install the specified Warp FixPak if you don’t want to, but it’s a good idea).  Reboot.  You’re done.

Q.  Dear Mr. Know-It-All,

In OS/2, how do I “ping” an Internet site?

A.  The PING program basically tells you how quickly a site is responding.  It’s a good way to test a site for delays.

Open an OS/2 window.  The PING program is on the path (it’s in \mptn\bin\ and there’s also a version in \tcpip\dos\bin\); type PING -? at the command prompt for cryptic instructions, or simply type PING plus the domain you want to check.

For example, to see the delay on SCOUG’s site, type PING WWW.SCOUG.COM and watch the timings scroll by.  Use Ctrl-C to stop the timings and get a summary.

If you find a site with a slower-than-average response time, don’t immediately blame that site.  It could be you, not them, or somebody in between.  For example, if you check sites which happen to be hosted by your own ISP (Internet Service Provider), or an ISP that is being served by or is serving your ISP, the times will likely be lower (faster) than if you check a site that is “farther away”, so to speak.  The time isn’t necessarily being consumed by the other guy’s server, or even his ISP; you’d be surprised at the route which those data packets travel in order to reach your machine.  It’s not unusual to have 10 or 20 nodes along the route, and any one of them could be the source of the “slowness”.

If you really like to play, you’ll want to run TRACERTE.  There’s a version that comes with OS/2 (it’s in \TCPIP\BIN, and on the path), or you can go to Hobbes (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu) and search for, download and unzip the TRACERTE that appears there.  Run it with no parameters for syntax, or just run TRACERTE WWW.SCOUG.COM, for example.  You’ll get a list of the points between you and your destination – #1 is the first point, #2 is the second point, etc.  The Hobbes version is more educational because the source code is included; read the beginning of it for the equivalent of a README file.