Installing a telnet server for Caucus

If you have encountered a Caucus-related problem on your NT host, Screen Porch may be able to help by remotely diagnosing the problem via 'telnet'. 

(Note that 95% of all "Caucus problems" are actually the result of improper web server configuration; see Configuring Your Web Server.  Web server configuration usually can not be done remotely.)

Unfortunately, Windows/NT does not include a telnet server.  (This is one of the thorny issues in choosing NT or Unix as a Caucus server host.  Contact us at support@screenporch.com for information about the relative merits of each platform.)

Fortunately, an excellent telnet server product is available from Ataman as part of their "TCP Remote Login Services" package.  The license fee for this package is $69, and it may be used for 15 days before it you are required to register your license.

The rest of this page describes installing the Ataman telnet server for use with Caucus.

  1. Downloading Ataman

    The Ataman home page is at http://www.ataman.com.  Or you can immediately download their telnet server from the mirror site at Screen Porch.

  2. Installing Ataman

    Login to your NT host as an administrator.  Open a command window (sometimes called an "MSDOS window"), create a directory for the Ataman package, and unzip the downloaded package into that directory.  For example:

       mkdir C:\ATAMAN
       cd    C:\ATAMAN
       pkunzip atrls_cv.zip
       atrls install start
    
    where atrls_cv.zip is the full pathname of the downloaded package.  (If you do not have pkunzip, you can download it now.)

  3. Providing Telnet access to Caucus

    You must specifically instruct Ataman to allow telnet access to the "caucus" account on your NT host.  (This is a good security feature of Ataman.)

    Click on the NT "Start" icon, and then "Settings", "Control Panel", and double-click on "Ataman TCP R L Services".  This starts the Ataman service manager.

    Click on the "Users" tab, and then the "Add User" button.  In the Add User window that appears, fill out the fields shown below.  (As usual, replace caucus with the NT account name for Caucus, and C:\caucus with the Caucus home directory.)

    User Name: caucus
    NT User Name: caucus
    NT User Domain:  .
    Home Directory: C:\caucus
    Click on "OK" until the Ataman service manager exits.  The installation and configuration of Ataman is now complete.

  4. Testing Ataman

    To test the Ataman installation, use a telnet client and attempt to login to your own host as "caucus".  You can usually find the Microsoft telnet client by clicking on "Start", "Programs", and "Accessories".  Or, you can download the better, production-quality telnet client 'Teraterm' from our mirror site.

    To test the telnet server, you will need to know your host's DNS name (internet domain name), the Caucus account, and the Caucus password.  (This is the only information you'll need to supply Screen Porch with in case we are attempting to diagnose a Caucus problem.)

  5. More Information

    This page just describes using Ataman to provide telnet access to Caucus.  The Ataman package includes an MS Word document, userman.doc, which includes much more detailed information about Ataman's capabilities.