--------------------------- LANtronix --------------------------- ETS/EPS --------------------------- Terminal and Printer Server --------------------------- Software Release Notes --------------------------- Version V3.6/1 November 15, 1999 Copyright 1999, Lantronix Release notes are also available via the Lantronix web site (www.lantronix.com) and via anonymous FTP from ftp.lantronix.com. Contact Lantronix or your reseller for more information. This document describes the Lantronix Terminal/Printer Server V3.6/1 software release. Release Summary =============== These release notes will document new features added and problems corrected since the V3.5/9 software release. Software enhancements incorporated in this release require a new version of the Windows 32-bit redirector. Please download and install V1.2/6 redirector software. The V1.2/6 redirector release is available via the Lantronix web site (www.lantronix.com) or via anonymous ftp from ftp.lantronix.com. Supported Platforms ------------------- V3.6/1 provides traditional terminal and print server functionality, including the TCP/IP, Novell, Appletalk, Lan Manager and LAT protocols on the ETS4P, ETS8P/16P and the ETS16PR/32PR platforms. Appletalk, Lan Manager and Novell support is limited to print serving. V3.6/1 provides print server functionality, including the TCP/IP, Novell, Appletalk, Lan Manager and LAT protocols on the EPS2-100, EPS4-100, EPS2P2, EPS4P1, EPS1/2, LPS1, MPS1 and MPS100 platforms. Note that these units are print servers. They will not allow outgoing connections to hosts. V3.6/1 provides terminal server functionality, including TCP/IP, Novell and LAT protocols on the MSS1, MSS100, MSS1-T2 and the MSS485 platforms. V3.6/1 provides terminal server functionality, including the TCP/IP protocol on the MSSLite platform. New Features ============ The following is a list of new features in V3.6/1. Internal Web Page Configuration ------------------------------- Internal web page configuration has been added to the EPS2-100, EPS4-100 and MPS100 print servers and the MSS100, ETS16PR and ETS32PR terminal servers. To use this feature, simply open the server's IP address (or name) in a web browser. Note that changing any configuration values requires entering the server privileged password. Windows Internet Name Service ----------------------------- WINS support has been added to the terminal/print server and MSS product families. These products support the broadcast model of WINS (B-Node) and will register and defend their names accordingly. To enable and disable WINS support on terminal and print servers use the command: DEFINE PROTO IP WINS [ ENABLED | DISABLED ] On MSS products use the command: CHANGE WINS [ ENABLED | DISABLED ] The WINS name the server will use and defend is the same as its hostname as shown by the "SHOW SERVER" command. Changes to the WINS configuration will only take effect after the server is rebooted. By default WINS support is disabled. Alternate TCP Connection Style ------------------------------ An alternate timing sequence for attempting to form a TCP/IP connections has been added. By specifying the "OS" (letter O) option in the destination address, TCP SYN packets will be sent every 30 seconds instead of using the normal faster retransmission algorithms. For example, the command: TELNET 192.168.14.5:3001OS would form a telnet connection to socket 3001 on host 192.168.14.5 using the "slow SYN" option. MSS Encrypted Session Support ----------------------------- Support has been added for encrypted connections with the MSS family of products. Connections can be made from MSS to MSS or from a Win32 PC to the MSS. Win32 connections are established using a Lantronix supplied Telnet application or from customer applications using a Lantronix supplied encryption library. For specific details about the encryption algorithms please contact Lantronix product marketing. MSS to MSS Connections ---------------------- To configure a MSS to MSS encrypted session both serial servers must use the same encryption password. On both units, use the command: CRYPT PASSWORD "xxxxxxx" Note that the password can be up to 7 alphanumeric characters and is case sensitive. After entering the encryption password, the units must be rebooted. Once the encryption password has been configured and the units have been rebooted, encrypted sessions either to the unit's local prompt or to the serial port can be established by using the command: Local_1> TELNET n.n.n.n:2100Y (incoming telnet session "local" prompt) Local_1> TELNET n.n.n.n:2101Y (direct to the serial port) The "Y" option appended to the socket number specifies that the connection should be encrypted. Dedicated connections can be setup using the destination string: Local_1> CHANGE DEDICATED TELNET n.n.n.n:2101Y Win32 Encrypted Logins ---------------------- For Win32 to MSS encrypted logins Lantronix provides the tcpscram.exe utility program. This program allows a user on a Win32 platform to form an encrypted connection to a MSS. The target MSS must be configured with the encryption password. Use the command: CRYPT PASSWORD "xxxxxxx" Note that the password can be up to 7 alphanumeric characters and is case sensitive. After entering the encryption password, the unit must be rebooted. To create a connection run the program tcpscram.exe. In the fields provided specify the hostname of a MSS, the socket number to be used for the connection, i.e. 2100 for the local prompt or 2101 for a direct connection to the serial port, and the encryption password. Note that the password specified in the application must match the password (case sensitive) configured on the MSS itself. The tcpscram program will then form a connection to the MSS and all data passed between the PC and the MSS will be encrypted. The tcpscram.exe file is available on the Lantronix FTP server in the ./priv/misc_tools/tcpscram directory. Win32 Encrypted Socket Connections ---------------------------------- Lantronix also supplies a Win32 DLL so that Windows based application programs can create encrypted raw TCP socket connections to a MSS. The files necessary for this support can be found on the Lantronix FTP server in the file ./priv/misc_tools/crypt_dll.zip. Please see the README contained in the zip file for more information. Modem Answer Mode ----------------- On the MSS family, modem mode has been enhanced to allow serially attached devices to control whether the MSS accepts a network call. Issuing the command "ATS0=0" will cause the MSS to send the string "RING" to the serial device when it receives a network connection request and will wait for the serial device to respond with the string "ATA" before it accepts the network connection. The MSS will send the "RING" string up to 5 times and expects to receive a response from the attached serial device within 5 seconds of the start of the connection sequence. If no response is received within 5 seconds, the call will be disconnected. Once the MSS accepts the call, it will assert DSR, send the serial device the message "CONNECT 33600" and will then start passing actual user data across the serial link. To allow the MSS to automatically accept network connections use the command ATS0=1. In this mode, the MSS will automatically accept a network connection, raise DSR and start passing actual user data across the serial link. To save the value of S0, use the normal AT&W modem mode command. By default the MSS will automatically accept network connections. (ATS0=1) Miscellaneous New Features -------------------------- If the server host limit is zero, do not save RWHO host entries and time out DNS lookup responses very quickly to allow failover operations. On MSSLite models with two serial ports, make the console port password setting follow the main serial port password setting. Resolved Problems ================= These problems have been corrected since the V3.5/9 software release. Miscellaneous ------------- When printing a postscript job to a service with the PSCONVERT characterstic enabled the job was incorrectly printed as postscript source code. On the ETS8/16P and the ETS16/32PR terminal servers, if a serial port was set to seven bit characters and even parity, xon/xoff characters were not being handled correctly and null characters were being inserted into the data stream. On the ETS16/32PR enabling the DSRLogout characteristic did not correctly log out network sessions when the attached device dropped DSR. In addition, the "SHOW PORT STATUS" display did not correctly display the current DSR signal level. Hardware flow control on the ETS16/32PR units could, under certain conditions, drop the DTR signal rather than the RTS signal. On the ETS16PR and ETS32PR, when transmitting a very high rate of packets onto busy networks, the network driver would lockup and not allow any further network access. On MSS products, if a user forms a telnet connection into the unit and gets a local prompt, do not allow them to telnet back out onto the network. On MSS units, do not assert DTR until the MSS has completely booted and is running operational code. On the MSS products, if a host in the sequential hostlist was not responding, the MSS would not always correctly failover to the next host in the list. In Multihost mode on the MSS products, under certain conditions a non- responding host could leave a stale connection and over time could cause the MSS to run out of memory and crash. Multihost mode on the MSS products has been adjusted to timeout a host faster to minimize interruptions in data flowing to other hosts on the hostlist. On the MSS100, when attached to busy networks with 115K data streaming through the serial port, the server could stop responding to both network and serial activity and a reboot would be necessary to recover. On the MSS100 if the serial port was configured with hardware flow control and the attached device had flow controlled the MSS, logging out the port would not always correctly flush any pending output data and the port would remain busy. On the MSS100, transients on the serial lines could cause the port to stop receiving characters. On the MSS100, inactivity logout times of less than one minute were not being handled properly. When printing to the parallel port on an EPS1 characters could be lost. Appletalk --------- On the MPS100 Bitronics polling was not working properly and would cause Appletalk printing to fail. Novell ------ On very large Novell networks, several of the polling status values returned by Netware File Servers were not being interpreted correctly which could result in print queues attached to those file servers losing their connection. When polling a Netware print queue, if the file server returns a "NCP busy" response update the activity timer for the queue to prevent the print server from timing out the queue. When logging into a Netware NDS tree, if a fileserver "refers" the print server to a different file server, use the referral address rather than sending out SAP announcements to find the new file server. On the LPS1, disabling the Netware protocol would report that the protocol had been disabled but will still respond to IPX network packets. TCP/IP ------ If a network connection was established over a router and the ARP entry for the router timed out, the network connection would be closed. When configuring dedicated IP connections, under certain conditions a valid IP address destination would not initiate a connection. If the server name or IP address changes and WINS support is enabled, re-register the new info. Incoming WINS "name overwrite demands" were not being handled correctly. They were being treated as normal "name registration" requests. In certain circumstances, when responding to WINS requests the response messages could be directed to the wrong host. Known Problems ============== This release has no known problems.