Modem Emulator

No modem ? no problem.

If you don’t have a physical modem you can still get that retro vibe by accessing dn42 using the modem emulator service. This service presents a series of TCP/IP ports that emulate a subset of the Hayes AT command set and which are speed limited to specific baud rates. The modem can dial directly to the fr-par1 shell service for that CLI experience, or get full dn42 access via a PPP session.

The service is intended to be used as a fake serial port in a retro VM or connected to directly using a serial terminal.

• dialup.burble.dn42:(10000 + baud/100)

The modem emulator is accessed by connecting to dialup.burble.dn42 on ports corresponding to specific baud rates, as detailed in the table below.

Low baud rates give a great experience when using a serial terminal and the shell service but aren’t so much fun when using PPP. Conversely, using a serial terminal and higher baud rates is a bit dull and they are better suited to the PPP service.

The emulated modem is able to dial two services depending on the number used.

Use a terminal emulator and dial 54311 to access the fr-par1 shell server.

Once the modem connects, use your burble.dn42 username and password to log in.

You can set a burble.dn42 password using the services portal.

Don’t forget to set a terminal type once you’ve logged in, e.g. export TERM=vt102

• Dial 4242 to access the PPP server.
• Use username: dn42, password: dn42 to log in.
• Once you see the PPP initiation string, connect your PPP client.
• PPP authentication should not be required.

Example on how to connect to the shell server using socat and minicom at 2400 baud

$ socat -d -d pty,rawer tcp:dialup.burble.dn42:10024 &
...
... socat[xxx] N PTY is /dev/pts/2
...
$ minicom -D /dev/pts/2

Within minicom type ATDT54311 to dial the shell server.

Welcome to minicom 2.8

OPTIONS: I18n 
Port /dev/pts/2, 14:01:58

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

ATDT54311
CONNECT 2400
Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
shell-fr-par1 login: 

You can now log in using your burble.dn42 username and password.

Add a virtual serial port to QEMU using -chardev and -device.

e.g. for windows XP connecting at 115k

qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -cpu host -m 1024 -vga std -device AC97 -hda winxp.img -chardev socket,id=bdn42,port=11150,host=dialup.burble.dn42,server=off -device pci-serial,chardev=bdn42

Create a PPP dialup connection with username dn42 and password dn42, enable the option to prompt for username and password on connect.

Start the connection and when then chat box opens:

• Type ATDT4242 to dial the PPP service
• Log in using username dn42 / password dn42
• Hit continue when you see the PPP connect string

The following chat script provided by 04dco should provide automatic login for win95 onwards:

;
; This is a script file that automatically logs you in
; to establish a dn42 dial-up PPP connection.
;

; Main entry point to script
;
proc main

   integer nTries = 3

   ; This is the login prompt and timeout values

   string szLogin = "modem-server Login: "
   integer nLoginTimeout = 5

   ; This is the password prompt and timeout values

   string szPW = "Password: "
   integer nPWTimeout = 5

   ; This is the prompt once your password is verified

   string szPrompt = "Last login: "

   ; Attempt to login at most 'nTries' times

   while 0 < nTries do

      ; Wait for the login prompt before entering
      ; the user ID, timeout after x seconds

      waitfor szLogin then DoLogin 
        until nLoginTimeout

TryAgain:
      transmit "^M"        ; ping
      nTries = nTries - 1

   endwhile

   goto BailOut

DoLogin:
   ; Enter user ID

   transmit $USERID, raw
   transmit "^M"

   ; Wait for the password prompt 

   waitfor szPW until nPWTimeout
   if FALSE == $SUCCESS then
      goto TryAgain
   endif

   ; Send the password

   transmit $PASSWORD, raw
   transmit "^M"

   ; Wait for the prompt

   waitfor szPrompt

   goto Done

BailOut:
   ; Something isn't responding.  Halt the script
   ; and let the user handle it manually.

   set screen keyboard on
   halt

Done:

endproc

The modem emulator is a small golang server and the source code is available on the burble.dn42 git server