Brief Tutorial - Connecting



The main window on Minicom is called "Select A PC". The PCs known to Minicom are listed here.

To select a function such as Screen or File Manager in Minicom first Select a PC. You can select one or more PCs that you want to connect to. Then select a function such as Screen or File Manager either from the Toolbar or the "Do" menu.

Local Network Connections

Minicom has a help function called AutoUpdate ( see Menu "Edit" ) which finds and lists all the PCs on your Local Network which have Minicom installed. When you have installed Minicom on each of your Local Network PCs, use AutoUpdate to initialise your list.

You can add new PCs to those displayed on the Select A PC window. ( see Menu "Edit/New" to open a New PC Property)

Modem Dial-up Connections

If you have a modem connected to your PC, you can specify a Dial-up link to another PC using Properties/ Connection. First define a Dial-up link in Windows ( see My PC/ Dial-Up Networking) then select it in the PC Properties/ Connections dialogue. Minicom uses this Dial-up link to try to connect to the PC.

If you know the TCP-IP or IPX address of the PC enter it in the Properties dialogue.

If you don't know the TCP-IP or IPX address of the PC then put the Hosts PC name as the name of the connection.

Internet Connections

You can also specify an Internet connection. This is similar to the modem Dial-up in that you select the dial-up link to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Minicom will automatically dial the ISP. If the PC you wish to connect to has a fixed TCP-IP address you can enter this using the Permanent setting. Otherwise use the Temporary setting and enter the PCs TCP-IP address at connect time.

You can find your TCP-IP address when you are connected to the Internet by running Minicom and selecting the Help Menu and Network Help.

You can tell other Internet users your TCP-IP address by using Minicom's EMail function, or via Pager, Instant Messaging or normal EMail.

 

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