What is PhoneNet?

Telephone Networking

     Phonenet relates to the ability of TSX networking to work through serial lines, usually with modems and telephone lines. As you may be aware, TCP/IP has an inherent facility named SLIP/PPP for interfacing to serial lines However, Phonenet extends serial based networking by providing a number of advanced capabilities. The two capabilities of Phonenet which the sysop of a BBS are likely to be concerned with are: 1. The ability to provide service for incoming SLIP and PPP connections. When a remote user asks to go into SLIP or PPP mode (which creates a SLIP/PPP connection between the networking software on the remote computer and the networking software on your system), Phonenet locates an available pseudo-tty (PTY) and interconnects it with the serial port the user connected to.
     Note that providing this type of pass through SLIP/PPP service requires you to have been assigned not just one, but a block of IP addresses by your Internet provider. This is necessary because these IP addresses will be temporarily assigned to your users home computers when they are in SLIP or PPP mode. You can not arbitrarily assign IP addresses to the remote end of a pass through SLIP/PPP connection.
     2. The ability to connect automatically to an Internet provider using a serial line with either the SLIP or PPP protocol. If your connection to your Internet provider is established with an ethernet card this capability is not needed. However, if your connection to your provider is through a SLIP/PPP line, Phonenet can automate the process of connecting to the provider, logging on, and going into SLIP/PPP mode. One other capability of Phonenet deserves to be mentioned, although its only likely use for a bulletin board is to create chat conferences between multiple TSX-Online systems. Phonenet permits you to define a wide area network with as many nodes as you wish which can only be reached from each other using modems. You can configure this network so that phone calls are only placed when a program or user on one node attempts to access information on a remote node. Placing the call, gaining access to the remote system, and hanging up the phone when the line is no longer in use are completely transparent to the user or program taking advantage of the connection. This is a very powerful extension of TSX networking which allows seamless integration of the multiple nodes of a wide area network without requiring the expense of leased lines.