Windows 95 introduced TAPI for modem handling. TERM for Windows 7.2 and TinyTERM 3.3 can use TAPI, but will sometimes give errors instead of connecting normally. In those cases, it’s possible to turn off TAPI handling, allowing TinyTERM to use the modem as though it were on Windows 3.1 instead.

Locate the file WTERMUS.CMD in the TinyTERM directory. Open it in Notepad or another text editor. Search it for every instance of the line:

setvar t_tapi true

Change “true” to “false” for every instance. TinyTERM will no longer recognize TAPI, which will allow it to handle the modem directly instead.

When TinyTERM is configured to print to DEVICE or “Direct to device,” it can lock the printer port so that other Windows applications can’t use the printer. That’s because TinyTERM directly accesses the printer port in this configuration.

To bypass this, configure TinyTERM to print to PRINTMNGR or “To Windows printer.” This allows Windows to manage the print job and the printer port. Other applications will then be able to print without problem.

The user interface allows you to turn off the menu bar so users can’t change settings in TinyTERM. But if you click the icon in the far left of the window’s title bar, you’ll see a “Display Menu Bar” option.

To turn the menu off entirely, edit the configuration file you’re using. In TinyTERM version 4.x, the file will have a .tpx extension. Open it in Notepad or another text editor and search for the “menubar” item. Change that line to read:

menubar=2

For TinyTERM version 3.x, the file will have a .tap extension. Edit that file and locate the “menubar” item. Change that to read:

menubar=NEVER

Save the changes and exit. The next time you start TinyTERM, the menu will not display, and the “Display Menu Bar” option will not be available.

This is caused by an idle timeout value set somewhere in the connection. Neither TERM nor TinyTERM has timeout capabilities — though they have been requested by some customers — so neither will disconnect automatically.

When this happens, check to see if the user is still logged in at the server. If not, then the server is the most likely source of the timeout. Make sure it has no timeout values set. There are also two commands that will turn timeouts off in most versions of UNIX. They are case-sensitive:

unset TMOUT
unset AUTOLOGOUT

If the user is still logged in on the server when TinyTERM gets disconnected, then a system in between the PC and the server is causing the disconnect. You’ll need a tool such as Ethereal to track down which system is causing the problem.

The other solution is to make sure the connection is never truly idle, that some sort of communication is always happening. A server application such as the Laffey spinner can accomplish this from the host side.

There are also ways to enable this in Windows NT or 2000 and Windows XP. Look for the “KeepAliveTime” option. The Windows solutions require editing the registry.

TinyTERM for Windows 4.8.2 added the telnetkeepalive option to the .tpx file. With this set to a value higher than zero, TinyTERM will wait that many idle seconds, then send a telnet NOP to the host. If set to zero, telnetkeepalive is disabled.

CR 227, telnetkeepalive feature added in TinyTERM 4.8.2

TTML-16

This is a license error that prevents TinyTERM from opening. Check your system date when this happens. It’s usually off by several years.

If the system date is correct, you will need to uninstall TinyTERM, then reboot and reinstall.

Some TinyTERM 3.3 and 4.0 installs had the potential to delete all printers installed in Windows NT. To restore printing functionality in this case, uninstall TinyTERM. Then apply this patch. The patch documentation can be downloaded from this link.

Once the patch is installed, you can reinstall TinyTERM. Do not install the NFS component, as that’s what causes the problem.

You may see this error running TinyTERM 3.3 on Windows NT. If you search your C: drive, you should find the file CTL3DXX.DLL. Rename that file to CTL3D32.DLL.

If you do not have that file, you can also download it from this link. In either case, the file should be in the C:\Winnt\System32 folder.

This error means the license entry in the registry has become corrupt. To fix it, do the following:

1. Click on Start | Run.
2. In the Run dialog, type:
   

   regedit

   then click OK.

3. In the Registy Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Century Software.
4. You’ll see a License1 key. You may also see License2, License3, etc., up to a maximum License9. Delete all License# keys one at a time, but don’t delete anything else.
5. When all the License# keys have been deleted, close the Registry Editor.
6. Run TinyTERM’s License Manager to re-enter your serial number and activation key.

You may also be running into a Unicode issue, as described in this article. The only workaround in this case is to remove Unicode support, then go through the steps above.

In some cases TinyTERM will connect right away, but it takes several seconds for the login prompt to come up. When this happens, switch between using an IP address and a hostname for the server. In other words, if you have a hostname in TinyTERM, use the server’s IP address instead. If you are using the IP address, use a hostname.

If there is no hostname assigned to the server, you can create one on your PC by editing the hosts file. Its location varies depending on your version of Windows:

Windows 95, 98 or Me: C:\Windows\hosts
Windows NT or 2000: C:\Winnt\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows XP or Vista: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

The hosts file can have no extension. Right-click the file named hosts (not lmhosts) in the specified directory and select Properties from the pop-up menu. If it has an extension; i.e., it’s named hosts.sam, remove the extension so it’s just named hosts.

Next, open the file in Notepad or another text editor. Scroll down to the bottom. You’ll see a line like this at the end of the file:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Add a line below it using the same format. Give your server a name that’s easy to remember, and probably isn’t duplicated somewhere on your PC. For example:

192.168.0.1 myserver

You can use digits and dashes in the name, but no spaces. Save the file and exit Notepad. You can now use the hostname you created in TinyTERM.

On Windows 95 and 98 systems with a dial-up ISP, starting a telnet application such as TinyTERM can cause Windows Dial-Up Networking to launch, even if TinyTERM should connect over a LAN.

To stop this from happening, create a hosts file on the PC or edit the existing one (instructions). Add the IP address and hostname of the system you are connecting to.

If this procedure does not work, locate your dial-up networking connection file and rename it. Then start TinyTERM. You’ll get a message that the connection file can’t be found. In that message window will be an option not to connect to the Internet automatically. Check that box, then change the name of your dial-up connection back to the original name. The next time you start TinyTERM, the dialer won’t automatically open.