Issue 146 September 2002
Internet Enabling Made Easy

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iNetWizard

iNetWizard is an application program that takes the e-mail address and IP data supplied by your ISP, which you would normally plug in by hand with individual iNet@T commands, and enters it into the correct area of the 2124 modem flash memory.

iNetWizard issues iNet@T commands, which allow the entry of IP and e-mail addresses, passwords, e-mail message content, ISP phone numbers, and ISP logon user names. The difference between iNet@T commands and standard Hayes AT commands is that the latter of the two acts only on the modem. iNet@T commands include the AT command set functionality, as well as the ability to manipulate the 2124 modem’s microprocessor complex in a single iNet@T command.

The 2124 modem is also capable of being controlled via standard AT commands. This feature can be used for situations in which the 2124 modem is used as a standard 2400-bps modem. Most of the iNet@T commands used to configure an e-mail session are shown in the Hyper-Terminal screen shot in Photo 3.

Photo 3—This is how it’s done by hand. Notice that the IP addresses are in hexadecimal format instead of the usual dotted-decimal format. I’ll bet that everyone who reads Circuit Cellar can do this and enjoy it. It’s the nontechnical end-user that iNetWizard is aimed at.

 

The first thing iNetWizard does is query the attached modem module connected to a serial (COM) port that you specify, which, as you can see in Photo 4, is a 2124 mounted on a 2124 eval board that’s serially connected to COM1 of a PC. In this example, the computer is running Bill’s Windows 98. Although iNetWizard also works with Windows NT, it doesn’t play well with Windows 2000 or Me (yet).

Photo 4—This is a left-to-right, top-to-bottom, how-to-send an e-mail window. Note that the Retrieve e-mail button is disabled. That’s because the 2124 cannot pull e-mail in. There are other variants of the Cermetek iModem line that can.

If there is any preloaded ISP information contained within the C2124 modem, it’s displayed and includes the incoming POP3 mail server IP address, outgoing mail server (SMTP) IP address, login username, logon password (visible only as asterisks), ISP phone number, and speed of the queried iNet device. This is all included in Photo 5.

Photo 5—This window points to my iModem.net account. The phone number in the ISP phone window is an Orlando, Florida number. There are also two local numbers listed on the iModem web site for Merritt Island, Florida.

 

At this point, I could change any of the displayed information by typing in a new e-mail server IP address, logon name, and password, or ISP phone number into the fields of the Configure ISP Information window. The iNet device value in this case can’t be changed because it was discovered by iNetWizard during the initial query procedure.

Clicking on the Update iNet Device button in Photo 4 loads the new data I entered into the 2124 modem. This is significant because if I did not use iNetWizard, I would have to issue five iNet@T commands manually via a terminal emulator to enter this data into the 2124 modem’s flash memory.

Taking another look at Photo 4, notice that the iNetWizard application also contains mouse buttons for composing and sending e-mail messages. Entering e-mail data and ultimately sending the e-mail message is a much more involved process if performed manually with a terminal emulator. By using the automated data entry features of iNetWizard, you can eliminate keystrokes and fat-finger errors during the e-mail programming process.

To give you an idea of what iNetWizard does, a minimum of 12 iNet@T commands must be entered manually to send an e-mail the first time if no ISP data has been preloaded into the 2124 modem. If you use iNetWizard, sending an e-mail from scratch involves four clicks of the mouse plus some minimal data entry.

Click number three takes you to Photo 6, where the actual e-mail message and address information are entered. The final click puts the routers and servers to work.

Photo 6—There’s not much to comment on here. My e-mail address is in the Destination window, and my message is in the Message window. The e-mail Review button shows another window with the incoming/outgoing server IP addresses and message header information.

I wanted to see what was going on under the iNetWizard covers. So, I fired up Frontline Test System’s Serialtest Async and captured the data flowing between the iNetWizard and the 2124 modem. The trace is shown in Photo 7, and guess what? Just as you would expect, there are @T commands all over the place.

Photo 7—This part of the trace shows the e-mail addresses and parts of the e-mail message being transferred to the CH2124 from iNetWizard. Notice that the same AT commands entered by hand in Photo 3 are being issued by iNetWizard.