TINYOverviewTINY is a set of programs that lets you control a DOS computer from any Java-capablemachine over a TCP/IP connection. It is comparable to programs like VNC,CarbonCopy, and GotoMyPC except that the host machine is a DOS computer ratherthan a Windows one.

Screenshots

Check out this amazing screenshot where I amusing my 3.2Ghz Windows Server 2003 SP1box to simultaneously control two DOS 6.22boxes over the internet. The first DOS box is aDell 90Mhz Pentium where I am usingFoxPro's handy built-in calculator feature tofigure out what 22 divided by 7 is. The secondcontrolled DOS box is a Northgate Turbo 386where I am using WordPerfect Office'sexcellent stand-alone calculator product toperform the same calculation - albeit withdifferent results. Note that I am about to send aShift-F1 keystroke to the FoxPro computer.

I can honestly say without any exaggerationthat this screenshot shows what is, by far, themost amazing thing ever done with a computerin history. If you look carefully, you will seethat this is a Windows XP SP2 machine onwhich I am using Sun's Java RuntimeEnvironment 5.0 to run the TINY clientbytecode and connect over the network througha Linksys WRTP54 router back to a virtualmachine running on the same XP computerusing Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to boot upMS-DOS 6.22 to load the TINY host andexecute an old EGA version of Tetris that wascompiled with TASM 2.0. Through thisarrangement I am able to achieve performancecomparable to a 16Mhz IBM PC-AT using my2.8Ghz Intel Core2. Wow. If you are notimpressed, then you probably do not fullyunderstand what is going on here.

TINY Features

UDP based - Get rid of those proprietary protocols on your network once and for all!

Eliminates need to load NetBIOS - More lower 640K memory available!

The blinking cursor lets you know it is working. And the cursor even matches updates tomatch the hardware cursor on the host machine. Now that's amazing!

Works with all on-board and add-in video cards- no extra VGA card needed!

Permits multiple people to control the same machine simultaneously. Who needs AIM?Just have you and your friend TINY onto the same DOS box and chat away (be sure topreface each line with "echo" and don't start typing until the other person hits enter)!

Does not crash your client if the host reboots!

Handy pop-up menu lets you send ANY key combination. No more sprained thumbligaments from trying to type LEFT SHIFT P with one hand!

Client selectable screen refresh rate- generate as little or as much network traffic as youwant. Great for playing text mode graphics games over the network!

Works over the "Internet"- Execute a SET ORDER TO command on a FoxPro 3.0machine in NYC from a caf in Reykjavik!

Multiplatform Java client lets you control DOS machines from Windows, Linux, MacOSX, even your cell phone!

Instant connection startup- no more eye rubbing while waiting for your first connect ofthe day!

Source code and protocol documentation available- have confidence that TINY willcontinue to be viable for decades to come (or at least until all your CMOS batteries godead)!

Uses either the Novell Client32 DOS TCP/IP stack or the FTP Software OnNet PCTCPTCP/IP stack- the two most popular DOS TCP/IP stacks in history!

Toggleable status window helps you diagnose network issues.

Fancy "About" box incase you forget where you downloaded it.

Thanks development sponsored by SICK|MAIHAK , TINY now supports many VGAgraphics modes including 640x480x16!

Also thanks to your friends at SICK, TINY now better supports foreign keyboardcodepages.

Reliable keystroke processing means never having to type the same key twice when youonly mean it once.

Lots of command-line options to customize the TINY launch state to exactly the way youlike it every time!

The blinking LED in the icon tells you that it's working- even when the window isminimized!

Ability to load custom keyboard translation tables. Now you can make TINY work withany foreign keyboard, or just make it so that pressing the enter key types a smiley face onthe remote system!

Use any UDP port you like - run dozens of copies of TINY on your NATed internetconnection!

Thanks to development sponsored by Electronic Flow Control A/S, now supportsHercules graphics too!

TINY now supports screen scaling so you can fill your new 30" monitor edge to edgewith DOSness!

Choose from streamlined or full featured version depending on how much you need andhow much memory you can spare.

Load custom fonts on the TINY client to suit your screen size, language perference, ormood.

Rave reviews for TINY from around the world"Thanks to TINY, I never have to go to work anymore. Now I can control all my DOSmachines while sitting home and watching Tivo!"

-Mario Russo, President Sport Page Inc., New York, USA

"I would like to congratulate you on making a program that is very useful for us here onthe farm. I was told by several companies that this could not be accomplished. Youhave proved them wrong. Not only can I remote control the dos machine, now I canremote control the entire computer via VNC including the dos machine from anymachine on our network."

-Bobby Bloyed, Leyland Farms, California, USA

"I've tried Your new version of TINY and found it failure-free and mature. Ourapplication has succeeded. I am very content with Your results. Congratulations!"

-Marcin Krajka, R&D Division, SICK MAIHAK GmbH, Meersburg, Germany

"Thank very mach. I came on yours the Internet page very much frequently and waitedfor new release of program Tiny remote control for Dos. Has loaded the program atonce as soon as you have laid out it. Thank you for your work, cyrilic fonts is displayedcorrectly, the client in 5 times became easier, in general emotion while only positive."

-Bveb, Minsk, Belarus

"TINY makes me wish I hadn't of ported all those DOS applications over to Linux!"

-Brian Nigito, Big Time Programmer, Financial Services Industry, New York, USA

"This is the finest piece of freeware I have ever seen. Its easy to use, reliable, robustand the support is quite amazing! I installed it in minutes and my system has never.....NEVER objected to it being there. Top marks to Josh for providing this."

- Simon Edwards, Integrated Communication Systems Ltd., Cambridge, UK"

"What is TINY?"

-Cliff Spielman, Consultant, LA, USA

BackgroundI had a strange problem - I had a room filled with several hundred MS-DOS machinesthat I needed to control. I wanted to control them from my desk, and on my desktop Iwas running windows.

There are plenty of programs for remotely-controlling Windows machines. There iseven a program that can control DOS machines from DOS machines. There were notany good programs that could control a DOS machine from a Windows machine.

So I wrote TINY. It was inspired by TNE.EXE and VNC.

TNE.EXE was probably the world's first remote control program. It was written byLantasic in the early 1990s and ran on top of NetBios. The host was very small (onlyabout 4kb) and very reliable. I wanted the TINY host to be very small and reliable.

VNC is a multi-platform remote control system. The protocol is simple and you can gethosts and viewers for most platforms and can control on platform from another. Iwanted to be able to control a DOS machine from a wide variety of modern machinesusing a simple protocol.

The TINY host is written in C and runs as a small TSR in DOS. It uses the Novell orPCTCP networking API to listen for incoming UDP requests. It extracts keystrokerequests from incoming requests and sends back snapshots of the local screen viaUDP packets.

The TINY viewer is much more interesting. It is written in Java and should run on anyJava platform. Replicating the appearance of a DOS screen in Java was a challenge.To make sure I got all the DOS colors exactly right, I had to dump the color table out ofan old VGA card. To make sure I got the font exactly right, I dumped the font table outof an old VGA card. The result as that a TINY viewer looks *exactly* like the DOSscreen it is viewing. Anyone who spent any time using DOS will immediately recognizethat a TINY screen looks distinctly different than a Windows Command Prompt window.

Download

TinyHost.zip

Contains the executables to run on MS-DOS host.Contains EXE files for both the Novell and PCTCP stacks.You only need one or the other. You actually can run bothat the same time if you have both stacks installed, but thatwould be a little silly. Also contains the EXE file for theextended version of TINY that supports graphics modes.

TinyClient.jarThe viewer. Run this on any machine that supports Javaand you'll be able to instantly connect to any TINY serveron the Internet!

TinyDisk.zipA snapshot of a full install of TINY on a DOS 6.22machine, including the Novell TCP/IP NLM and drivers forsome popular (old) network cards. To use this snapshot,

just unzip it onto a DOS 6.22 boot disk and edit theSETTINGS.BAT batch file to reflect your network card andTCP/IP address. Possible network cards are listed in\Novell\Client32\Drivers. Note that some PCI cardsrequire that you set the SLOT variable in SETTINGS.BAT.

TinyImage.zip

A Virtual PC configured to boot directly into TINY from avirtual floppy so you can play with it without needing anactual DOS machine. You'll only need Virtual PC, andJava to use this (both free).

TinyClient.zip

All the Java source files to build the Tiny viewer. Checkout VGASoftFont.java if you want to include a realbit-for-bit and pixel-for-pixel accurate VGA font in yourown Java programs. It also contains the RGB values forthe the VGA text mode color set.

MathKeys.txtGermanKeys.txt

Some sample custom keyboard translation files. Usesthese as is, or edit them to make your own based on thesimple format.

TinyFonts.zip Some sample custom fonts you can use on the TinyClient.

Quick StartSetup a DOS machine running MS-DOS 6.22 and either with Novell or PCTCPnetwork stack. This will be the host.

1.

Setup a machine that can run graphical Java programs (Windows, Linux, QNX,Solaris, etc.). This will be the client. (You can download the latest Java Runtimehere.)

2.

Make sure the two machines can PING each other. If they can't PING, then theycan't TINY.

3.

Copy the appropriate TINY host executable onto the DOS machine fromTinyHost.ZIP and run it by typing...

For Novell stack:TINYH_N password passwordFor PCTCP stack:TINYH_F password password

4.

Copy the TinyClient.jar file onto the graphical machine and run the client bytyping...

Replace the 'x.x.x.x' with the IP address of the host machine:java -jar TinyClient.jar x.x.x.x password

5.

You should see the host screen come up on the client. The cursor blinks eachtime an update is received. Click anywhere in the window for a menu. Try runningthe Tiny client with no parameters for options.

6.

Send me an email telling me what you are using TINY for so I can add you to mylist and keep you updated with future TINY news!

7.

Quicker Start Demo (for a Windows machine on anetwork with a DHCP server only)

Download and install Virtual PC from Microsoft here.1.Download and unzip the TINY virtual machine image files from here and save iton your computer.

2.

Double click on the TINY virtual machine image file you just unzipped. Theshould launch a virtual DOS machine with TINY loaded.

3.

Download and install Java from Sun here.4.Download the TinyClient.jar file from here and save to your hard disk.5.Start a command prompt and go into the directory where you saved theTinyCleint.jar file.

6.

Enter the following command..

java -jar TinyClient.jar 192.168.15.2 password

...except where it says "192.168.15.2", you are going to use the IP address of thevirtual machine you started in step #3. You can find that address on your screen-look at the number circled in red in the example below...

7.

Play with TINY! While this demo is not terribly useful, but once you have arunning example, it should be easier to see how everything works.

8.

FAQQ: Why on earth would I ever want to use TINY when I can just run my DOSprograms directly on my Windows machine using Virtual PC or VMWARE?

I love Virtual PC and think it a great tool, but here are a few examples (taken fromactual TINY users) when you might still need TINY...

The DOS machine needs to be physically located in a remote location (like insidea nuclear power plant smokestack or on top of denim cutting machine) because itis directly connected to some sensors and controllers.

You only have a license to run your DOS software on a single physical machine,but you want multiple people in multiple locations to be able to use the software.

Your DOS software is incompatible with Virtual PC.

You don't want to use a Windows machine because your DOS machine hasn'tonce crashed in over ten years and you like it that way.

You can't afford to buy a new Windows machine(s), especially when you alreadyhave a perfectly good Turbo XT machine(s).

Q: I am able to connect to the remote TINY host and even type on keyboard, but Ijust see a blank screen on the client, what should I do?

While the TINY host does the best job it can of auto-detecting the current screen modeand active page, in DOS this is not always reliable (especially with non-VGA videocards). You can try manually selecting video modes from the pop-up menu on theTINY client until you find the mode/page your host is in. Once you find the correctscreen mode for a given video card/application, you can look up the mode number inthe TINY status window and specify this number on the client command line using the"/M" parameter. This way the TINY client will launch already in the correct mode nexttime.

Q: TINY works fine when I connect from a machine on my local network, but itdoesn't work when I try over the internet.

It sounds like the UDP packets that TINY uses are getting blocked somewherebetween the host and client when you try to communicate over this internet.

This could be due to a firewall or NAT router on either side of the connection. Makesure that you do not have UDP port 25443 (the default port Tiny used) blockedanywhere.

Also, if you have a NAT router, you might have to add a Port Forwarding entry for UDPport 25443 that points to the TINY host machine's IP address on the local network.

Q: Can I have multiple TINY clients viewing the same host simultaneously?

Absolutely, as long as you have enough bandwidth to carry all the packets. Try usinghigher "/D" settings on the client if bandwidth becomes an issue.

Having multiple clients can open up interesting opportunities. You could make a verysimple billboard system by setting up a single DOS host and giving one person thecontrol password and all the other people the view password. The person with thecontrol password would be able to type messages on the screen, while the otherpeople could only view the messages as they were entered.

You could even use TINY's ability to manually select between the various host videopages to set up a pseudo-multi user system. Imagine you had a PC that wascontrolling a set of conveyor belts via its serial ports. You could write a simpleapplication that showed the speed and load for each belt on a different DOS text page.By having different people select different DOS pages to view on their clients (eithermanually via menus or with the /M command line parameter), you could have fourdifferent people watching the different screens at the same time on the same DOShost. By carefully picking non-overlapping control keys (belt one uses "Q" to speed up,"A" to slow down; belt two uses "W" and "S", and so on), these people could evensimultaneously and independently adjust their respective belt speeds. Pretty cool, huh?

Q: When I restart the host, the client continues running without updating thescreen. It would be nice to say something like "Lost connection to Tiny Host"and blank the client screen.

I think this is a matter of taste. I actually prefer the current behavior. After I reboot, I liketo leave the client running so that I can see it start to update again the moment thehost machine comes back up. Also, for the client to detect that the host was about torestart, the host would have to send some sort of special "I'm about to reboot" packetto the client. This makes things very complicated. What if that packet got lost? So youwould need the client to send a acknowledgement "I heard that you are about toreboot, go ahead" packet back to the host. What should the host do if it never gets theacknowledgement? Then it could never reboot! Since you (or at least I) usually have agood reason to do a reboot, I usually want it to be as quick and direct as possible withno chance that it could not happen.

Q: I found that I can start the client and point it anywhere and the client will startbut with a blank screen. It would be nice to return something like "No Tiny Hostfound at this address".

TINY uses UDP, which is a connectionless protocol. This makes it efficient and simple,but also means that there really is no connection between the client and server, just abunch of unreliable packets. There is no difference between pointing it to nowhere andpointing it to a valid host and just having the packets get dropped. Interestingly, this isalso a problem with TCP/IP, it is just hidden so most people don't think about it.

There are three ways to know if you are actively getting updates or not...

The cursor blinks every time a new update packet is received from the host.The program window icon blinks every second when updates are coming in.You can watch the status window and if you don't see packets coming in then youknow that thescreen is not updating.

Once you get used to it, you will intuitively know that your connection is dropped or atleast lagging by watching the cursor.

Keep in mind that there *ultimately* is no difference between a non-connection and justa sequence of packets getting lost. Networks are not magic. With most connection-oriented protocols (i.e. TCP/IP), the protocol specifies a fixed amount of time to wait forpackets before arbitrarily giving up and declaring a connection to be "lost".

With UDP (and thus TINY), it is up to you to decide if the screen is not updatingenough for the connection to be considered down, and that really depends on your

application. If not enough packets are getting through, then there really is nothing youcan do but wait anyway, restarting the client will not change anything since the problemis some where between you and the host and as soon as the problem is solved andthe packets can get through, the client will start updating again.

Q: How can I run TINY from a Windows shortcut without starting a CommandPrompt window?

One option is to right-click "properties" on the shortcut option and select "runminimized". This will start the DOS window minimized, although it will still be there.

Set the shortcut target to point to "javaw.exe" rather than "java.exe" if you don't want tosee the dos box at all. JAVAW doesn't start a command window, so you won't see anyerror messages that might come up. TINY doesn't really print any error messages afterit starts, but Java itself might rarely (I.e. OutOfMemory exception, NetworkHardwareexception, you get the idea).

Q: How much bandwidth does TINY use?

Here is how TINY works: Client sends request packet to host, then host responds witha screen snapshot packet. By default this happens 10 times a second (100ms delaybetween requests). Each request is tiny, less than 100 bytes. Each response is a fullscreen worth of data- 80x24x2 = about 4K bytes. So, by default TINY uses about 0kb/sup and 40kb/s down bandwidth for viewing DOS text screens.

Depending on your application, you can probably reduce the update rate to once ortwice a second (500ms or 1000ms delay) and greatly reduce the bandwidth.

Note that graphics screens have a lot more data, so either they update less often oruse more bandwidth depending on how you set the update rate.

Q: Is TINY secure?

No! TINY is extremely *not* secure. Anyone with a network sniffer attached to yourwire will easily be able to see every key you press, everything on your screen, evenyour TINY password. Note that this is also true of VNC and many, many otherprotocols you probably use every day. In the end, good security is very hard to docorrectly, so I'd rather make TINY "explicitly insecure" than "probably secure" like mostprograms. If you want a secure, encrypted version of TINY, let me know and I'll try tohelp out, but I bet I can find lots of other ways people will be able to get the same datafrom you regardless of how secure TINY is.

Q: Graphics screens are so darn big, how did you squeeze them though such atiny (pardon the pun) wire?

TINY uses a clever technique of "slicing" the graphics screen into lots of little pieces(40 of them for 640x480x16 mode) and sending each slice in a UDP packet. This iswhy you see that psychedelic painting pattern when watching the TINY client paint agraphics screen. This is nice because it limits network bandwidth, reduces themaximum UDP packet size to something that DOS stacks can handle, and does notrequire a memory-wasting buffer on the memory limited DOS machine. The downsideis that you never see a single snapshot of the remote graphics screen for that screen is

constantly being updated.

In VGA 800x600x256 mode, TINY also uses a technique called "nibble compression"where it takes 256 colors on the host screen and compresses them down to only 16colors. This uses half as much bandwidth, but means you don't see as many colors.You can manually select the full color mode on the "Screen Mode" menu.

Q: Can you make TINY support the Microsoft DOS Network Client 3.0 TCP/IPstack?

Thanks to Mark Phinney at cflsb.com, I now have the Microsoft TCPIP SDK files so intheory it should be possible to make TINY work with this stack.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Microsoft stack limits the packet size to 1400 bytes so itwould take some effort to make it work efficiently. If you REALLY need to get TINYworking on this stack, let me know and maybe we can make it a project.

Luckily the Novell stack is free and good, so most people are happy with it.

UPDATE: Chris McFarling has been able to get the MS Client running concurently withthe Novell Client32! This means that you can have a DOS machine that runs TINY andcan log into a Windows server. The only real downsides here are (1) it uses morememory, and (2) it is more complicated, but you really can't beat this solution if this iswhat you need. You can download his VIrtual PC floppy image file here, and then bootit up on your machine and take a look to see how he did it and adapt it to yourconfiguration. You'll need to use Virtual PC 2007 since the new Virtual XP version doesnot have an easy way to mount floppy images. Also note that you need to have NetBUIenabled on the server machine.

Q: Can you make TINY support the WATTCP TCP/IP stack?

While certainly possible, it would take some effort to make it work efficiently. If youREALLY need to get TINY working on this stack, let me know and maybe we can makeit a project.

Luckily the Novell stack is free and good, so most people are happy with it.

Q: Can you make TINY run with no extra TCPIP stack?

I'd actually love to start a project to have TINY talk directly to the network card,probably using a Crynwr packet driver. This would reduce the amount of memoryneeded on a TINY host and with one less piece of software things would generally besimpler to set up. Let me know if you have a good reason to need this.

Q: How do I use custom keyboard translation tables?

Use a text editor like NOTEPAD to take a look at the sample translation files to get afeel for the very simple format. To load one or more translation files, use the /Xcommand line parameter when loading the client. For example, to load the TINY clientwith both the sample translation files, you'd type something like...

java -jar TinyClient.jar /Xmathkeys.txt /Xgermankeys.txt x.x.x.x password

...assuming that you already saved those two files into the current directory.

Q: When I connect to the TINY host, I get a "Host mode unsupported" message.

There are a huge number of graphics modes available on the various brands andmodels of graphics cards and there is no standardized way to access these modes inDOS, so TINY only includes support for some of the most popular modes.

First, make sure you are using the "extended" version of the TINY host that includesgraphics support. If you try to view a graphics screen with the standard version of thehost, you'll always get the "mode unsupported" message.

If you using the "extended" host versions and are still seeing this message, then yourapplication is using a mode that TINY does not know about.

Try to configure your application to use one of the modes that TINY does support. Youcan see a list of these modes by running the TINY client with the /M command lineparameter for a list of supported modes.

If you really need to use a specific application with TINY and that application can onlyuse a graphics mode that TINY does not support and you'd be willing to pay for thework to add support for that mode to TINY, get in touch with me at the email addressbelow.

Q: How can I override the default UDP socket that TINY uses?

You can use optional command line parameters to specify what UDP port the hostshould listen on and what port the TINY client should call out to. By default, both useport 6363 hex.

For example, the command line

TINYH_N /P6364 josh josh

...will load the TINY host and have it listen on port 6364 (hex) with the view and controlpasswords josh.

You can then start the client like this

Java jar TinyClient.jar /P6364 192.168.1.2 josh

and it all should work (assuming the IP address of the TINY host is 192.168.1.2 andthe two machines can PING each other).

Note that it is even possible to load multiple copies of the host listening on differentports on the same machine, although this uses up lots of memory.

Q: How can I improve TINY performance?

The TINY client is not a particularly efficient Java application. My goals were to make itsmall (tiny?) and simple rather than fast. Since it runs on the non-DOS side of theconnection, I assume this machine will be pretty modern and fast. The TINY hostprogram, on the other hand, is as efficient as possible since I don't want to waste asingle precious CPU cycle on your tired old 2.8Mhz PC-AT.

Make sure you are using the very latest version of the Java runtime - the most recentonce is better than the previous one. I'm not sure why, but it is cleverly hidden on the

Sun website here...

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

...you should pick the "Java Runtime Environment (JRE)".

You can also specify how often you would like the TINY client to request a screenrefresh from the host on the command line with "/Dx" where "x" is the number ofmilliseconds to delay between requests.

For example, launching the TINY client with this command line...

java -jar TinyClient.jar /D500 x.x.x.x password

...will send a screen refresh request twice per second (500 milliseconds = 1/2seconds).

Using longer delays (and thus lower refresh rates) will reduce the CPU load on boththe host and the client and will also reduce the bandwidth requirements. The downsideto lower refresh rates is that you will see the screen update less frequently. This can beannoying if you are using an interactive application, especially when you are trying totype quickly.

On the flip side, specifying too fast a refresh rate (too low of a delay) can causeannoying problems as well. If you set a rate that generates more data than yournetwork connection can handle, packets will start to get dropped. Once this happens,performance degrades very rapidly and unpredictably. This once happened to me andit took a while to figure out what was wrong. I had specified a refresh rate that seemedto work fine and gave me snappy response when I was typing on the remote machine,but every once in a while everything would grind to a halt and my keystrokes wouldstart taking several seconds to show up. It turned out that someone else wasoccasionally TINYing onto a different machine over the same DSL link and betweenthe two of us we were saturating the connection. We both slightly reduced our refreshrates and everything worked great.

The default refresh rate is 100ms, which translates to 10 refreshes per second. This isfine for a local Ethernet network connection, but will probably not work well over theinternet. For a 768KB up DSL line, I typically use a 500ms delay. This leaves enoughbandwidth available that two people can TINY across the connection at the same timewithout saturating our internet connection.

Ultimately the correct setting for a given installation will depend on the application andthe connection, so you'll probably need to try several different values to find whatworks best for you. Start with a high delay and work your way up to until you find adelay that is not annoying to use and doesn't saturate the connection. Turn on theTINY status screen on the client and watch the dropped packet counters. A fewoccasional dropped packets are normal, but if you start seeing the countersincrementing regularly, you'll probably need to throttle back and use a higher delay.Keep in mind that other things going on over your network connection or the one at theremote machine can use bandwidth too, so you are more like to get see droppedpackets if someone in your house starts downloading a Justin Timberlake video onYouTube.

Q: What are all the TINY command-line parameters?

Client Syntax:

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

TinyClient [optional params] host_address password

Parameters :

/? displays this help info

/Dn sets the delay between screen requests in milliseconds(default=100)

/Kn sets the delay between key requests in milliseconds(default=500)

/R disable popup menus on left click (default=left or rightclick)

/X key_file loads a keyboard translation table file (you canload multiple key files)

/C show key scan codes to console for diagnosic purposes

/Px sets target UDP port in hex (default=6363)

/S show status window on startup (default is don't show)

/Ln sets the startup screen scaling size (default=1, 0=fullscreen)

/Mn sets the start-up screen mode (default=automatic)

/M lists available screen modes

/F specifies an optional screen font file to load

host_address is the IP address or name of the host machine(required)

password is the password for the host machine (required)

Host Syntax:

TINYH [/D] [/Px] view_password control_password

Where :

/D enables debug mode

/Px sets UDP port to listen on in hex (default=6363)

/I enables sending a keyboard interrupt after each keystrokewhich is needed by a very few (one so far) applications

view_password is the password that will let clients see what ison the host's screen, but not send keystrokes or reboot themachine

control_password will allow the client full control over thehost machine

Q: How does debug mode on the host work?

If you load the TINY host with the /D parameter, it will start in debug mode. In thismode, the TINY host will write two letters to the upper-left corner of the text screenwhenever a packet is received. This can be useful in debugging problems where youare not getting any response on the client.

The letter in the first position simply cycles each time any request packet is received bythe host. If you see this blinking/spinning when you run the client, at least you knowthat there is good connectivity between the host and the client and they are both set touse the same port.

The second letter lets you know how the received packet was processed. Here are thepossible codes...

Code Meaning

RA packet was received. This should only show up for the split second betweenafter the packet is received and before it is processed, so you probably won'tsee it.

9The packet received was ignored because it was less than 9 bytes long. Thismaybe means someone is trying to spoof/hack you TINY host since the TINYclient would never send a packet like this.

KAn old style key request was received with the wrong control password. Checkthat your password on the host and client match, and consider upgrading theclient to the latest version too.

V An new style key request was received with the view password. Use thecontrol password on the client if you want to send keys.

L An new style key request was received with a totally wrong password. Checkthat your password on the host and client match.

X A view request was received, but the password did not match either the viewor control passwords. Check password on the client.

B A reboot request was received that did not match the control password. Checkthe password on the client.

FAn unknown packet was received. This again probably means that someone istrying to hack your TINY host, or another application is mistakenly sendingUDP packets to the port that the TINY host is listening on.

SSuccess. The most recently received packet was processed successfully anda response packet was sent, so you should be able to debug the problem onthe client.

Q: How can I get TINY client to prompt for the password each time I connect?

In Windows, you can use a batch file to ask for a password and then launch TINY withthe password as a parameter. Try something like...

TinyPass.bat:

Set /P pass=Please enter your TINY connection password:%windir%\System32\javaw.exe -jar TinyClientNew.jar /D400192.168.1.113 %pass%

Q: How do custom fonts work?

To load a custom font on the Tiny client, you'd use the /F command line parameter likethis...

java -jar TinyClient.jar /Fsmall.tf 192.168.15.1 foobar

...where small.tf is one of the sample Tiny fonts you can download here.

There are four sample fonts in that collection that I've made just to give you an idea ofwhat is possible...

small.tf A tiny 5x7 font designed for LCD displays that I found here. screenshot

normal.tf The standard VGA 9x16 font. Good base for making acustom font. screenshot

big.tf A huge 14x23 font I converted from the ASCII TrueType fontI found here. screenshot

cyrillic.tf A normal VGA font with some Cyrillic letters in the highASCII range. screenshot

keyrus.tf Another VGA font with Russian letters in high ASCII range. screenshot

arabic.tf A normal VGA font with Arabic letters in the high ASCIIrange. screenshot

ibm_arab.tf An IBM supplied Arabic font. screenshot

script.tf A silly font to give some ideas of what is possible. screenshot

farsi.rf A font to make your old post-Sassanid text files come to life screenshot

Note that if you use a font on the client that is a different height in pixels than the fonton the host, your cursor might look different on the client than on the host. Forexample, if the host machine is using the standard VGA font that is 16 pixels high, butyou are loading the "small.tf" font on the host which is only 8 pixels high, you might notsee the cursor bar on the host since it is located at pixel location number 14 which islower than the bottom of the character on the host.

Q: Sometimes when I manually pick a screen mode, I see "Received CorruptedFrame" on the Java console and the client screen stops updating.

Despite the ".tf" extension (for Tiny Font), the font files are just plain ASCII text files, soyou can edit them with notepad or any other handy editor to make your own fonts. Ifyou make a particularly useful one, please email it to me so I can share it witheveryone else.

I also have a tool that I wrote to dump the font table on a VGA card into a TF file, but itwould take me longer to explain how to do this than it is worth. If you really need todump a special font, let me know and I'll walk you though it. I also have a tool that canconvert some TrueType fonts into TF files.

Q: Sometimes when I manually pick a screen mode, I see "Received CorruptedFrame" on the Java console and the client screen stops updating.

If you request an invalid mode (say, Hercules Page #1 on a machine that doesn't havea Hercules card installed), the host machine may try to send packets based onmemory that doesn't even exist on the host machine. The contents of the packets aretypically all 1 bits, so the TINY client can't find the appropriate data fields in the packet.This does not cause any harm or problems for either the host or client machines, andyou can fix it by just selecting a mode that is supported on the host machine.

Q: I just upgraded to the new version of TINY and now I can not see the screenon my host.

The latest version of TINY introduced a new protocol that is much more efficient. If youcan seamlessly connect to a host running the new version with an old client, but toconnect to a host running the old version using the new client you must select "Auto-Legacy" under screen modes. You can easily do this from the TINY client commandline or using the pop-up menus. Or better, upgrade your host to the new version too!

Q: Do you know where I can find the Novell FTP Client?

Thanks to a very helpfull DOS website, here is a package that contains a bunch ofhandy utilities that work with the Novell stack including FTP client and server, TFTPclient and server, TELNET, RCP, and even a TSR that lets (supposedly) you connect toyou DOS machine from TELNET or X-Windows (but I've never gotten it to work).

You can find some (partially inaccurate) documentation here.

Here is an example of an FTP script file called script.ftp that logs into an ftp server at ipaddress 11.22.33.44 using user username root and password fubar and downloads allthe files in the default directory:

open 11.22.33.44user root fubarmget *.*quit

Here is an example of a batch file to execute the above script...

ftp -X

Q: How can I send files to/from the TINY host over the network?

I think the best way is to use an FTP client on the DOS machine. This requires an FTPserver somewhere, but there are lots of free and simple FTP servers that you caninstall on your non-DOS machine.

If you are using the Novell stack on the DOS machine and have a Win2000 orWin2003 machine on your network, you could load Microsoft's free File and PrintServices for Netware service on the Windows server and then map a drive on the DOSmachine using the Novell MAP command.

If you have a spare Linux or BSD box on your network, you could install mars_nwe soyou can use that machine as a file server for your DOS box.

Another option is to make the DOS machine an FTP server by running the Novell FTPdaemon on the DOS machine and connecting to that with a normal FTP client fromyour Windows/Linux box. Make sure to add your username:password in the\net\hstacc\ftpdusr.log file on the DOS machine. After transferring files end your FTPprogram and TINY will then regain full control of the DOS machine. (thanks Joe Murphy!)

You may also be able to transfer files to a Windows SMB server using the MS Clientrunning concurrently with the Novell Client32.

Q: Is there any documentation about the /Ln parameter (i.e. what the values of ncan be and what they mean)?

The specifies the screen scaling factor that the TINY client should use at startup.Higher values make for a larger (and blockier) client window.

"/L1" specifies that one pixel on the host should correspond to one pixel on the client(the default), "/L2" specifies that the client window should be twice as big as the HOSTscreen in pixels (each host pixel corresponds to a 2x2 block on the client), etc.

Q: Is there any documentation about the /Mn parameter (i.e. what the values of ncan be and what they mean)?

This specifies which screen mode TINY should use on start-up. You typically wouldwant to let TINY auto-detect this, but you might want to specify it explicitly in caseswhere TINY can't accurately auto-detect which mode to use.

One example is if you have a two monitor set up on the host, TINY can't know whichmonitor you want to see so ), or if the host is in a Hercules Graphics mode (there is noreliable way to detect Hercules modes).

If you run the TINY client and do not specify a value for the /M parameter, it will list allavailable modes.

Q: Can the size of the client window be changed dynamically by the user whenconnected.

If you click inside the TINY client window when connected, you can use the "ScaleScreen" submenu to change the size of the window.

Q: When I run TINY on my DOS machine using the PCTCP stack, it crashes/stopsresponding.

Make sure your config.sys has a STACKS=16,512 line in it.

Q: I can get the Novell TCPIP stack to work on a virtual DOS machine, but howthe heck do I get it to work on my actual DOS machine?

You'll need to load a suitable Novell Client32 driver for your card. These drivers alwaysend with a ".LAN" extension. You can find drivers for most common network cards onthe Novell website. You can also usually get the driver file from the card'smanufacturer. If you can't find the right driver anywhere, consider just buying a new(well supported) card since they are so cheap now.

Look in the STARTNET.BAT for the line that says something like...

LOAD E100B.LAN

This is the line that loads the network card driver for an Intel Pro Ethernet 100Bnetwork card. Copy your driver into this directory and then change that line to reflectyour card and everything should work. Note that some cards need extra parameters atthe end of the line. These are different for every card, so you'll have to figure it outyourself. Try looking at the card's documentation, or just experimenting. Sometimes thedriver will give a useful error message when you use the wrong parameters and thatmessage can help you guess what the right ones might be.

Q: My card doesn't have a 32-bit Novell driver (ends in .LAN), just a 16-bit ODINovell driver (ends in .COM). Am I screwed?

You can also use 16-bit Novell ODI drivers, you just need to load some "shim" driversthat make it possible for the 32-bit stack to talk to them. The only downsides areslightly lower performance and slight higher conventional memory use compared to areal 32-bit driver. And it can be a pain to get it to actually work sometimes. It is usuallyeasier to get a new card that does have Novell 32 bit drivers.

Here is some documentation on loading 16 bit drivers from Novell.

Q: What does the "Send keyboard scancode" function do?

Some rare DOS programs (most notably EDIT.COM) use tricks to access the keyboardin non-standard ways. Because of this, these programs can not see keys that arestuffed into the keyboard buffer by programs like TINY.

Thanks to a an amazingly useful text on PC keyboards, I've added the ability for TINYto put keyboard scancodes directly into the keyboard controller chip. This technique isgood enough to fool every program I've ever tried into thinking the keys were reallypressed on the local keyboard.

So why not use this technique by default? Well, scancodes are messy. There are lotsof different types of keyboards with different keys in different places making differentscan codes. Normally the PC BIOS takes care of all this so you just push the "A" keyand see an "A" pop up on the screen, but when faking keys into the controller you needto do a lot of this work yourself.

The basic idea is that every actual key on a keyboard is a little switch. When you pushthe key, the keyboard sends a scancode to the keyboard controller in the computer.When you let go of a key, the keyboard sends a different code. You can use the "Sendkeyboard scancode" to directly put these codes into the control as if they came fromthe keyboard itself and trick the computer into thinking you pushed (or let go of) anykey on the keyboard in an order (Think Alt, scroll lock, even the power button).

To send a key, you need to know the "make" code (the code sent with the key ispressed) and the "break" code (the code sent when the key is released.

Here is a table of all the make and break codes for a standard keyboard taken fromthe above website...

PC Keyboard Scan Codes (in hex)Key Down Up Key Down Up Key Down Up Key Down UpEsc 1 81 [ { 1A 9A < 33 B3 center 4C CC1 ! 2 82 ] } 1B 9B . > 34 B4 right 4D CD

2 @ 3 83 Enter 1C 9C / ? 35 B5 + 4E CE3 # 4 84 Ctrl 1D 9D R shift 36 B6 end 4F CF4 $ 5 85 A 1E 9E * PrtSc 37 B7 down 50 D05 % 6 86 S 1F 9F alt 38 B8 pgdn 51 D16 ^ 7 87 D 20 A0 space 39 B9 ins 52 D27 & 8 88 F 21 A1 CAPS 3A BA del 53 D38 * 9 89 G 22 A2 F1 3B BB / E0 35 B59 ( 0A 8A H 23 A3 F2 3C BC enter E0 1C 9C0 ) 0B 8B J 24 A4 F3 3D BD F11 57 D7- _ 0C 8C K 25 A5 F4 3E BE F12 58 D8= + 0D 8D L 26 A6 F5 3F BF ins E0 52 D2

Bksp 0E 8E ; : 27 A7 F6 40 C0 del E0 53 D3Tab 0F 8F ' " 28 A8 F7 41 C1 home E0 47 C7Q 10 90 ` ~ 29 A9 F8 42 C2 end E0 4F CFW 11 91 L shift 2A AA F9 43 C3 pgup E0 49 C9E 12 92 \ | 2B AB F10 44 C4 pgdn E0 51 D1R 13 93 Z 2C AC NUM 45 C5 left E0 4B CBT 14 94 X 2D AD SCRL 46 C6 right E0 4D CDY 15 95 C 2E AE home 47 C7 up E0 48 C8U 16 96 V 2F AF up 48 C8 down E0 50 D0I 17 97 B 30 B0 pgup 49 C9 R alt E0 38 B8O 18 98 N 31 B1 - 4A CA R ctrl E0 1D 9D

P 19 99 M 32 B2 left 4B CB PauseE1 1D45 E19D C5

-

For example, if you wanted to type the letter "J" on the host, you'd first look up thecodes from the above table and then type "24 A4" into the "Send scancode" window onTINY. The "24" pushes the "J" key on the keyboard and the "A4" lets go.

So, let's say you started dos EDIT by mistake and now you can not exit because it isnot recognizing your keypresses. You could use the codes "38 21 A1 B8 2D AD". Thiswould push "Alt", then push and release "F", then let go of the "Alt", then push andrelease "X", thus quitting the program.

If you want to know the scancode for some fancy keyboard or a foreign keyboard, referto this guide to every keyboard scancode imaginable.

Q: What is the difference between the normal and "extended" versions of TINY?

The only difference is that the "extended" version of TINY supports graphics modes onthe host. This takes significantly more memory, so if you only need text modes youshould probably use the standard version.

If you load the standard version of TINY and then switch into a graphics mode, you'llsee a "mode not supported" message in the client.

The standard version of TINY uses about 30K, whereas the "extended" version needs about 38K.

The TINY program will print which version it is on startup.

Note that I have not included a graphics version that runs on the FTP stack inside thedistribution. Let me know if you need this and I'll compile it for you.

Q: Why are the colors all messed up when I run 800x600x256 graphics modeprograms?

By default, TINY will automatically send 800x600x256 graphics screens in compressednibble format. This mode uses only half as much bandwidth as sending the full colordata, but the costs is that you only get half as much color information. DOS graphicsapplications tend to only use the first 16 colors anyway, so typically this is ok.

If you are using an 800x600 application that really uses all the colors and you want tosee them all, you can manually select this mode on the client by clicking on "HostScreen Mode" and selecting the non-compacted 800x600 mode. Note that this will beMUCH slower than compacted mode. Also note that when you quit out of the graphicsapplication, you'll have to go back into the "Host Screen Mode" menu and re-select"Auto" to see the text screen again.

Q: What is are the "sliced text" modes for?

These modes divide up text screens into multipule packets so that no packet is biggerthan 1400 bytes. So, for example, if you pick "Sliced Text 80x25" mode, it will take 5packets (each with about 800 data bytes) to see a full screen update. In the normal textmodes, TINY sends a full snapshot of the whole screen in one giant UDP packet.

Some reasons why you might want to send lots of little packets rather than one bigone...

There is a bug in your network card driver that doesn't let it send giant UDPpackets (I'm talking to you, Realtek)

Each little packet causes a shorter pause for the running forground program thanone big one would

There is some firewall or router between your TINY client and host that can't dealwith giant packets

You want to have smoother traffic patterns on your network

Becuase the packets are smaller, you can probably send them more quickly withoutcausing more network problems. If you were using a delay of 250ms with large packets(/D250), you can probably drop that to 100ms if you are using a sliced text mode andget better update performance.

TINY will never automatically select a "sliced text" mode. If you want to use one, youwill have to manually select it from the "host mode" menu or use the /M option on thecommand line.

Q: What exactly does the /I option on the TINY host do?

The /I option will cause the TINY host to generate an INT 09 (the keyboard hardwareinterrupt) after each key is pushed into the keyboard buffer.

There is an application from TeamPhone that seems to need this interrupt to tell it towake up and read any pending keys.

If you have an application that doesn't seem to want to read the keys from TINY, youcan try this option, but in general you shouldn't need it.

Q: Can I run TINY over a PPP connection?

Maybe, but it will be slow. Maybe try using one of the sliced text modes. If you do nothave an internet connection to the host, maybe consider trying my WHOST programinstead. WHOST runs great over slow serial links like dial-up modems.

Q: Why am I getting weird Java errors like java.lang.Asser onError?

This means something went very wrong with the program trying to check thateverything is ok. Almost all the time it means you are trying to run Java on Linux whichdoesn't work so well right now. I could also mean a corrupted Java install or JAR files.If you are on Linux, easiest solution is to set up a VirtualBox Windows machine andinstall Java there and it will work great. Sorry.

Q: What is the license for TINY?

TINY is free for non-commercial use. If you really love TINY, you can express yourgratitude though a tax-deductible donation to The Aasha Foundation.

If you would like to include TINY in a product you sell, please email me at the addressbelow and we can work something very reasonable out.

SupportIf you've read all the FAQ questions above and are still having a problem with TINY,you can email me at...

Updates7/12/2013 - Corrected Minsk to be in Belarus, rather than Russia. (Thanks Bveb!)

5/2/2012 - Add FAQ about Java Assertion errors.

12/19/2011 - Added KEYRUS.TF as a different Russian font.

1/11/2011 - Now with Farsi font support for our friends in Iran. Regardless of how ourleaders may quarrel, our common love of MS-DOS 6.22 will always bond us together!

6/4/10 - New version of the host and client supports new "sliced text" modes. See FAQfor more info.

4/29/10 - Added note about needing NetBUI when using MSClient stack to access awindows server.

4/27/10- Added Chris McFarling's cool new MSClient/Novell Client combo disk imageto the section on using TINY with MS Client.

3/3/10 - Added the Arabic font and included more into in the FAQ about loading andcreating fonts. Also added the descritption of the font parameter to the parameter list(just to this page, the program already knew it). Also added FAQ links to the new

JoshFTP program and to Novell's FTPD server.

4/25/09 - Fixed the link on the page to actually point to the new TinyClient versionrather than the old one. Sorry. :)

4/23/09-Finnally added custom font support to the TINY client! You can now load bigfonts, little fonts, foreign fonts, whatever you like. You can even make your own Tinyfonts with any text editor. See above for more info.

10/1/08-Updated TinyDisk.zip so that it should now fint on a 1.44MB floppy with DOS.Also updated it to the latest version of the TINY host.

8/7/08 - Added TINYHG_F.EXE to the TinyHost.zip distributable for people whoneed graphics on the FTP stack. Also updated the TinyClient to take out somediagnostic code that would print cursor info to the console.

8/4/08 - Updated the TINY client to check the Disable Cursor Bit contained in theCursor Start Register. Previously you might have seen phantom cursors or evenTinyClient exceptions when running host applications used this bit. In this case, theapplication was BLOGMON from ER-Soft.

7/24/08 - Updated the TINY host to include the "/I" command line option that will triggerinterrupts after each keypress for compatibility with TeamPhone software. Also addedSimon's generous testimonial.

7/13/08 - Recompiled the TinyClient to be compatible with older versions of the Javaruntime. Still, it is best to use the most up to date version of java available for yoursystem.

7/1/08 - Posted new versions of both the client and the host that now support full VGA800x600 graphics mode. Also broke the host into two versions so that people who donot need graphics support do not need to waste memory.

6/30/08 - Added link to LanWorkplace Extras zip file. Added link for documentation onloading 16 bit Novell drivers.

4/30/08 - New version supports directly sending keyboard scancodes to the hostkeyboard controller. Great for controlling programs that use non-standard ways to readkeystrokes. Updated the FAQ to describe how this works.

3/26/08 - Updated the FAQ section on keyboard stuffing to suggest people can alwaysbuy a hardware keyboard wedge to solve their stuffing problems.

3/11/08 - Updated the FAQ with new "Quicker Start" section and some new answers ongetting the Novell TCPIP stack working & the TINY license.

3/10/08 - New Version

Thanks to work sponsored by Holland Co, TINY now supports VESA800x600x256 SuperVGA graphics mode.

1/15/08 - New version

New debug mode on host makes it easier to figure out what is wrong if the clientis not connecting.The "unsupported mode" screen will now show you what VESA mode is currentlyactive (if VESA is installed on the host).

5/15/07 - Added links to the FTP client and info on File and Print Services for Netware.

2/15/07- TINY Client adds "Full Screen" mode to the list of screen scaling options.

2/2/07 - New version, new features!

You can now manually select the screen mode to access on the host machine.This is handy in lots of cases like (1) there is more than one video card on thehost, (2) there are multiple active pages on the host, (3) the host video adapterdoes not provide any way of automatically discovering its current mode, like...TINY now supports Hercules graphics cards on the host. You can even pickeither graphics page on cards with extra video memory. Note that you have tomanually switch into Herc graphics mode (see above).Support for picking Interlaced or Progressive scanning in graphics modes. One orthe other might be better for a given application.Host size reduced by 4k bytes. Hey, every k counts.The size of the client window can now be scaled to look larger via menu choiceor startup option.New strategy for handling handling keystroke requests from view-only clients.Now the host sends a NACK back to the client so the client does not continue toresend the keystroke request.Changed the way passwords are processed to eliminate a possible passwordattack mechanism. I noticed this issue while making other changes - it has neverbeen attempted in the wild.

12/16/06 - Added FAQ entries for command-line params, specifying a password on thecommand line, performance. Added link to download JRE.

11/11/05 - Added support for FTP's PCTCP stack in addition to Novell. This involvedseparating out the network code from the remote control code, making all the sourcemuch cleaner. If you need to write a DOS UDP program, consider using my NET.H toget automatic dual-stack support.

10/26/06 - TINY host version 0.6 release with support for specifying the UDP port tolisten on using a command line option. Also added the ability to automatically viewnon-primary VGA text pages to support strange copy-protected software like TELAIO.

5/18/06 - TINY client version 2.1 released with support for custom keyboard translationtables. This makes is easy to use TINY with any foreign keyboard, which seems to behow lots of people like to use TINY.

4/10/06 - TINY host and client version 2.0 released with lots of new features includinggraphics mode support!

11/16/05 - Fixed typo "BAKCSPACE" to "BACKSPACE". Phew!

11/15/05 - Added a new status bar to show how many packets have been sent andreceived to the client.

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