Kermit 95 and Windows® 95 HyperTerminal

HyperTerminal is the communications "applet" from Hilgraeve, Inc., included with Windows 95 to provide bare-bones dialout capabilities and to demonstrate the Windows 95 user interface. It achieves both objectives quite well, but those who need more than casual online access, or who would like to have a common communications method for both dialout and TELNET, will soon want to graduate to a more full-featured communications application.

The following comparison was conducted on an IBM PC 750-P90 with Windows 95 and a USR Sportster V.34 external modem connected to a 16550A buffered UART at 57600 bps with RTS/CTS flow control, over a 28800-bps V.34 connection. On the other end are US Robotics V.34 rack-mount modems connected to a Cisco ASM3 terminal server, and from there a TELNET connection over a local Ethernet to a Sun SparcServer 10.


Hyperterminal Kermit 95 1.1
82K ripple test 16 sec 15 sec Scrollback 500 lines max As much as you want Attributes preserved No Yes Key mapping None More than you'll ever need Selectable Colors No Fore and Background and more Emulations ANSI ANSI TTY TTY Minitel VT52 Viewdata VT100 VT52 VT102 VT100 VT220 VT320 BBS colors Yes Yes BBS "ANSI art" Yes (See note 3) Yes Selectable heights No Yes 132 columns Yes (See note 1) Yes (See note 1) Reverse Yes Yes Bold Yes Yes Underline Yes Yes (simulated with distinct colors) Blink Yes Yes (simulated with distinct colors) VT box drawing Yes (See note 3) Yes Double-width Yes (buggy) Yes (simulated) Double-height Yes (buggy) Yes (simulated) Arrow key modes Yes Yes Numeric Keypad modes Yes Yes Can send all Ctrls No Yes Can send Break No Yes Newline mode Yes Yes Reports Some All vttest (See note 2) Passes all tests Esc seq debugging No Yes Printing No Yes Reset terminal No Yes Scripting No Yes Character sets No (5) Yes, more than 30 selectable Compose key No Yes Telnet capability No Yes File transfers XYZMODEM,Kermit, Kermit,XYZMODEM, Capture/Log/Paste Capture/Log/Paste/Transmit Kermit Text file: 557 cps (4) 5573 cps Kermit ZIP file: 453 cps (4) 3206 cps Zmodem Text file: 5148 cps (4) 5461 cps Zmodem ZIP file: 3241 cps (4) 3263 cps Autodownload: Zmodem only Zmodem and Kermit Batch uploads: No Yes (except XMODEM of course) Recovery: No (5) Yes, Kermit and Zmodem Redial No (5) Yes Dial network modem: No Yes Long file names: Yes Yes Runs in Windows NT: No Yes

Note 1
There is a bug in Windows 95 that prevents use of colors and attributes in a wide console screen. Kermit 95 fully supports 80/132 column selection and automatic mode switching, but wide screens are shown in black and white to sidestep the Windows 95 bug. When the Windows 95 bug is fixed, Kermit 95 can be told to write full attributes into wide screens. In HyperTerminal, 132 column mode is simulated by horizontal scrolling.
Note 2
HyperTerminal fails about 25% of the tests when in VT100 mode using the default font. If you find the right font, it passes most of the tests, except that the double width / double height display is consistently fractured.
Note 3
In VT100 mode, HyperTerminal simply does not display any characters other than ASCII unless the default font is changed. In ANSI mode, HyperTerminal displays accented letters instead of ANSI graphic characters unless you change the font.
Note 4
HyperTerminal includes no protocol controls at all, including no text/binary mode selection, nor packet-length, window size, etc. Thus text files are transferred in binary mode. Only a minimalistic Kermit protocol implementation is available.
Note 5
These features added in "HyperTerminal Personal Edition", which is not distributed with Windows 95, but which is available from Hilgraeve. Recovery applies to ZMODEM only; redial is all-or-nothing (no controls); character-set capability is limited.
If there are any errors in this review, please notify us by email. Also please feel free to post your own review of Kermit 95 or comparisons of it with other products to comp.protocols.kermit.misc.
Kermit for Windows 95 / Columbia University / kermit@kermitproject.org / 2 Dec 95