Welcome to the Kermit 95 Installer for Columbia University

K95 2.1.3 -- 1 Jan 2003

Due to system-dependent timing issues, it is possible that this Web page is covering the Kermit 95 Installer's window. If so, please click on the "InstallShield Wizard" that should be in your Task Bar to bring up the Installer.


Contents

Introduction
1a. The 1.1.X to 2.1.3 Upgrade
1b. The 2.x to 2.1.3 Upgrade
2. The Installation
   2.1: Initial Dialogs
   2.2: Registry, Desktop and Start Menu Options
   2.3: Everson Mono Terminal Font
3. Special Configuration
   3.1: CU Kerberos Configuration Files
   3.2: IKS Configuration File
4. Where To Go From Here


Introduction

This document offers step-by-step advice on how to install the Kermit 95 communications software. Although most of this InstallShield installation is self-explanatory, Kermit 95 includes some advanced features that must be at least minimally configured to function properly. Please leave this browser window open and refer to it if you are stuck on a question that the installation routine is asking you.

This document covers all the possible options you could install, so it is possible that if you don't install all of the components, you will not be prompted for information that is referenced here.

Also note that all of the links to additional documentation are links to The Kermit Project website and therefore require an active Internet connection.


1. The K95 1.1 to 2.1 Upgrade

If you are installing Kermit 95 for the first time, please skip to the next section.

The Kermit 95 1.1 to 2.1 upgrade is, in fact, a full new installation; thus the regular installation instructions following this section apply to it, just as they do to a new installation. To apply the upgrade you must already have an older version of Kermit 95 on your computer.

A new installation is required because to get all K95 users into the new directory structure, so we don't have an unsupportable parallel universe of old and new layouts. The upgrade installs K95 2.1 into the new structure. Your previous installation is left intact.

After upgrading, you will have to determine which files from your old installation need to be migrated to which directories in the new one. In the most common situations, your old Kermit 95 installation is confined to a single directory tree, typically rooted at C:\K95. In the new scheme, the data files that you have changed are stored in Kermit 95's "appdata" directory (as explained in the README file), typically:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Kermit 95\

The two files that should always be moved are:

K95CUSTOM.INI
Your Kermit 95 customization file.

DIALUSR.DAT
Your personal Dialer database entries and customizations.

Plus the contents of your old K95 CERTS, CRLS, DOWNLOAD, KEYMAPS, PHONES, SCRIPTS, SSH, and TMP subdirectories, if any.

Other files might also need to be moved, including DIALORG.DAT, the organization wide Dialer database if your site has one, and if you use Host Mode, the host-mode data files and directories must be moved too. It is beyond the scope of this document to cover every possibility. Instead, visit:

http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95upgrade.html#migrate

for further instructions after you have upgraded to K95 2.1.

Once you have migrated all your files, you can remove the old K95 installation if you wish.


1. The K95 2.x to 2.1.3 Upgrade

If you are installing Kermit 95 for the first time, please skip to the next section.

The Kermit 95 2.1.3 upgrade requires that you have Kermit 95 2.0 or 2.1 installed. The 2.1.3 upgrade will simply confirm the validity and location of your current Kermit 95 2.x installation and then replace files in your Kermit 95 2.x program directory to bring it up to Kermit 95 2.1.3. It will also create a folder called Backups and copy any files that a replaced so that you can restore your 2.x installation by doing a Remove from Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel. The installer will transfer your existing registration information from your 2.x files.

If you are installing the Crypto update, you will also be given the option to add an association to make Kermit 95 the default program to handle SSH connections.

The 2.1.3 update also includes a newer version of the Everson Mono Terminal font. The installer will give you the option to install or update this depending on what you did with the font during the 2.0 install.


2. The Installation

2.1: Initial Dialogs

Your Columbia University academic site license copy of Kermit 95 is preregistered. Thus you will not be prompted to enter any serial number.

The first few dialogs should be familiar if you've ever installed Windows applications before. The first one that requires some extra thought and attention is:

Setup Type

Two types are offered, Typical and Custom. If you choose the Typical option Kermit 95 is installed with its base files and also the files necessary to make secure connections with SSH, SSL, TLS, SRP and Kerberos. There are no additional configuration questions except for where to create shortcuts.

If you choose Custom you are taken to the the Select Components screen. The advanced Kermit 95 components listed here extend Kermit's capabilities, but may require some additional configuration. You should be clear what each component does and that you need it before selecting any of them.

Select Components

Here you choose which optional components of Kermit 95 you want to install. Certain of the optional components require that you provide special configuration information so they can function properly. Here is a list of the components, what they do, and any special information that you should be ready to provide. Note that security-related components are not included in the export version due to USA export law; our export license application is pending.

SSH, SSL, TLS & SRP (NOT INCLUDED WITH EXPORT VERSION)
Selected by default. This option installs all the necessary files to use Kermit 95 to create secure connections using all of the security protocols listed. While the installer will not ask you for any additional configuration info, you will have some post-install configuration for any of these security protocols to work. Instructions for using Kermit 95 as an SSH client are available on our web site. Look HERE for details on using the other methods such as SRP, TLS and SSL.

SRP FTP (NOT INCLUDED WITH EXPORT VERSION)
Selected by default. This options adds the cryptographic APIs necessary to do SRP in Kermit 95's FTP mode.

Kerberos (NOT INCLUDED WITH EXPORT VERSION)
IMPORTANT: It is best not to install this option if you already have any other Kerberos program installed. These files are required if you need to make authenticated and/or encrypted connections using the Kerberos 4 and/or 5 security protocols, and if you have not already installed a Windows-based Kerberos system (like the one from MIT).

If you think you may already have Kerberos support installed, first try installing Kermit 95 without the Kerberos option. Then try to make a Kerberized telnet connection, if it does not work, you can try to use the Kerberos support supplied with Kermit 95. Do this by going to the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel item, and clicking on Change/Remove for the K95 program. Then you can select the Modify option and install the Kerberos component. It is important that you not install the Kerberos files in the Kermit 95 distribution unless you have to. You may be already using a customized distribution that, for instance, requires the use of hardware smartcards for you key. Installing additional Kerberos files in this instance will only confuse matters. Best to contact your Kerberos realm administrator if you are uncertain about what to do.

If you install the Kerberos support files, the installer will also install the following configuration files in your default Windows directory (if you do not already have them):

These files are preconfigured for Columbia's Kerberos environment.

IKS for NT/2000/XP
This component is an option only on NT/2000 or XP. Selecting this option installs a Kermit file-transfer and management server on your PC. IKS, or Internet Kermit Service, is a powerful alternative to running an FTP server on your PC. It allows authenticated users (using Kermit 95's full range of secure authentication options) or anonymous users to connect to your PC to upload and download files as well as do basic file management commands (when authorized). Since it is based on Kermit 95, it provides all of Kermit 95's file collision handling options as well as access to Kermit 95's script langauge. See the user's Guide and the Administrator's Guide for a better idea of what the IKS is capable of. Because IKS is installed as a service and started by default, you should be aware of the security implications of installing it. The installer will ask you several questions in order to build a basic configuration file, IKSD.KSC, for IKS. These questions will be covered in detail later in this document.

Historical Utils
These standalone utilities provide functions that are now incorporated in the Kermit 95 program. While they are no longer necessary, we provide them as an option for those who might miss them.

Hostmode
Hostmode implements a basic BBS-like file-transfer and file-management system using the Kermit 95 script language. While it is a good example of the power of Kermit 95's scripting capabilities, it is limited in function relative to the IKS which provides all the functionality of Hostmode and much, much more. So it is being phased out. If you need basic BBS-like functionality on Windows 95/98/ME, then you might consider using Hostmode.
2.2: Registry, Desktop and Start Menu Options

Next the installer asks a series of questions to get your preferences about how and where Kermit 95 should be added to the registry, desktop and/or Start Menu. You do not need to make any changes to the registry, or add anything to your desktop or Start Menu if you do not want to. These options are all to make Kermit 95 more convenient to use.

Registry

First, the installer asks about making changes to the registry. You can optionally create and association between files with the extension .KSC (Kermit SCript Files) and the Kermit 95 program. This allows you to simply double-click on a .KSC file and have it be run by the Kermit 95 program. This is handy for creating a quick shortcut on your desktop to your commonly-accessed host systems. And you can make Kermit 95 your default telnet handler. This means that if you are browsing a site on the Web that provides a link that must be accessed via telnet, Kermit 95 is launched to make that connection. Desktop and Start Menu

Next you can to choose what shortcuts you want to create on the Desktop and on the Start Menu. Then on the dialog following this, you can specify if you want to create the icons for All Users of the system, or just the user that is currently logged in.

2.3: Everson Mono Terminal Font

Kermit 95 2.0 comes with a monospaced font called Everson Mono Terminal (EMT) that covers a wider range of languages and scripts than most other monospace fonts and is well-suited for use with the K95 GUI terminal emulator on Windows NT, 2000, or XP. EMT's repertoire includes most of the non-Han characters in the Base Multilingual Plane of Unicode, including Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian, Georgian, Runes, Ogham, Canadian Syllabics, Cherokee, Math, Symbols, Line and Box Drawing Characters (including the new Unicode 3.1 Terminal Emulation Characters), Dingbats, and APL. Not supported (besides Han) are Indic, Hangul, Ethiopic, Syriac, Thai, Lao, Myanmar, and Braille.

EMT is not installed by default since it tends not to look good on Windows 95, 98, or ME due to differences in the Win9x/ME vs NT/2K/XP rasterizer, although the results can vary depending on whether your Windows system has such items as Font Smoothing or Clear Type installed or enabled, and also with the font size and fore- and background colors. If you install EMT on Win9x/ME, K95 uses it by default, in which case you might want to switch to a different font, such as Courier New or Lucida Console (if available) in the Font menu on the K95 GUI Toolbar. On the other hand, you might need it to display certain languages that you can't see in any other monospace font.

Important Note: If you are installing Kermit 95 on a Windows NT/2000/XP and you do not have Administrator privileges, the font will not be installed. You must have Admin privileges to write to the Font directory. In this case the font is copied to the Fonts sub directory under where the program files are installed, by default this would be C:\Program Files\Kermit 95\Fonts\. This way you can install it yourself once you are able to gain Admin privileges

Everson Mono Terminal is distributed with Kermit 95. It may not be further distributed. Everson fonts are available on at www.evertype.com


3. Special Configuration

This section applies only to users who have selected the Custom install type and who are installing IKS for NT/2000/XP and/or Kerberos.

3.1: CU Kerberos Config Files

The Columbia University distribution comes with Kerberos configuration files that are preconfigured for Columbia's Kerberos environment. These files are installed in your default Windows directory (e.g. C:\WINDOWS). If you happen to already have any of these configuration files in your Windows directory, the Installer will give you the option to replace your existing ones. This is highly recommended to insure that Kerberos connections to the CU hosts work properly. Any of the existing files that you have will be renamed with a ".k9521" extension so they are preserved.

If you are confident that your existing config files are correct and/or you have made extensive customizations to them, then you can choose not to replace them. If you find that your Kerberos authentication and/or encryption does not work, then you may want to manually replace your existing config files with the ones provided in this packages. These will be located in a CUCONFIG folder under your Application Data folder. This folder is most easily accessed from within Kermit 95 by saying:

cd \v(appdata)CUCONFIG

For more details on Kerberos configuration in general, you can reference our online document on security in Kermit 95.

3.2: IKS Configuration File

If you selected the IKS file-transfer and file-management server as a component to install, you are prompted with the following series of questions that build a basic configuration file for IKS. The file is called IKSD.KSC and is stored in the same directory as the program files.

The IKSD.KSC file create by the installer barely scratches the surface of the kind of customization you can accomplish with this file. Please read the Administrator's Guide for more details. The guide is a work in progress, but should provide enough information to do things like: allowing anonymous access, setting a root directory to "jail" various classes of users, do special configuration based on the user who logs in, etc... 3.3: CU SSH Known Host files

To make it more convenient and more secure to access Columbia hosts via SSH, we have provided to "Known Hosts" files that list a large number of CU hosts. These two files ssh_known_hosts and ssh_known_hosts2 and they are placed in the Shared Data directory for Kermit 95. (This is pointed to by the variable \v(common) within the Kermit 95 program.)


4. Where To Go From Here

After the installer has completed, be sure to read the README file, which the installer displays for you if you say yes (but only if you are not required to reboot after the install.) This is important especially if you have used previous releases of Kermit 95, since this version moves things around a bit.

Now you should have a Kermit 95 installation with the desired features working as expected, which is a good staring point but there is a lot more that you can do to make the product more useful to you. Begin by reading the tutorial and manual which you can access from the K95 Documentation icon or Start-menu item (if you elected to install them), or from the K95 Dialer's Help menu, or with the K95 MANUAL command.

As a final step, the installer offers to start the Dialer for you. A good way to get started with K95 is with the Dialer and the K95 manual on your screen at the same time. Create some connections and launch them -- it's easier than you might think!


Kermit 95 2.1 Installer / The Kermit Project / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / 24 Oct 2002