Modem and the Unix box

Suppose that you have a nifty Unix machine, like a Sun workstation, but unfortunately you do not have ethernet access for it. All you have is a modem and serial connection. (this is my unfortunate situation right now)

Do not despair! Do the following:

• To dialup do something like

   cu -s 9600 -d (the phone number) 

  You will have to configure appropriate files to set the modem string. This is modem dependent and you need to read your modem manual.
• To upload a file, on the remote machine type

   cat > filename 

  On the new line press the keys ~$ and when prompted type a command that you want to execute on your local system. Just "cat" your local file. The output will be sent over the telephone to the cat command running on the remote, and this way you will do the upload. Your file will have to be uuencoded of course.
• To download a file, it's harder. Before dialing up, use the Unix script command to capture your login session. That is do something like this:

  $ script download
  $ cu -s9600 -d 1-800-SEX-RULES
  .........
  > cat file1.uue
  ..........
  > cat file2.uue
  .......... 
  ..etc.....
  ...
  NO CARRIER
  $ exit
  $ 
  

  In other logs, dial-in, cat the files you want and then dial-out. All your files are inside a file called "download". Use this script to uudecode the uuencoded files that are hiding in there. Then delete the file download.
• I also find the following scripts very useful: uue, uud, diruud diruue. I am sure that they are pretty self-explanatory.

Enjoy!