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Terminal Program for IBM 5155

cobracon

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Messages
176
Location
Michigan
I just ordered me a 14.4 modem off of fleabay. What would be a good Terminal program for a stock 5155?

Robert
 
Today we have 'browser wars' ....back in the day it was 'terminal program wars' :)

I remember Procomm Plus, QModem, Telemate, Pibterm, and if you really want to go vintage, PC-Talk
PC-Talk was originally written in Basic, and the source code was available. I had a PCjr which didn't
work well with any of the available terminal programs.....there was a special PC-TalkJR which had some
code changes to work on the PCjr, which didn't have DMA, and needed special data buffering to prevent
losing data.

Procomm Plus was also my favorite.
 
Wow some of these names bring back so many memories. I used qmodem for a long time back in the 286 era. Then moved to Procomm Plus when I got my 386. Didn't realize they would work on an XT. Now I just need to get a copy on 5 1/4! I really need to get my p200 mmx setup with a 5 1/4 drive.
 
Ahhh good ole terminal programs. I miss the days of bbs's....

I mostly just used 3 terminal programs, Telix, Procomm Plus and grr can't for the life of me remember the third one.

As for crosstalk, I believe I have a copy of that somewhere still in the box. Not sure if its a windows or dos version though. :S

Edit: Dug out crosstalk, ya its Crosstalk for Windows 3.x in a huge blue and black box... Doesnt say a version number though, guess its 1.0 for windows.
 
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I vote for telix. I still use it. :) Of course I'm using it with my 1000sx hooked to my big pc via null modem cable and using a modem emulator to dial telnet bbs's.


later,
dabone
 
Since you got a 14.4 I assume that vintage is not really the goal here. In that case I would recommend Lync by Jason R. Alward. The executable is only 37820 bytes so it is good for old computers. It is also much more well featured than the ubiquitous ProComm Version 2.3 (March '86) which at 143,457 is a bit on the large side. For sheer performance, I wouldn't consider anything else other than Lync, unless I wanted to be able to do everything under the sun, in which case Telix is the one.

Like most programs Lync has a host mode where you can chat, leave a message, or down/upload files. Give me a call and I'll let the modem answer and we can have a modem chat. :)

However since that machine came out in 1984 then perhaps you would like to consider the following which all were released in 1983:

Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. Smartcom - II
IBM Personal Computer

PC-TALK III
Communications Program for The IBM Personal Computer by Andrew Fluegelman

"1-RingyDingy"(tm)
(C)Copyright 1983 by Jim Button Version 1.2

Kermit-86 version 1.2 (1983)
KERMIT is a family of programs that do reliable file transfer between computers over TTY lines. KERMIT can also be used to make the IBM PC behave as a terminal for a mainframe.
 
Thank you, you jarred my braincell loose . The 3rd program I couldn't think of is Lync! I remember chatting while downloading files off bbs's, but wasn't sure if I was recalling telix with ice-zmodem or a different program... Definitely was Lync! I remember playing with it in the 486 days on a tandy 1000RL! :D
 
Wow twolazy, I've never met another Lync user before! :) It's odd because it really doesn't have a competitor. Even the nice and simple ProComm is almost 4 times larger which can really hurt if you like 360K floppies. (I do.)

Anyway, version 3.0 can be a bit aggravating when setting up because it won't let you change the comport once it is started. That little glitch is fixed in 3.2. I just put a copy here for anyone who wants. It includes my personal colour setup which is made for easy reading and low eye-strain in the dark, but is easily changed. Besides Lync will just write another config file if you delete it.
 
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