OT/PPP Strip 

Version History Known Problems Troubleshooting Future Geek Info

OT/PPP Strip Download Page

OT/PPP Strip is a module for Apple's Control Strip that does useful things in conjuntion with Open Transport/PPP or Apple Remote Access 3.0. You can use OT/PPP Strip to: OT/PPP Strip is shareware. If you use OT/PPP Strip for longer than 20 days, please support it's development by registering the software.

Download OT/PPP Strip 1.1 (Stuffit 5 archive, ~120K)
Download OT/PPP Strip 1.1 (Self-extracting archive, ~256K)
Register OT/PPP Strip ($5) at Kagi

A version in French, Module OT/PPP, is available from Jean-Pierre Kuypers' site.

A version in German is available from Thomas Cloer's site.

A version in Italian is available from Federico Righi's site.

System Requirements

I recommend using this in conjunction with MacOS 7.6.1 or MacOS 8.x (including Mac OS 8.5), however, it should behave on any system capable of running the Control Strip, Open Transport 1.1.1 or better, OT/PPP 1.0.x or Apple Remote Access 3.x, and AppleScript.


Registering OT/PPP Strip

As of version 1.1, OT/PPP Strip is now shareware (earlier versions were freeware) as OT/PPP Strip development and support has taken a considerable amount of effort and time over the years.

OT/PPP Strip is not crippled in any way, nor will it put up Annoying Shareware Dialogs. If you appreciate the work that I've done in building OT/PPP Strip, please register it -- I beleive the small fee ($5 US) is a real bargain (and, given the number of emails I've received about it, so do many of my users.)

You can register OT/PPP Strip via cash, check, money order, credit card, by mail, phone, or on the Web at Kagi.com, a shareware service used my many Macintosh shareware developers. If you live in the US and are more comfortable dealing with me directly, instructions for doing so are contained in the Read Me file.

Thank you for supporting shareware!

Version History

1.1 Significantly reworked to add Mac OS 9.1 compatibility.

Connecting and disconnecting on Mac OS 9.0 and above no longer ties up your machine with a modal dialog.

Fixed flashing balloon help issue.

New connect, disconnect, and traffic icons that I think look snazzier... Released.
(note: development and beta versions of this version were not publicly seeded.)
1.0.5 Fixed problem where module would think PPP (or ARA) was not installed under Mac OS 9.0 Released.
(note: development and beta versions of this version were not publicly seeded.)
1.0.4 Minor bug fix -- connect window should now display properly on systems using ARA 3.x, including Mac OS 8.5 Released.
(note: development and beta versions of this version were not publicly seeded.)
1.0.3 Minor bug fix -- now properly closes resource forks in all instances (file would close, but resource map would remain in memory.) Released.
(note: development and beta versions of this version were not publicly seeded.)
1.0.2 Added final support for Apple Remote Access 3.0, minor changes only. Released.
(note: development and beta versions of this version were not publicly seeded.)
1.0.1 Minor icon change from 1.0.1b3. Released.
1.0.1b3 Fixed connection monitoring - the CSM will now detect the connected state again.

Minor code reorganizing (now only checks Power Manager gestalts once.)

Added (barely perceptible) indicator for when CSM is "sleeping" (not polling PPP state.)
1.0.1b2 Corrected text strings for balloon help.

Added numerous additional safeguards for sleep and spindown for third-party stuff. Menu should now adjust based on product name (support for to-be-released Apple software.)

International systems with localized PPP Commands osaxen should now recognize when the connection is active.

If modem speed is unrecognized by OT/PPP, the CSM now assumes 9600bps for scaling activity lights. Speed should still display as unknown.
1.0.1b1 Now correctly calls SBSafeToAccessStartupDisk to prevent spinning up spun-down hard drives (may still fail with drives spun down by software other than the Power Manager.)

Made finding the Remote Access Connections file more robust to support as-yet-unreleased Apple software.
1.0 Fixed problems with low memory conditions in the Finder and desk accessories (including the Chooser.
1.0b3 The module will now find the Remote Access Configurations file on systems that have been localized.

If the module fails to load, the balloon help gives a more descriptive reason.
1.0b2 Configurations are now correctly sorted in the menu. Initial Public Release
1.0b1 Fixed a memory leak caused by reusing AEDescs
1.0a2 Fixed flicker on updates, improved activity lights, better management of configurations.
1.0a1 Initial release to testers.

Known Problems

There are no known issues with version 1.1.
 

About the Control Strip

This module requires Apple's Control Strip control panel to be installed and active (or one of the various replacement versions available commercially and as shareware.) This should be installed by System 7.5.2 and above on PowerBooks and on PCI PowerMacintoshes. If you're machine doesn't fall into one of those categories, you can use the custom install option for 7.5.2 and greater System installers to install only the Control Strip control panel.

Troubleshooting

Please skim this section before reporting problems to the author

OT/PPP Strip appears in the Control Strip, but with an "X" through it - You have some sort of configuration problem. Turning on balloon help and pointing at the "X" will give you some information as to what's missing. In general, be sure to check for:
Error #1010 or "Failure to prepare PEF in resource" - As of the 1.0 release, desk accessories and the Finder should no longer exhibit this problem. The Breathing Room extension must be installed for the fix to work! It may still occur in other applications, however. This is a symptom of low memory in the application's heap. Simply giving the failing application more memory in it's "Get Info" window should cause this problem to go away.

Connect speed and activity lights don't work - this is a problem with your modem script. Be sure that the modem script for your modem is up-to-date (if you've upgraded to x2 or 56KFlex technology, it may not be. Also, some of Apple's scripts are not correct for newer versions of modems. Consult your modem vendor for one that correctly reports DCE and not DTE speed, and has appropriate CommunicatingAt: lines for all supported speeds.) Also, be sure the correct script is selected in the Modem control panel.

OT/PPP Strip displays the wrong configurations, or what appear to be old configurations - OT/PPP Strip must search for the Remote Access Connections file in the Preferences folder by type and creator rather than just the name of the file and the folder that contains it, to correctly find the file on non-US English systems. Because of this, if you have a backed-up copy of your Remote Access Connections file anywhere in the Preferences folder or any folder in the Preferences folder, OT/PPP Strip may find it instead of the active one, even if it's name has been changed. Removing the duplicated file should correct the problem.

If you encounter a bug, please send a description of the problem and your basic system configuration (CPU and System version) to me at dennis@fallingrockcentral.org. I may need a MacsBug StdLog, but if so, I will ask for one (don't just send one with your email.)

The future

17-Jan-2001: Work on a 2.0 version of the module continues, as I find free time (I'm looking under smaller and smaller rocks for it these days, though...)

For the Technoweenies in the Audience

OT/PPP Strip didn't use the OT/PPP SDK in it's original incarnation (it's not based on Apple's sample code.) Because I began work on this before the SDK was released, it uses the AppleEvent interface provided by the PPP scripting addition installed by OT/PPP (thus the need for AppleScript.) To switch configurations, I went with the documented file format from Apple.

I wrote this, essentially, because I wanted the functionality, and hadn't coded a Control Strip module before. I've done a reasonable amount of testing on it (on 7500, 7600, 8500, and 5260 CPUs under 7.5.3 and up) and I'm confident that it behaves under relatively "normal" systems.

As of Mac OS 9.1, the API that older versions of the module used disappeared entirely. I now use the same (undocumented) API used by Apple's own Remote Access Status applet on Mac OS 9.0 and above only. This allows me to connect and disconnect modelessly, as well as getting status information like the connection speed not available via any documented interface.

About Breathing Room - The Breathing Room extension is a very simple "tail patch" to the system's Get1Resource trap. It's sole purpose in life is to increase the Finder SIZE resource and the desk accessory SIZE resource by about 50K, essentially preventing the PPP Commands scripting extension from' running out of free memory when invoked in those applications' context. It is both PPC-native and installed as a fat patch, so it should have nearly no effect on your system's performance.

Last modified on 17-Jan-2001 by dennis@fallingrockcentral.org