Portmaster 11 Frequently Asked Questions
Updated: 12/27/96

This FAQ was compiled from emails from the Livingston Tech support
Department as well as personal experience. I would like to thank all 
of them for their help.

Jake Messinger (jake@ams.com)

==========================================================================
PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Q1. What is a PM 11?

A1. It is the first terminal server designed by Livingston Enterprises. It
was a 10 port non expandable, stand-alone unit. It can do PAP/CHAP/Radius
authentication, PPP/SLIP and telnet. It is remotely serviceable and can be
used for dial-in as well as dial-out operations. It is capable of load
balancing across 1 or more of its ports.

Q2 What are the MAJOR differences between the PM 11 and the current PM 2?

A2. The PM11 is the original PortMaster. Major differences from the PM2 are:

1. Slightly less memory

2. Internal floppy disk instead of nonvolatile flash memory

3. 2.4 is the last release for it and requires a memory upgrade (2 DRAMs;
	Livingston can sell you the kit - 2 256k x 4 80ns drams)
4. 10 ports at 38.4k instead of 10 ports at 115.2k
	(some people have run ports at 57.6k; we don't claim that
	 it works but it does anyway on a light load)

5. No dipswitches to set ethernet type, netboot or diagnostic port.

6. Changing from BNC to AUI requires opening the box and
	changing jumpers internally; you'll need a transceiver if you
	want to use Twisted Pair.

7. Out of warranty (but we'll still repair it for Time & Materials
	and they almost never fail anyway)

8. The 2.4 that runs on the PM11 is a different binary than the version
	that runs on the PM2 or PM2e but has identical functionality.


Q3. Do you still support the PM 11?

A3. The PM11 has lifetime software support just like the PM2 and PM2e.

Q4. Why is it called a PM 11?

A4. There are 10 serial ports and 1 parallel port on the PM 11. With a
special program (available at ftp.ams.com or ftp.livingston.com) you can
use the parallel port to drive a remote printer.

==========================================================================
PART II: SETTING UP A PM 11

Q1. How do I get started on configuring a PM 11 from scratch?

A1. Get a null modem cable and a PC or dumb terminal and set it to 9600-n-8-1.
You may have to jumper pin 6 to 8 on the PM side to get it to detect your
terminal Turn on the portmaster, and you should see after 30 seconds login: . 
Login as "!root". Be sure to include the "!" sign before root. There is HELP 
built in. Just type "help".


Q2. Is there a manual for the PM 11?

A2. No there is no longer a manual available, however the older PM 2 manual
available at ftp.livingston.com in pdf and postscript formats. It has what 
you need to configure a PM 11. Just ignore any references to IPX or Flash 
Rom. Everything else is the same.

Q3. Okay so what do I need to know hardware wise?

A3. The two useful hardware bits of knowledge for PM 11's is how to upgrade the
memory and how to change the jumpers to change the flavor of ethernet.
Look in the pm11-jumpers file for a description of all the jumpers and
settings. It also shows what chips to use and the locations of the chips.
You should also look at the README.pm11 file. Most PM 11's have already been
upgraded. 

Q4. How do I change between using the Thin-net and aui configurations?

A4. There are a set of 7 jumpers located on the ethernet card inside
the PM-11.  If they are jumpered on the lower set of pins the thin
net is enabled, if the upper set is jumpered, the aui is enabled.

Q5. Is there an easy way to set up these devices?

A5. There is PMCONSOLE available for Windows and most unix environments
including Linux. Check ftp://ftp.ams.com/pub/livingston or check
www://www.livingston.com for the latest version. It is FREE and very good!
It makes life much more enjoyable. PMCONSOLE is good for constant monitoring
of sessions and ports as well. 

Q6. How can I connect the PM 11 to a 10 base T network?

A6. Set the jumpers for the AUI port and use an AUI to 10 Base T
transceiver. They can be bought for around $20 from Datacomm Warehouse and
other network vendors.

Q7. How do I use the parallel printer? Can I use any of the ports to connect
printers to?

A7. Yes! If you are running unix, then you can download "in.pmd" from
ftp.livingston.com. It is a daemon that lets you print to ports on the
portmaster thru your standard lpr utilities. If you have Linux or some other
flavor of unix that does NOT seem to like in.pmd, you can use netpipe.c
available at ftp.ams.com. It establishes an 8-bit tcpip connection with a 
specific port and allows you to send raw data to it. It is very simple to use
and can be used in conjunction with a printcap and lpr. Some installations
use a portmaster 11 solely as a print server. You can connect up to 11
printers to a PM 11. Hence the name.

Q8. How do I bypass the password on a PM 11?

A8. Normally with PM products, you can log in as !root and for password,
enter "override" and then call Livingston and give them the challenge string
that the PM gives you. HOWEVER, THIS DOES NOT WORK on a PM 11. The easiest
way to override it, is take the diskette out, copy a new image onto it, and
reboot off of that new image. You will lose any previous setup information. 
=============================================================================
PART 3: TROUBLESHOOTING

Q1. I was guessing on how to get the thing to work and changed alot of switch
settings and jumpers and I stupidly did NOT write down the original
positions. What now?

A1. See ftp://ftp.ams.com/pub/livingston/pm11-jumpers and it will show you the
default settings for the jumpers and switches and what they do.

Q2. I set up the portmaster for 57600 on the serial ports and connect my
modems, but when people dial in, they get garbage. 

A2. This is not the fault of the portmaster. This is the modem's fault.
The problem is that the modem has no idea what DTE speed the port is set at.
To fix this, set up the port for DIAL-OUT, and assign its device service to
TELNET and give it a unique port number. 6000 for S0, 6001 for S1, etc...
Then telnet to the portmaster specifying the port associated with the serial
port. Then type AT. You should get "OK". If so, type AT&W. This will save
the DTE speed in the modem. Some modems allow you to lock the DTE speed
using S87. Check your modem manual.

Q3. I think the floppy disk drive is bad. Where do I get a 720k floppy drive?

A3. You can use a 1.44 Mb floppy disk drive in place of the 720k drive. This has
been tested by jake@ams.com.

Q4. I get lots of comm overruns when I set the ports to 57600.

A4. You are working the processor too hard. See the pm11-upgrade.howto at
ftp://ftp.ams.com/pub/livingston . The original motherboard can do 57600 on
a few ports but not all 10 simultaneously. Also see the UPGRADE section of
this FAQ.

Q5. I got PMCONSOLE and most things work except it always says USER UPDATE
FAILED when I make a change to a user.

A5. Your changes ARE being saved. The newer com os puts out a different success 
message than version 2.4 and PMCONSOLE does not recognize the old string; 
therefore it THINKS it failed. If you close the user window and then reopen it, 
you will see that your changes have been saved.

Q6. I decided to be adventurous and set my ports to 115200. After all, it
was a legal speed option. Now I get garbage when I try to connect.

A6. This is due to a BUG in COM OS 2.4. If you try to set the port to
115200, it will tell you that it has done so, however, hardware wise, the
port gets set to 4800 baud! Livingston has been notified of this bug but
will probably never fix it because the PM 11 was officially only supposed to
support 38400. They were just thinking ahead. This is why the absolute
maximum speed on a serial port on a PM 11 is 57600. Even a P6 chip wouldn't
fix the problem.

Q7. I got the PM 11 thinking it would do Radius Accounting but it doesn't.
What do I do?

A7. The PM 11 does do Radius authentication but it does not do Radius
Accounting. It does, however, have the ability to log all events to a remote
host. With the use of a script, you can retrieve the same type of accounting
information that is available with advanced Radius. Look at
ftp://ftp.ams.com/pub/livingston/usage for a sample script.

==========================================================================
PART IV: UPGRADING and MAINTENANCE

Q1. How do I upgrade to the Latest COM OS (2.4)?

A1. Release 2.4 requires a memory upgrade.  The standard PM-11 contains 512K
bytes of RAM.  An additional 128K must be added to fully utilize release
2.4.  Standard 256K X 4 80ns memory chips should be used.  These should
be placed in sockets U2 and U7 on the main system board before loading
the upgrade.  Contact Livingston Technical support for assistance in
adding or obtaining these memory chips.

Release 2.4 also requires Rom level D (look after "celerex") or higher.

You must use pminstall 2.4 or later to upgrade to release 2.4; it's
available from ftp.netcom.com:/pub/le/software. Or you can start over by
downloading a fresh disk image with com-os 2.4 (pm11_24_image.gz) and
copying it to a 720k diskette with rawrite or dd.


Q2. Can I upgrade to a higher version of COM OS?

A2. You can't load 3.0 or higher on the PM11. Later PM's are designed to use 
NVRAM  and not floppies. The software is completely different although
it still looks and acts very much like COM OS 2.4.

Q3. Can the PM 11 be hardware uprgaded so that I can eliminate comm overruns?

A3. Yes. You can replace the motherboard with a 386 or higher motherboard. 
Please contact jake@ams.com for more information on this. 
See ftp://ftp.ams.com/pub/livingston/pm11-upgrade.howto for a step-by-step
procedure to do such an upgrade.

Q4. What sort of maintenance do I need to perform on the PM 11?

A4. There isn't really any maintenaince to the PM-11; if it breaks, Livingston
still repairs them for Time&Materials; about the only thing that ever gets
broken on them is the floppy drive or the ethernet connector. And if the
ethernet connector does get broken, you can just set it for AUI and use a
transceiver (commonly priced at around $20)


If you think I should add to this or you have anything to add, email me at
jake@ams.com.

Jake Messinger
===========================================================================
End of PM11-FAQ.txt
