iLink/2 0.99b- by Bob Smith

iLink/2 (gif 8.5k) is an Internet dialer which is totally compatible with and which more than replaces the Dial Other Providers (DOP) application included in the Internet Access Kit for OS/2 Warp. iLink/2 is shareware and while it is listed as a "beta", you can register it with BMT Micro. Version 0.99b was placed on Hobbes and CDROM during the week of March 25, 1996 by the author, Craig Pommer, who maintains a separate home page for iLink/2.

I am running iLink/2 on a Pentium 90 with 16MB and Warp Connect without any FixPaks installed with a ZyXel internal 14.4 modem. On this system, iLink/2 seems quite a bit faster than DOP and since it is somewhat smaller than DOP and does not require any scripts to be loaded for PPP redialing it may cause less swapping on systems with lesser amounts of RAM.

Installation

iLink/2 is totally compatible with the IBM dialer that is included with OS/2. Installing it is quite simple; download, unzip to its own sub-directory and run the included INSTALL.CMD to put an icon on the desktop. In my case, it was install and run; iLink/2 found the DOP setup file, TCPOS2.INI, and used all of the data there to dial up my provider without having to configure it at all. This is not to say that it does not need to be configured, just that it will run "out of the box".

What Does It Do?

A dialer seems so simple; what else does it need to do, other than dial a phone number? Well, iLink/2 does several things that DOP does not do; the most notable of which is redial if your provider's telephone number happens to be busy. That may not be a problem for most, but for those of us who live in the "boonies" and have a local provider with only eight lines, weekends can be a string of never-ending busy signals. One person I know of has had to dial over 250 times to get in to his provider!

Another really good feature of iLink/2 is the inclusion of what the author calls: AutoStarts (gif 12.4k). These are programs which will start as soon as iLink/2 connects with your provider. This is useful for things like your mail and news programs and Time868, a really neat program which dials NIST and resets your computer's clock to atomic standards. Unfortunately, iLink/2 does not shut down the programs it autostarts when you hang up your connection, but it does flag those programs so it will not start duplicate copies if you dial again without first closing iLink/2. A check box which disables the autostart function is also provided in the dialer's main window.

iLink/2 also provides nice "statistics bars" which display useful information about time on-line, bytes transferred and character per second rates. The main dialer window, settings notebook, and statistics bars are all moveable and stay where they were placed when you reopen the program later. And like Warp's DOP, it also allows multiple setups so that you can have both SLIP and PPP setups for your provider or you can set up SLIP to one provider and PPP to another.

One of the big advantages iLink/2 has over DOP is that it takes up far less desktop space than IBM's offering. There is also a "condensed" setting (gif 4k) which reduces the desktop space used by iLink/2 by about 40%. All windows can be changed, font and color wise, with drag and drop from the OS/2 palette. Overall, the aesthetics of the program are far better than DOP and the settings notebook has a slightly more logical interface appearance.

Finally, iLink/2 will also automatically redial your provider if things go to pot during a session. A useful feature if you have a shaky Internet Service Provider.

The Bad News

Needless to say, iLink/2 is still growing. There are a few "glitches" which Mr. Pommer knows about and is working on. When you shut down, if you click on the "EXIT" button before iLink/2 disconnects and clears the "DETAILS" dialog box, the program will hang the system. Not good, but one learns to wait and exit gracefully. Also, the system for registration is cumbersome and in my opinion, doesn't work well: you get a registered version from BMT Micro and when the program is updated, you must FTP to BMT's site again (instead of anywhere else) to get the latest version because there is no "key" to carry over. Mr. Pommer says he is working on this and a "key" system should be in place before version 1.0 is released. On a more positive note, while earlier demo versions had a one hour time limit, the unregistered version of v0.99b and all later versions will not time out during a connection.

My Recommendation?

This is a very useful program; it is what IBM should have done, but didn't and one which I recommend wholeheartedly. I've been using it since I found it and am very enthused about it. Try it and you may be too!
* iLink/2 v0.99b (210k)
Author: Craig Pommer
e-mail: cpommer@georgian.net
Registration: US$25
Bob Smith is a 15 year veteran as a USAF pilot, retired from the Fire Service as an Arson Investigator and Fire Chief in a small city in California, USA. He is currently working as a photographer and computer consultant and has been using OS/2 since v2.0.

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