Win 9X/NT/2K/XP Default Telnet URL Fix

by Grymmjack (grymmjack@home.com)


What is It? | Installation | Comments

What is it?

Windows NT, 2000, and XP all have decent full-screen 32bit console clients that come with them out of the box. Windows 9X does not come with a decent client, but there are some good 3rd party ones like mTelnet. Configuring these default clients as the client run when you click a telnet link from the web, does not work without a fix. The reason is because the command line passed to the registry when you click a URL from internet explorer, is in the format of telnet://bbsnamehere.net/ ... these clients do not recognize this format. So I made a fix for it. All the fix does is strip the argument passed via the registry down to only the bbs address, minus the protocol information and trailing slash. To do this I had to make something that writes out a batch file, then another batchfile to call the written batchfile with the arguments needed for the file association to work.

The file DIAL.BAT is setup to be run when you click on a telnet link from the web (or create a shortcut using the URL format telnet://boardnamehere.com). This file in turn launches the batch file TMPDIAL.BAT created in %SystemRoot% by GOTELNET.EXE (the fix).

GOTELNET takes the first command line parameter as the exe to run for the telnet client, then a space, followed by any number of command line switches your client needs. The LAST command line parameter is the address to the system in question (and needs to be %1 in the DIAL.BAT file):

example: GOTELNET telnet.exe -t ansi %1 > tmpdial.bat

will output: telnet.exe -t ansi boardnamehere.com...

Installation

Automatic Installer

  1. Double click the INSTALL.BAT file and follow the instructions
  2. If you are running Win9X you will have to run the file ASSOC9X.REG instead of ASSOC.REG!

Manual Install

  1. Copy DIAL.BAT to %SystemRoot% (C:\WINNT, or C:\WINDOWS).
  2. If you are using Windows 9X/NT/2000, delete BBS.ICO and RENAME BBS9X.ICO to BBS.ICO
  3. Copy BBS.ICO to %SystemRoot%
  4. Copy GOTELNET.EXE to %SystemRoot%
  5. Double click ASSOC.REG or (ASSOC9X.REG if you are in Win9X) to merge the contents with your registry. If you are paranoid check it out first -- right click it and choose edit.


Comments

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Enjoy the simple elegance afforded you by this small package..