Midrange Guru

The other day I was at a remote client site installing some of our custom PC software and needed to get on to their AS/400 to check on something. The only problem was that the only PC in the office I was in did not have Client Access on it. I wasn't able to log on to their system from that office, and I ended up having to drive across town to an office that did have a PC with Client Access installed, so that I could log on to their system. Isn't there some native Windows method for me to log on to an AS/400? The PC and the AS/400 are both connected to the Internet, if that helps.

Hope you are getting good gas mileage out of your car! Driving across town can get expensive! You asked if there is a native method of accessing an Internet-connected AS/400 from Windows? Well, the answer is yes. There are a couple of methods you can use that spring immediately to mind.

The first, and perhaps the easiest, is to use the Windows Telnet command. Every version of Windows from Win95 on up includes a simple (and the keyword here is "simple") Telnet client. With it, you can telnet into any AS/400 that you can access via TCP/IP.

To start the Telnet client in Windows, click the Windows Start button, then click the Run menu item and type in the word telnet. Now click the OK button. You will be prompted to enter a Telnet command, to connect to the remote system, and a system name or an IP address. The command you'll need to enter is open. If you have configured a connection to the AS/400 you want to connect to in the Windows HOST table, you can simply enter the name there; otherwise, you'll need to enter the IP address. Once you've entered the open systemname command and pressed the Enter key, you should see a standard AS/400 5250 sign-on display. Two caveats with using the Windows Telnet client: It is unbearably slow, and only two function keys are recognized, F7 and F8.

The other method of gaining access to an AS/400 via a Windows client is to use the AS/400 Workstation Gateway. The WSG has been around for a long time, but hardly anyone uses it--and for good reasons. WSG is a pretty awful tool for gaining AS/400 access. Still, in a pinch, you can't beat it. Especially since it's free.

To use WSG you will first need to start the WSG server. You can start this server via a green-screen command line, using the command STRTCPSVR SERVER(*WSG), or by using Operations Navigator and drilling down to the TCP/IP servers. So the first and obvious downfall of WSG is that the WSG server must be started first. However, you could modify the AS/400 Startup Program to start WSG automatically upon IPL.

After the WSG server has been started, you can access your AS/400 by entering the following URL into any Web browser: http://YOUR_AS400_IP:5061/WSG. Port 5061 is the default port for WSG. WSG is a screen-scraper tool, so it supports any function that is supported in standard 5250. The only problem is that WSG is not laid out very well and can be a pain to navigate. If you don't get a sign-on screen when you navigate to that IP URL, you'll need to modify the WSG properties via Operations Navigator to display the sign-on screen.

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Protect your iSeries or AS/400 from unwanted network intrustions

The iSeries 400 (AS/400) has changed much over the last few years. In the process, it has changed its role in most organizations from a centralized processor to a decentralized server. In the old days, you could easily point to the wealth of data security features built into OS/400. This gave you a feeling of confidence in the integrity of your data. With the recent changes, your confidence may not be as high, and rightly so!

Most iSeries installations support attached PCs in some form of Client/Server function. For some shops, this takes the form of PC's that are simply running terminal and printer emulation. Many more shops are running a variety of Client/Server functions on these PCs. Neither of these arrangements bodes well in the area of network security; read on.

Did you know . . .

Many Client/Server functions bypass traditional OS/400 security checking unless you have fully implemented object level security.
Without this same full implementation of object level security, a PC-based Client database tool, such as Microsoft Access, can ACCESS any data file on your system.
That same MS Access user can UPDATE any data file on your system.
The same MS Access user can even DELETE records or files on your system.

SafeNet/400, from Kisco Information Systems, protects your iSeries system from unwanted and unauthorized access via network connections, including the Internet. It lets authorized users do the work they need while keeping unauthorized users out. Modern network connections, like Client Access/400, FTP, ODBC and others, can leave the information on your AS/400 exposed.
SafeNet/400 closes this exposure, and it does it without forcing you to change the way you already have your system set up.

For more information, visit www.kisco.com/safenet. Go to www.kisco.com/tips for free helpful advice about configuring security on your system.