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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 30: Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem</TITLE>
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<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H1 align="center"><A NAME="answer">
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<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
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<a href="./index.html">The Answer Guy</a>
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<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
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</A></H1> <BR>
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<H4 align="center">By James T. Dennis,
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
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Starshine Technical Services,
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<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
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<p><hr><p>
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<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
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align="left" border="0">Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem</H3>
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<p><strong>From Chris Gushue on 04 Jun 1998
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<BR><BR>
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I have two systems, a 486 and a K6, and I was wondering how (if) I could
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connect them using a serial (null modem) cable. One system will be running
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Windows 98, the other running Linux. I can't seem to find any info on the
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LDP or other webpages. Thanks.
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</strong></p>
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<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
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align="left" border="0">
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Certainly you can connect them for some purposes.
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<br><br>
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I don't know anything about Win '98 but I presume it
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comes with some sort of terminal emulation package
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(like the Hyperterm that MS licensed from Hilgreave for
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Win '95, or that cheesy old "Terminal" that they used to
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ship with Windows 3.x).
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<br><br>
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You could also get any of several shareware, free, or
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commercial communications packages such as Telix (Windows
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or DOS), Kermit (DOS) or K95 (Windows), etc.
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<br><br>
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All of these should have a "direct" or "null modem" option
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listed among their "connection/modem" types.
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<br><br>
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This will give you a basic, character modem terminal login
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to your Linux box. This not a networking connection --- it
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is just like connecting a dumb terminal to the machine (which
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still gives you access to most of the applications and almost
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all of the utilities and programming tools on your Linux system).
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<br><br>
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If you want <EM>networking</EM> between these two systems, over the
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serial line; that's a different story. You should be able to
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establish a SLIP or PPP connection between the two. Once you've
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done that you could run any of the TCP/IP protocols over the
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line. However, it's much trickier to do that --- and I have
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no idea how Win '98 will handle it.
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<br><br>
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(Under early revisions of Win '95 I remember complaints that
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the supplied PPP drivers and their user interface was
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configured to work with MSN (Microsoft Network --- their
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ISP) and that it required some utility from the "Plus Pack"
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to allow one to create and maintain a "chat" script --- a
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way to log in and configure/establish a PPP session with
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any other ISP.
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<br><br>
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It seems that MS also added features in their NT 4.x (RAS?,
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RRAS?) that allow these systems to act as recipients of the
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stock Win '95 MS-CHAP authentication method. I guess this was
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a bid to convince ISP's to adopt Windows NT for their work.
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<br><br>
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Meanwhile Gert Doering (and others?) released the AutoPPP
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extensions or patches to '<TT>mgetty</TT>.'
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<br><br>
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'<TT>mgetty</TT>' is Gert's very popular "modem getty" line that allows
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a modem line to be shared between terminal, fax, network and
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even voice (with some modems) for both incoming and outgoing
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use. One of the features of '<TT>mgetty</TT>' is that it can be
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configured to recognize certain login strings ("user name
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patterns") as a directive to use an alternative '<TT>login</TT>' program.
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<br><br>
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Thus you can configure you modem line to use ppplogin when
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given a "user" name of the form: Pmaryjoe, and to use a
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traditional '<TT>login</TT>' when presented with others.
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<br><br>
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I personally haven't set up AutoPPP. However, a quick
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Yahoo! search on the string: "<TT>+mgetty +autoppp</TT>" gives
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about 450 Alta Vista hits. Most of these are from the
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Linux ISP mailing list. I didn't spot any that covered
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AutoPPP over a null modem.
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<br><br>
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Trying a search string like:
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<CODE>+ "null modem" +mgetty +win + "95"</CODE>
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<br><br>
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... didn't help either. Though it did return a bunch of
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links to Linux Gazett mirror sites carrying issues 18,
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25, and 28 (false hits in this case)
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<br><br>
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Somewhere on the Linux ISP mailing list archives
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I found a thread about "null serial" that was on target
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but not very informative. Someone mentioned that the
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Win '95 PPP couldn't handle direct connection --- and
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suggested Trumpet Winsock (a third party TCP/IP suite for
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Windows --- and DOS --- for years before MS had ever heard
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of TCP/IP).
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<br><br>
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So, it may not be easy to get networking configured over
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a null modem line so long as Win '9x is on one end of it.
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However, I bet it would be possible. You should probabl
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create a "modem emulation" driver for Linux that would
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allow the Win '9x box to work as though it were sending
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AT commands to a modem. The "modem emulation" driver
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could implement a small AT command subset (responding to
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every valid <pause>+++<pause>AT sequence with "<TT>OK</TT>" or
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the appropriate response).
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<br><br>
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In the long run it's probably far easier to buy a couple
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of ethernet cards (less than $30 each) and a 10baseT
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"cross over" cable (necessary if you're not going through
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a hub, and sometimes necessary to cascade one hub off of
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another). Not only is ethernet much faster than serial
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--- it is currently much easier to configure and support
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(for networking). Another advantage is that you can
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later expand; buy a 4, 5 or 8 port ethernet hub and you
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can wire up the whole house (actually I've almost filled
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two 8 port hubs here --- but I'm a little different).
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<br><br>
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Conclusion: You can easily use the serial/null modem
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for simple terminal access. You might be able to get it
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working as a networking interface, but you might have
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quite a bit of trouble convincing Win '9x to do PPP over
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a "direct" or "null modem" connection. So you might have
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to look for a third party PPP replacement (which may
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need to be upgraded between the Win '95 and Win '98 versions)
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--- or you might be able to write some weird "modem emulation"
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on the Linux side. For networking it will be much easier
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to buy a couple of ethernet cards.
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</blockquote>
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<p><hr width="40%" align="center"></p>
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<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
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align="left" border="0">Linux help </H3>
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<p><strong>From Chris Gushue on 04 Jun 1998
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<br><br>
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Thanks a lot for your thorough and quick response! It was just what I was
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looking for, just a basic login to my Linux box to play around with it until
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I get around to buying a hub and network cards. It kind of funny though,
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using my K6/233 Win98 machine as a dumb terminal to my 486/100 Linux box
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<img src="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":-)">
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</strong></p>
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<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
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align="left" border="0">
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I was using that VAResearch machine that I reviewed for
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the Linux Journal ("<TT>betelgeuse</TT>": a 266Mhz PII with 64Mb of
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RAM and a 4Mb Matrox Millenium video) as a dumb terminal to
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my old 33Mhz 386 ("<TT>antares</TT>") for months. The old 386 was
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where all my mail and news was. It's still the network hub,
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mail and news server for the house (though now I use '<TT>fetchmail</TT>'
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everything over to "<TT>canopus</TT>" a home built P166; the wife
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mostly took over the PII).
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<br><br>
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The 386 is the most stable machine in the house -- it's the
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only one on a UPS.
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</blockquote>
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<!-- end body -->
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<!--================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
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Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 30 July 1998</H5>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<td><A HREF="tag_cdr.html">cdr</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_3270.html">3270</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_database.html">database</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_vacation.html">vacation</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_nullmodem.html">nullmodem</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_lockups.html">lockups</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_gzipC.html">gzipC</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_newlook.html">newlook</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_solprint.html">solprint</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_vc1shell.html">vc1shell</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_memleak.html">memleak</A></td>
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<td><A HREF="tag_tvcard.html">tvcard</A></td>
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