RA PPP Status OSAX

This freeware utility is a scripting addition (OSAX), and is designed for use under Mac OS 9.1 -- 9.2.x.  It is a re-implementation of a small subset of the functionality that used to be provided by the legacy Remote Access Commands (RAC) OSAX of Apple Remote Access (ARA) 3.5 / Mac OS 9.0.x. Specifically, it re-implements the 'RA status' command.

Background:
The release of ARA 4.0 / Mac OS 9.1 brought some upheaval into the ARA world; among the many changes, the legacy RAC OSAX was rendered entirely obsolete. This latter decision by Apple was not actually quite as sudden or drastic as it appeared to be. As far back as Mac OS 8.5.x, Apple had introduced a new model for network scripting which (among other purposes) was intended to gradually replace the legacy RAC scripting model. The new model was called, appropriately enough, Network Setup Scripting (NSS). [The NSS model was part of a larger Network Setup (NS) schema whose bedrock consisted of a new NS Manager in the guts of the OS, and the corresponding NS Application Programming Interface (API).]

The NSS model included a new scriptable background-only application (BOA), the eponymous Network Setup Scripting BOA, which resided in the Scripting Additions subfolder of the active System Folder. In addition to providing scriptable access to the NS API, the NSS BOA also provided a scriptable "wrapper" around the Open Transport / PPP and Remote Access Manager APIs. Although the NSS BOA was therefore a complete replacement for the legacy RAC OSAX (and more), there was one unfortunate casualty with the release of ARA 4.0 -- viz., an attempt to access the 'status' field of the active NSS RA Configuration could cause problems, including a "hang" or freeze.

Several workarounds for this issue have been proposed or popularised, viz.:-

• Downgrading to Mac OS 9.0.x;   -OR-
• Staying with Mac OS 9.1 but downgrading from ARA 4.0 to ARA 3.5.x;   -OR-
• Upgrading to Mac OS 9.2.x or later versions, which hopefully resolve the issue.

The RA PPP Status OSAX is essentially an alternative workaround for those who need or wish to keep using both Mac OS 9.1 (or 9.2.x) and  ARA 4.x.

 

Acknowledgments:
Many thanks are due to Peter Hartmann, who provided much thoughtful feedback and did an outstanding job of helping us test version 1.0.1 of the RA PPP Status OSAX. Moreover, without his prompting, the original bug in version 1.0 (which had caused the severe "conflict" with Apple's old RAC OSAX) might never have been fixed.

Thanks are due to Apple for developing the inimitable Open Scripting Architecture (OSA), and its AppleScript component, and for documenting much of the inner workings of the Open Transport API.

We have "borrowed" quite a bit of the Apple Event terminology from Apple's Networking Suite (class 'netw'), so that older scripts which made use of the legacy RAC OSAX would not need to undergo any modifications (apart from the required conversion of commands other than 'RA status' to the NSS model, of course!).

This utility was built with Metrowerks CodeWarrior Pro 5 & 6, and Apple's Universal Interfaces 3.3.2. It is written in plain C {not C++}.

 

 What's new in version 1.0.1?

Download RA PPP Status OSAX 1.0.1  (English)  (52 KB)     (BinHexed Stuffit archive; requires Aladdin Systems' free Stuffit Expander 5.0 or later)

 

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