TeraTerm survival guide:
Last updated 16 September 2008.
The following are a few brief points on how to best utilize UTF-8 TeraTerm Pro for CCNA2 and ITE2.

What is TeraTerm?

UTF-8 TeraTerm Pro is a terminal emulator; from this point on referred to as just TeraTerm.
A terminal emulator emulates a dumb terminal on a pc. Examples of dumb terminals are VT100, VT220, and Televideo 925.
These devices have a keyboard, small dedicated computer, serial or other ports and a CRT screen to show text (and graphics in the case of the Techtronics 4010).

There are other sorts of terminals however they will not be elaborated on here.

How do Terminals connect to the host?
Historically terminals were often connected to the host computer via RS-232 serial cables; or over modems in the case of dialup host computers.
Since one serial cable was required for every connected terminal this led to a requirement for lots of cable and increased the cost of the system.
It was advantagious to run terminals over the network; and the protocol to do this is called telnet (teletype over the network).
telnet can be used to connect to remote systems; especially Linux systems and certain routers including Cisco equipment.
The problem with telnet however is that the passwords are transmitted in the clear over the network and are easily sniffable. Also some implementations of telnet are not 8-bit clean which can cause problems with international characters.

What is SSH?

Many people use SSH (Secure Shell) which replaces RSH (Remote Shell). It provides strong encryptian, host verification and optional port redirection and data compression.
Compression is especially useful over low bandwidth links such as dialup or ISDN.

TeraTerm supports telnet, SSH and direct serial connections; which you use depends on what you are doing.
If you have a console cable plugged into the router and the serial port on your pc you use a direct serial link at 9600,n,8,1 no flow control.
If you are talking to a Cisco router across the internet or the remote bundle use telnet.
You can use either telnet or SSH to talk to the virtual Linux boxes.
The decision on which method to use to connect is made in the connect to host dialog of TeraTerm; changing the radio button also changes what fields appear in the dialog box.
when connecting to a serial port, the serial port must be chosen and confirmed.
When using telnet; a hostname and port can be provided.
When using SSH a hostname and other options can be set.

Installing and configuring TeraTerm:
Students will require TeraTerm for Both ITE2 and CCNA2 courses.
Obtain the TeraTerm program from the cucat website; or the SourceForge download page.
TeraTerm is located under Extras in its own folder on www.cucat.org.
If you are studying at an academy then your instructor should either be able to provide you the TeraTerm program and JAWS script, or assist you in obtaining and installing it on the workstation you use.
You will require the installer, and the JAWS script file ttermpro.jss


Installing TeraTerm:
Run the installer and accept the defaults performing a typical install. It is personal preference whether or not you create a desktop shortcut however start menu icons are a good idea.
Once TeraTerm is installed it is necessary to configure JAWS to work with it.

Compiling the JAWS script:

You need to copy the JAWS script ttermpro.jss into your personal JAWS settings folder. An easy way to find this folder is to find the currently used version of JAWS on the start menu, select explore JAWS then explore my settings.
Place the source file in this folder.
Usually the folder is
c:\Documents and Settings\loged on user\Application Data\Freedom Scientific\JAWS\v.vv\Settings\enu
replacing "logged on user" with your user name and v.vv with the JAWS version.

Once the script file is in place, launch TeraTerm. Now press JAWS key plus 0 to launch the script manager.
The currently open script should be ttermpro.jss and you should see the script source in the currently open window.
Now select file then save to compile the script.
When asked whether or not to overwrite the current file select yes.

Configuring TeraTerm Pro for JAWS usage:
Once the script has been compiled you need to configure TeraTerm to work with JAWS.
Open TeraTerm and look in the settings menu.
In the window settings change the cursor shape to a horrozontal line. This will allow JAWS to track the TeraTerm cursor.

Make sure you save your settings in the settings menu or they will be lost when you exit TeraTerm Pro.

the help for TeraTerm is excellent; students should take a look through the help file. In the help file you can select a topic by using the arrow keys and pressing enter. then press f6 to move to the help text window. f6 will return you to the list of topics.
The help file can be accessed from the help menu in TeraTerm.

Sometimes when reviewing the screen with the JAWS cursor the cursor can get stuck at the bottom of the screen on the start button. If this happens it is necessary to lower the number of lines in the terminal window so that the window does not get too close to the start button at the bottom of the screen.
These settings can be found in the terminal setup dialog box under the settings menu.
Note that maximizing TeraTerm can also allow more material to appear on the screen without JAWS having difficulty reading it.
It is also possible for the terminal and window to be different sizes. When this happens not all text will be visible on screen or to JAWS.
Students may wish to experiment with the termsize=winsize option.

Sometimes when pressing backspace, TeraTerm types "^h" to the screen instead of deleting the text. If this happens, check the box entitled "Transmit DEL by: backspace" in the keyboard dialogue of the setup menu.

Typing the control key followed by a letter or symbol transmits a control code. For example control-g transmits the bell character, which causes the host to make a short "ding" sound. Therefore all shortcut keys which normally use the control key, like control-c for copy or control-v for paste, use the alt key instead.

You will need to press control b to break out of a session on the remote serial switch. Refer to the documentation on accessing the remote bundle for details.
cisco labs also require you to press control ^.
This can be done by pressing control-shipft-6.

Logging terminal output:
When doing labs it is often desirable to log the input and output from the teraterm program. To do this select the "log ..." option from the file menu.
You will be asked to select a file name and save location. the default save location is the Teraterm program directory; this is not usually what is desired. You probably wish to store your logs in your lab work folder.
You will need to submit portions of this log with your lab work to prove the labs have been undertaken.

Set the file extention of the saved file to .log or .txt so that the logs may be opened and edited in notepad.
Once logging has started, there will be a log window allowing you to start, stop and pause logging.
When Teraterm is closed, the log will be closed. Log files are allways appended to, not overwritten. This means new material is saved at the end of the log file.