timeseal

WHAT IS TIMESEAL?!

  Timeseal is a program that has been developed to improve chess on internet.
Netlag often causes players to lose valuable seconds or even minutes on their
chess clocks.  Transmission time is counted against you, unless the chess
server can tell exactly when information is transmitted.  What timeseal does
is record your thinking time, so that transmission time is not counted against
you.  Timeseal will not prevent netlag but it makes the games fairer when lag
occurs.

HOW DO I USE TIMESEAL?!

  What you need to do is get a version of timeseal working on the computer
that connects you to the chess server.  The timeseal program will work as a
relay station, and will keep track of transimission times.

  The following versions of timeseal are currently available (as of December
17, 1995):

      AIX-3.2-RISC-SOCKS
      AIX-3.2-RISC
      BSD386-1.0-i386
      BSDOS-2.0-i386
      HP-UX-A.09.05-9000.705
      HP-UX-B.09.03-9000.42E
      IRIX-4.0.5H.IP12-mips
      IRIX-5.3-IP22-mips
      IRIX64.6.0.1.IP21.mips
      Linux-1.2.9-SOCKS
      Linux-1.2.9-i586
      OSF1-V3.0-alpha
      SCO-3.2-i386
      SunOS-4.1.4-sun4c
      SunOS-5.4-386
      SunOS-5.4-sun4d
      TW-SunOS-TW2.0.1-twin2
      ULTRIX-4.3-RISC
      Windows-Winsock (file is called tmsl11j.zip)

To see if anyone of these may fit the hardware you are using, do "uname -a" in
your unix shell and see which unix system you have operating.  Then, determine
whether you need one of the special Windows or SOCKS versions.


TO DOWNLOAD TIMESEAL

Follow these directions:

(1) Login to your unix/inet provider. (VAX/VMS not supported yet).  Type
    "uname -a" and remember the output.  You will need this output to figure
    out which version of timeseal will work on your system.

(2) Type "ftp 164.58.253.10" which will get you to the onenet ftp site.  When
    you are asked for a login ID type: "ftp" or "anonymous".  When you are
    asked for a password, type your email address.

(3) Type "cd pub/chess/timeseal" (in order to get to the correct
    onenet directory) and type "dir" (in order to see which versions of
    timeseal are currently available).  Compare the available timeseal
    versions to the type of unix operating system you have.

(4) When you have found the timeseal version that will work on your system,
    type "bin" (for "binary" transmission format) and then type "get
    filename" (where "filename" is the name of the version from the
    directory).

(5) Wait for the ftp file transmission to complete, then type "quit".  The
    file should now be in your current directory -- probably the home dir.

(6) Type "gunzip filename", "chmod 700 filename", and "mv filename timeseal".
    These various commands make the timeseal program available on your
    operating system.  NOTE: There are times when using "chmod 700 filename"
    does not work on your system.  In this case, try "chmod  755 filename".

    Here is an example after you have ftp'd the version called
    timeseal.ULTRIX-4.3-RISC.gz:

    gunzip timeseal.ULTRIX-4.3-RISC.gz
    chmod 700 timeseal.ULTRIX-4.3-RISC
    mv timeseal.ULTRIX-4.3-RISC timeseal

Now you are ready ... to go to the next step.  ;-)


TO RUN TIMESEAL WITH YOUR INTERFACE

  There are different procedures depending on which interface/system you are
using. If you use Xwindows +Xboard / xics, then go to A); if you have winsock,
then go to B); otherwise go to C).

A) For Xwindows users, there are two methods (listed in order of preference). 
Whichever approach you use, make sure that xboard and timeseal are in the same
directory.  Use one or the other -- NOT BOTH!

   (1) Use this command (it is the more direct, simpler approach):

         ./xboard -ics -icshost 164.58.253.10 -telnet -telnetProgram timeseal

   (2) Executing "./timeseal 164.58.253.10 5000 -p xxxx &" causes timeseal
       to bind itself to port xxxx and wait for a connection to the chess
       server.  Then you can start xboard / xics like this (remember to
       exchange xxxx with a valid port number, like 5500, 5501, whatever you
       like):

         ./xboard -ics -icshost localhost -icsport xxxx
         ./xics localhost xxxx

       You MUST use the string "localhost".  Do NOT write the chess server
       host because then timeseal will not be on.  "localhost" is a perfectly
       valid address since it's aliased to 127.0.0.1 (loopback) which always
       means the machine you are using.

B) There are two steps: INSTALL and USE:

   INSTALL:  Move the file tmseal.exe to the same directory as your client
   program.  Create a program manager icon for TMSEAL, using the normal
   methods.  (Select File|New from the program manager menu; click on New
   Program Item, then in the dialog set the Directory field to the same
   directory as above; set the command line to TMSEAL; you may check the Run
   Minimized checkbox if you wish.)

   USE:  Double-click on the TMSEAL icon before beginning your FICS session.
   Then, in your client program, connect to "localhost" instead of the usual
   "chess.onenet.net".  Soon the usual logon messages will appear.  Errors
   if any will show up in the TMSEAL window.

C) For other users (no xboard, no winsock) such as ziics, jiics, E-ICS, etc:

   Modify your interface configuration to replace the normal telnet command
   with: "./timeseal 164.58.253.10 5000".


DONE!

Questions?  Ask channel 1 or an admin.


See Also:  chan_1  ftp_hints  interface  lag 

[Written by Hawk, August 15, 1995; last modified: December 17, 1995 -- Friar]