C-Kermit for Windows - version 10.0 beta!

[davidrg]

C-Kermit for Windows v10.0 beta is now up on the Kermit Project website - the first new version of Kermit for windows in something like 20 years. And unlike the last one, this one is free!

This is based on the very latest C-Kermit release (C-Kermit 10.0 Beta.04) so brings an additional 20 years of new C-Kermit features plus some other fixes and enhancements that were originally going to be Kermit 95 v2.2. Sadly some features are no longer available as they either depended on proprietary libraries (LAT, XYZMODEM, Dialer) or depended on obsolete libraries (all of crypto stuff including SSH). So for now you're limited to telnet and serial connections.

 

[davidrg]

A new version is out! On windows Vista and newer its got a built-in SSH client, and on Windows 10 v1809 or newer its also got PTY support (though the kermit protocol doesn't work over windows PTYs due to their very non-transparent nature). A build is available without these new features for computers running something almost anything older than Windows Vista - any 32bit x86 desktop (or server) Windows except NT 3.1, NT 3.50 and win32s. A special build for NT 3.50 (and maybe NT 3.1) may appear in the next release though I can't imagine there is much demand for it. I've had a look at win32s but its lack of support for threading makes running C-Kermit there impossible. Support for Alpha, PowerPC and MIPS Windows NT will appear pretty much as soon as I manage to get my hands on a properly licensed version of Visual C++ 4.0 RISC edition or newer (unlikely any time soon).

If you want to make SSH connections from a pre-Vista PC running this you can do it pretty transparently using a Raspberry Pi or other machine on your LAN running a telnet server. Frank da Cruz has notes and a script for automating the telnet connection and running an SSH client at the other end here: https://kermitproject.org/k95relay.html (this also works for the old commercial release of CKW, Kermit 95, whose SSH client is too old now to connect to anything modern)

 

[davidrg]

Third beta is out now! This one extends SSH support down to Windows XP SP3 and adds TLS support for http, ftp and telnet protocols.

The mouse wheel also works now, the dialer is back if you want it, the screen update interval can be adjusted, Windows NT 3.50 is now supported via a special feature-reduced build, and there is a pile of other improvements all documented here.



The OS/2 version has been partially revived too but binaries aren't included in this release as network support among other things is currently broken. I don't know much about developing for OS/2 so it may take someone with more OS/2 knowledge to get C-Kermit for OS/2 back up to the level of Kermit 95 v2.1.3.

 

[davidrg]

The fourth beta is out now. Highlights are:

• X-, Y-, and Z-MODEM support is back thanks to Jyrki Salmi (online.fi) releasing the code for the library he wrote
• CTERM and LAT is supported again if you've got Pathworks32. Support for SuperLAT and TES32 is now a custom build option.
• xterm-compatible mouse reporting has been added to the terminal emulator
• Blinking cursor now blinks more reliably, and file file transfers over SSH are much faster.

Plus a bunch of other bug-fixes and enhancements. See What's new since Beta 3 for more details, or the full change-log going back to Kermit 95.

See this page on the Kermit Project Website for more information, download links, etc.