XBoard doesn't connect to FICS

[PeterK]

Hi,

Apologies if this looks too basic! On MacOS Mojave I'm trying to get XBoard to connect to FICS and it doesn't work (basically there is no action on the ICS window). I've tried telnet from the command line to freechess.org and works great and I've tried launching XBoard with different parameters but nothing works, something I'm doing wrong? thank you in advance! Peter

[H.G.Muller]

I have no Mac. Are you using XBoard from the OSX App or from another source? How exactly do you invoke it? Do you type a command from the command line, double-click a .desktop icon, or what?

[PeterK]

I have no Mac. Are you using XBoard from the OSX App or from another source? How exactly do you invoke it? Do you type a command from the command line, double-click a .desktop icon, or what?

Hi and thanks for your reply. I've tried either command line (with the -icchost freechess.org parameter) or via a script in both cases nothing happens. If I telnet from the command line I get to FICS with no issue at all. Any help much appreciated! Do I need to customise something?

[H.G.Muller]

It would help if you gave the exact command you use. F.e. "-icchost" is not a valid option: it isshould be "-icshost". It is also not the only option you have to give: a correct command line would be

xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org

This would not correct for network lag, however. To do that you would need a Mac version of timeseal, and write something like

xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper ./timeseal

(depending on where you put the timeseal binary file).

[PeterK]

It would help if you gave the exact command you use. F.e. "-icchost" is not a valid option: it isshould be "-icshost". It is also not the only option you have to give: a correct command line would be

xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org

This would not correct for network lag, however. To do that you would need a Mac version of timeseal, and write something like

xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper ./timeseal

(depending on where you put the timeseal binary file).

Hi, that is the way I'm trying to launch it specifically:
open -a XBoard --args -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal

Everything opens up nicely but it simply doesn't connect to the site. Again I've tried telnet from the command line and it works perfectly so I'm wondering if there is any setup file I need to customise or anything else? I'm using MacOS Mojave. Any ideas more than welcome!

Peter

[PeterK]

Any ideas from anyone?

[H.G.Muller]

Not really. The command seems OK. I don't know how you have installed timeseal, and if the command 'timeseal' is good enough to run it, or that the command ./timeseal is required. But that cannot really be the problem, because if timeseal cannot be found the XBoard would close with a fatal error "Connection closed by ICS", and apparently you don't see that. What happens if you run without the -icshelper option? Does it work then? And what happen if you connect just with the command "timeseal freechess.org 5000" ? Does that work? This should behave as an ascii terminal.

[PeterK]

Thanks a lot for your reply! I've dig a bit deeper into it following your advice: I've added the directory to the path, then running "./timeseal freechess.org 5000" essentially runs timeseal (so seems like it's executing from the command line), but doesn't connect to the server, it just stays stuck and I need to press control+c to terminate it. I've tried different variations and I'm getting the same result, so essentially (considering that everything else works fine), it means that timeseal doesn't work anymore for MAC. A couple of other things I've tried: (a) I've tried to find and download the timeseal program from FICS but apparently FICS doesn't provide it anymore (!) and (b) instead of using timeseal I thought of just using telnet instead (which I have installed and works fine), so used "-useTelnet true" and then to make sure "telnetProgram telnet", which however gives an immediate message "Connection closed by ICS". After this I have to say that sadly I have to give-up (except if there is anything else I can try), thanks!

Not really. The command seems OK. I don't know how you have installed timeseal, and if the command 'timeseal' is good enough to run it, or that the command ./timeseal is required. But that cannot really be the problem, because if timeseal cannot be found the XBoard would close with a fatal error "Connection closed by ICS", and apparently you don't see that. What happens if you run without the -icshelper option? Does it work then? And what happen if you connect just with the command "timeseal freechess.org 5000" ? Does that work? This should behave as an ascii terminal.

[PeterK]

So I found the solution which was ridiculously easy: keep all settings as they were with timeseal and just use port 23 for freechess.org instead of the default port 5000 (so add the argument "-icsport 23" in the list of arguments).

[H.G.Muller]

Ah, so your provider was probably blocking port 5000. Not much XBoard can do about that. Sorry this did not occur to me; now that you mention it I remember that this is the reason why FICS provided port 23 as an alternative in the first place. (Port 23 is the 'official' Telnet port, so it is not likely to be blocked.)

[PeterK]

Good to know, I live in Denmark! Hopefully this will help some other folks as well, cheers!

Ah, so your provider was probably blocking port 5000. Not much XBoard can do about that. Sorry this did not occur to me; now that you mention it I remember that this is the reason why FICS provided port 23 as an alternative in the first place. (Port 23 is the 'official' Telnet port, so it is not likely to be blocked.)