What is Aladdin SITcomm?

A communications toolkit from the makers of StuffIt.

This program uses the Communications Toolbox and looks somewhat similar to MacTerminal 3.0. It has native StuffIt expansion/compression, encoding, an Aladdin X/YModem driver and a ZModem tool. Requires about 2.4MiB on disk. Maximum bitrate is 57600bps.

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Since the days of the Hayes Smartmodem, telecommunications has been steeped in arcana. Even on the Mac, telecommunications software has been unintuitive, burying users in deeply nested dialog boxes to do something as simple as connect to a bulletin board system (BBS). With Aladdin’s SITcomm, I hoped for a straightforward program that would hide the gory details (or at least organize them palatably) yet support my need for access to several types of BBSs and online services. While SITcomm is a good step in the right direction, it makes some compromises.

The good news is that it’s fairly easy to set up and use SITcomm. When creating a log-in script (which automates log-in procedures by entering your ID and password), SITcomm lets you choose from an extensive list of scripts — everything from CompuServe to Unix-based mainframes. CompuServe, MCI Mail, GEnie, EasyLink, and Dow Jones are all there, as are several popular BBSs like TBBS, Telefinder, and FirstClass.

You can have any number of these log-in scripts in the SITcomm address book, including services whose communications and protocol settings differ from one another. One of SITcomm’s nicest features is the ability to make a log-in script automatic, so that it runs as soon as you pick it from your address book.

To change the arcane settings (such as flow control) for a particular service, you access a series of dialog boxes from a list of icons, which I find easier to use than pull-down menus. If you use a predefined log-in script, you only need to check that the right modem driver, telecommunications port, and telecommunications speed are selected; the other options are set to work with the service or BBS in question.

A word of advice: make sure you set Preferences and Default Tool Settings first, since they carry over. For example, if you have only a 2400-bps modem, set that in Default Tool Settings so all future log-ins are set at 2400 bps; that way you don’t need to modify the setting each time you create a log-in script.

SITcomm includes a version of StuffIt that compresses files (into your choice of regular or self-extracting format) before you upload them, which makes for faster transfer time and lower online costs. It also decompresses files from any of several formats, including StuffIt, Compact Pro, AppleLink, and BinHex. This is a wonderful option.

The control-panel-like interface puts all the settings in direct view — no searching through pull-down menus — while not getting in the way of the terminal window where the real action is: your online session. Though a bit antiseptic, the interface is really functional and simple to use.

SITcomm clearly has a solid base, but I need more. For example, SITcomm’s Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, and Kermit protocols cover most needs but not all. I’d like to use the QuickB protocol (not available in SITcomm) on CompuServe rather than Xmodem — QuickB is faster. Also, SITcomm’s default log-in for MCI Mail does not work correctly if you dial the toll-free access number. (A fix is promised for the next version.)

This leads me to one of SITcomm’s most significant omissions: real scripting. I’d like to log in to a service or BBS and have SITcomm record the actions and create a script that I can then modify — or just use as is. Automated log-in is nice, but real scripting would let me handle services that SITcomm now can’t handle automatically (such as Wildcat or MCI Mail’s 800 access), as well as automate some operations, like combining log-in with moving to an area of the service that I use routinely.

Make no mistake: SITcomm is a good product that will do well for people who use just one or two services. But the more services you use or the more customization you want of your online sessions, the more you’ll wish Aladdin had gone a bit further in developing SITcomm. The technical-support staff (which was professional and helpful) says a new version is in the works. I’m looking forward to it.

Gruman, Galen. (April 1994). SITcomm 1.0. Macworld. (pgs. 79, 81).

Download Aladdin SITcomm for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.0 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II