IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
- TimeShare400 will be shutting down as of May 31, 2025. Click here for more information.
- TimeShare400 will no longer allow traditional FTP (i.e. the port 20/21 variety) for it’s V7 box (nearly all users are on this box). You will need to use SFTP instead. Click here for more information.
- TimeShare400 will require you to validate your connection using a ‘port knock’ script BEFORE YOU TRY TO LOG IN. Click here for more information.
NO MORE REGULAR FTP
Going forward you will need to use “SFTP” to connect. It’s more secure (encrypted) and it avoids that stupidity of ‘passive ftp’ on port 20. If you try to connect using the old FTP you may get a logon prompt, but IT’S NOT FOR THIS MACHINE. YOUR CREDS WON’T WORK.
SFTP is set up on port 22 (SSH).
Please note – the Bad Actors have been beating up on port 22. So I set a ‘honey trap’ for them. Anyone that has not run the port knock script referred to above that attempts to connect on port 22 will be blocked for 10 minutes. That should be enough to discourage them. BUT – if YOU try to connect on the standard SSH port 22 and you have not done the port knock thing yet, YOU will be blocked for ten minutes. So run the port knock and try again in 10 minutes.
You can use tools like Putty to connect, or various FTP clients (assuming the client software understands the AS400 library system), or even the DOS SFTP client in Windows. To use the DOS client, for example:
Open a DOS box. In the commands below, replace xxxxxxxx with the host name that you connect to.
- SFTP youruserid@xxxxxxxx.timeshare400.com
- Enter your password.
- cd \
- cd qsys.lib
- cd yourlib.lib
If you get a ‘connection closed’ message, wait a minute and try again.
From here you can LS… you can PUT.. you can GET.. very similar to DOS FTP. One difference is that if you are transferring a file, you’ll need to include “.file” on the end of the file name, as with:
- get mysavefile.file
No need for “bin”.
PORT KNOCK
We’re seeing a ton of traffic from parts of the world where hackers thrive. They’re hitting telnet, ssh, etc. In order to combat this problem, we have turned on a ‘port knock’ filter. You will need to copy and execute a little batch script that ‘knocks’ on selected IP ports in a predetermined sequence BEFORE YOU TRY TO LOG IN. If you have run this script, various IP ports will be opened up to your ip address and you will connect successfully and stay connected as normal. You will be able to connect again at any time within the subsequent 24 hours. IF YOU HAVE NOT RUN THIS SCRIPT YOU WILL BE PRESUMED TO BE A TROUBLEMAKER AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CONNECT FOR TEN MINUTES. After ten minutes you will need to run the port knock script in order to connect.
You can access the port knock script here. PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.
Sorry for the hassle, but it’s become necessary.
TIMESHARE400 WILL BE CEASING OPERATIONS AS OF MAY 31, 2025. No new accounts will be opened and existing accounts will not be renewed or extended.
If you have an account that’s paid up beyond that date, we will contact you to arrange a refund for the pro-rated balance. If there should be a hardware problem in the interim (unlikely…) then the service will shut down at that point and pro-rated refunds will be issued.
We’ve been providing affordable access to AS400 development machine for over 20 years. But as I’ve said many times, it’s not exactly lucrative and it takes a fair amount of time… and now I have other things I want to focus on. Please be sure to back up your stuff to a save files and FTP the save files to yourself. I have disaster recovery backups, but if you come to me later (if you can find me…) and need access to those backups, it’ll cost you dearly. And there’s no guarantee that I’ll have it. So – as we all tell all of our friends – “do your backups and don’t come cryin’ to me if you didn’t”.
TimeShare400 provides affordable time sharing over the internet on a current model AS/400 (aka eServer iSeries; iSeries; System i; and, just plain “IBM i” for development, educational institutions, additional short term capacity increases and outsourcing. Our AS/400’s are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from any PC connected to the internet.
The primary machine is running v7r1. We have other machines available at v5r4, v5r2 and even v4r5. Pricing for these older machines may differ. The v4r5 machine has the ability to compile all the way back to v3r2.
We no longer have any CISC machines. Despite the fact that they were over 30 years old and still worked just fine, they have been sent to the recycler. Or maybe a mooring in Boston harbor.
Remember the old days of ‘time sharing’ on computers? With the advent of the internet, time sharing makes more sense than ever. Rather than buy and maintain your own AS/400 or iSeries machine, now you can rent time and space at TimeShare400(tm) instead!
This service will be of interest to individual developers who need affordable time share access to an up-to-date AS/400 for creating and compiling their latest projects. It will also be of interest to companies looking to outsource their software development function. If the production machine is bogging down between the production activity and development, move development outside! Some companies may even want to outsource their entire AS/400 environment! Have TimeShare400 run your AS/400 operations entirely! Small companies that want to run AS/400 applications but don’t want to buy a machine can run their applications here!
For more information on the TimeShare400 service offerings, click here.
Our mission is to provide high quality, high availability, affordable service to companies and developers.
ATTENTION SUBSCRIBERS: for information about the last install of PTFs, click here.