iSeries access outside of work can be really hard to achieve. For one thing, the purchase of a whole iSeries system (formerly known as AS/400) that costs around 16 million pesos for the purpose of tinkering is not a possible, albeit economic, option. Second, if you are like me who works for a company that does not hook up their iSeries to the Internet, then you cannot work on your machine unless you are physically at the office, and unless you consume company time (overtime at the office for knowledge sake? Get real).

Fortunately, Innovative Systems, LLC is offering FREE iSeries (AS/400) access to those interested in furthering their iSeries administration and programming skills. Nope, there is no catch; I’ve been tinkering with it for quite some time, and I’m very happy with it.

Here are the steps you need to obtain a free access:

1.) Fill up the form at the Innovative Systems site
2.) Wait for the email regarding the IP address and username. The initial setting for the password is to be the same with your username, though this may be changed inside the iSeries itself.
3.) Download a Terminal 5250 emulation software. I recommend tn5250, as this is what I am using right now. Works perfectly well (Note: see this page for undocumented tn5250 keyboard mappings, such as Control-R for the “Reset” button)
4.) Login using the username/password provided via the terminal, and you can now program to your heart’s content!

Ribbit! F.R.O.G Login Page

Optional (Java development):
For those already familiar with both iSeries (AS/400) and Java, but want to reconcile the two by doing Java programs in the iSeries, you would also be needing the following:

5.) Your Java SE Development Kit. As a java developer, most likely you already have this setup in your workstation. Most likely you have your IDE setup too already (if not, may I suggest Netbeans?) The idea is to develop the Java application in your workstation, and afterwards transfer the codes to the iSeries for compilation. Which now leads us to

6.) An FTP client, to transfer the files from the workstation to the iSeries (AS/400). I use the command line ftp client bundled with Windows XP. Works without a hitch.

Here is a good read for those of you wanting to get started in Java for the iSeries (AS/400).

Have fun tinkering and exploring!