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1993-07-04
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3,323 lines
SNOOPER(TM)
The System Checker
Copyright 1989-93 John Vias
All rights reserved.
Here's how to reach me
Mail: John Vias
c/o Vias & Associates
P.O. Box 8234
Gainesville, FL 32605-8234
Phone: 904-332-8234 (voice)
Monday through Friday, 10AM to 8PM, Eastern
Compuserve: 72260,1601
You can find the latest copy of Snooper (SNOOPR.ZIP)
in the IBM Hardware Forum (GO IBMHW), General Hardware
library (4)
PCBoard BBS: A.C.C.U.G.* 904-335-7289 (V.32bis)
Greg Barton, sysop
*New BBS. Enter your real name and a password when prompted. Later in
the logon procedure, you will be asked if you have called for Snooper
support. Answer yes. You can find the newest version of Snooper, read
and send me E-mail, and read the bulletins. Snooper is named
SNOOPmnn.ZIP, where "mnn" is the version number (e.g., version 2.57
would be named SNOOP257.ZIP).
The ACCUG BBS specializes in supporting the Alachua County Computer
Users Group and other PC enthusiasts. Give it a call!
VIAS & ASSOCIATES
This program and its documentation were created by Vias & Associates,
a computer consulting and technical writing firm based in
Gainesville, Florida.
If you, or someone you know, needs software or documentation
written, edited, or designed, please let us know. Customized versions
of Snooper are available, of course. And our rates are affordable.
You can reach us at the contact points listed on the previous page.
Whether it's a computer program, a newsletter, software
documentation, or anything in between, we look forward to working
with you!
ASSOCIATION OF
SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS
_______
____|__ | (tm)
--| | |-------------------
| ____|__ | Association of
| | |_| Shareware
|__| o | Professionals
-----| | |---------------------
|___|___| MEMBER
This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware
Professionals (ASP). The ASP wants to make sure the shareware
principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a
shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member
directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you
resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide
technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP
Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a Compuserve
message via Compuserve Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VIAS & ASSOCIATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
ASSOCIATION OF
SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
WHAT IS SNOOPER? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
WHO NEEDS SNOOPER? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
FILES ON THIS DISK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
INSTALLATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
DOS Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Windows Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Upgrading From Previous Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SNOOPER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
LEGALITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Warranty, Copyright, Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
WHAT IS SHAREWARE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
REGISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
What Do I Get For Registering? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
OK, How Do I Register? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
SYNTAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Help switches (H|?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Black-and-white mode switch (B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Desqview mode switch (D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Non-interactive mode switch (N) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Quiet mode switch (Q) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Disk drive argument (D:) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chip detection bypass switches (C, M) . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Configuration file (Sfilename]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Logging switch (L[filename]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Environment variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT switch (F) . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
OPERATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Windows Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Exit key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Help key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Registration key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Advanced Diagnostics key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Bus key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Network key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Sequence keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Drive letter keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
File editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT keys . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Edit SNOOPER.LOG key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Log key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Log to printer key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Log to clipboard key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Setup key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
ERRORLEVEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
BUGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Known Bugs and Anomalies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
WISH LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Central Processing Unit (CPU) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
CPU speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Virtual-86 mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Numeric Data Processor (NDP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Conventional memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Free memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Used memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Extended memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Ext free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
XMS memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
eXtended Memory Manager level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
High Memory Area (HMA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
A20 Line Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Upper Memory Block (UMB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Enhanced Memory Specification total . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Enhanced Memory Manager level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
EMS memory free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Floppy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Hard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Physical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Logical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Video Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
VGA adapter brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
VESA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Monitor type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Video memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 Snooper, the system checker
Serial ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Parallel ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Game port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Sound cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
ROM BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Brand and driver version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Brand and version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Verify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Disk Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Drive list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Drive type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CMOS type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
IDE model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Sectors/cylinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Cylinders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Sector size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Cluster size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Total space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Free space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Used space (bytes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Used space (%) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Used space (bar graph) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Serial ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
UART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
IRQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Parallel ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 5
Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
IRQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Network card address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Sound card address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Interrupt Request (IRQ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Direct Memory Access (DMA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
BUS SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
NETWORK SCREEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Network type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Network address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Node address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Socket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
User name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Network card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Default . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MYSELF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SNOOPER'S CREATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6 Snooper, the system checker
WHAT IS SNOOPER?
Snooper is a system information utility that "snoops around" your
computer to report its configuration and operating characteristics.
WHO NEEDS SNOOPER?
You
You can use Snooper to keep an eye on your memory and disk usage.
Snooper also can help you when you are installing new peripherals or
software. And when you are talking to technical support personnel,
Snooper can help you answer many of their questions about your
computer.
MIS Managers/Network Administrators
If you are in charge of keeping a large installation of PCs up and
running, Snooper can lend a hand. For example, it's perfect for
collecting inventory information. Snooper will run on a network,
collecting information on each node you specify. Then you can
assemble the data into a database of configuration information. We
would be glad to create a customized version of Snooper to assemble
all the information you need, and in the format you specify.
Afterward, you can tell at a glance which users need DOS upgrades
simply by referring to the database, without having to visit each
site or calling each user. Two major corporations are already using
Snooper and this method to collect inventory data. You can too!
Consultants, Technicians, Support Personnel
You'll find Snooper helpful for showing at a glance what kind of
machine you are dealing with when you must troubleshoot or upgrade
it. Also, you can use Snooper to help you ensure the machine
recognizes equipment you installed. If you installed a mouse, for
example, ensure Snooper's display shows mouse information. If it
doesn't, the mouse may not work. Snooper can also help you maintain a
log of machines you've worked on. Then, the next time a customer
calls, you already know the configuration of that customer's
computer.
Hardware and Software Vendors, Programmers
After you buy an appropriate license, you may give away copies of
Snooper with each computer or software package you sell. You'll
receive several benefits. First, Snooper will make troubleshooting
over the telephone faster and easier for your support personnel. As
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 7
you know, many computer problems are caused by incompatible DOS
versions, incorrectly-installed hardware, and the like. You can find
out much about a customer's system by asking her to run Snooper, then
relay the relevant information. Also, because we can make your
company's name appear on Snooper's screen, every time your customers
run it, they will remember it was you who gave them this useful
utility.
Computer Dealers
Snooper's display is useful in providing a continuous at-a-glance
display for potential customers of a machine's specifications. No
more scrambling to learn a machine's specs. Simply run Snooper. You
also can easily determine the configuration of used computers you're
considering buying.
REQUIREMENTS
You may want to postpone reading the rest of this manual to run
Snooper. Go ahead! Snooper doesn't change your computer in any way
except to write a log file if you ask it to. Here are its
requirements:
* IBM PC or compatible computer
* 192K RAM
* DOS 3.1 or higher
* a video card
In short, Snooper should run on your computer. Make sure Snooper is
in your current directory or on your path. Then just type "snooper"
at the DOS prompt. Press <Esc> to exit Snooper.
FILES ON THIS DISK
All of the following files should be on this disk or in this
compressed file. If any are missing, or of they don't all have the
same date and time, please don't redistribute the remaining files.
Contact one of the distribution points listed on the front page for a
complete (and possibly newer) version.
Filename Description
SNOOPER.EXE Snooper, the system checker! To register, press <F1>,
then <R>.
SNOOPER.CFG Sample configuration file
SNOOPER.DOC Snooper's main manual (this file)
SNOOPER.HST Snooper's revision history
SNOOPER.ICO Icon file for Windows 3.x
SNOOPER.PIF PIF file for Windows 3.x
VENDOR.DOC Information for disk vendors and sysops
8 Snooper, the system checker
FILE_ID.DIZ Description file some BBSs will use automatically.
Thanks for uploading!
SNREAD.ME Brief introductory material
INSTALLATION
DOS Installation
Installation couldn't be easier. Simply copy all files to your hard
or floppy disk. If yo plan to use Snooper under Microsoft Windows,
copy the SNOOPER.ICO and SNOOPER.PIF files to your Windows directory.
Then print this manual by copying it to your printer. The command:
copy snooper.doc prn
usually works, assuming SNOOPER.DOC is in the current directory and
your printer is attached to your first parallel port. Snooper shows
you how many parallel ports you have. My, what a useful utility!
Windows Installation
To use Snooper under Microsoft Windows, follow the instructions under
"DOS Installation." When all files have been copied, then:
1. Invoke Windows;
2. In Program Manager, select an appropriate program group;
3. Select New from the File menu;
4. Click on New Program Item;
5. For Description, type "Snooper";
6. For Command Line, type Snooper's full path. For example, if
Snooper resides on your C: drive in your "\UTILS" directory,
the command line "C:\UTILS\SNOOPER.EXE" would work. (If you
want to use the .PIF file, edit it with PIFEDIT to point to
SNOOPER.EXE. Then follow these instructions but make Command
Line point to the .PIF file instead.)
7. Click on Change Icon and enter the path to SNOOPER.ICO.
8. Last, click the OK buttons until you return to the Program
Manager's main screen.
Snooper's icon should appear in the selected program group. You're
done! To run it, double click on its icon.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 9
Upgrading From Previous Version
If you are using an older version of Snooper, simply copy the new
files over the old. Read the history file, SNOOPER.HST, to find out
what has changed since the version you were using was released. If
you need more details, refer to appropriate sections of this manual.
I can't say if future configuration files will be backward
compatible but they probably will be. I'll state in the documentation
if they aren't.
THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND SNOOPER
As I designed and wrote Snooper, I kept several design considerations
in mind:
* I wanted it to be useful to both beginners and experienced
users, for the casual user and the technocrat. If you don't know
what "NDP" means, don't worry. This manual will help you.
* I wanted Snooper to run instantly, and to show everything it
knows on one (or two!) screens. With Snooper, you needn't wait
for lengthy searches or benchmarks and you needn't pull down six
menus to find what you want.
* I strived for accuracy in its reports. This fact sometimes can
explain differences between Snooper's reports and those of
similar but inferior programs.
* I tried to make Snooper as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Too often I see an otherwise excellent program ruined by a
garish (and permanent) color scheme. Snooper's display is, I
think, attractive and easy to read. If you don't like its color
scheme, you can always change it. To reduce clutter, when the
answer to a report would be zero, or none, Snooper simply leaves
that report area blank.
* I wanted to make Snooper intuitive and easy to use. I made the
keystrokes and command line switches similar to other programs
so you wouldn't have to learn yet another interface. For
example, typing "snooper/?" at the DOS prompt or pressing <F1>
in the program displays help screens, just as you'd expect.
LEGALITIES
Here's the nasty part. Please bear with me while I assault you with
the usual barrage of disclaimers and legal mumbo-jumbo. It is an
unfortunate but necessary addition to every software manual published
in our litigious society. End of lecture.
Warranty, Copyright, Liability
* SNOOPER IS SUPPLIED AS-IS. IT IS NOT GUARANTEED FOR FITNESS OR
SUITABILITY FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
10 Snooper, the system checker
* I WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES--ACTUAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHERWISE--FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY
TO USE, SNOOPER. I WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ERRORS IN ITS
DOCUMENTATION.
* I HEREBY EXPLICITLY DISCLAIM ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED.
* SNOOPER, THE SYSTEM CHECKER, AND ITS DOCUMENTATION ARE
COPYRIGHTED. I RETAIN ALL LEGAL RIGHTS TO BOTH.
License
I encourage individuals, user groups, shareware vendors, and others
to use, copy, and distribute Snooper in compliance with the following
restrictions:
* You are hereby granted a limited license to use Snooper for an
evaluation period not to exceed thirty (30) days. After that
period, you must either discontinue use of Snooper or register
with the author (see below).
* If you want to pass Snooper along, distribute the program and
its related files together, intact and unmodified.
* Don't reproduce the printed documentation in any way.
* Don't distribute Snooper as part of any product or service
without my prior written permission.
Shareware vendors, rack vendors, CD-ROM and book publishers, and
other businesses are also subject to the following restrictions:
* Your advertisements, catalogs, and other literature must clearly
explain that the user must pay the author for shareware he or
she uses, and that the money paid the vendor for the disk does
not satisfy the user's obligation to the author.
* If the version you have is over six months old, please ensure
that you have the most current version by finding Snooper on
Compuserve or on its distribution BBS (see the first page of
this manual for distribution points).
* If I ask you to stop distributing Snooper, do so.
Any disagreements pertaining to Snooper will be decided based on the
laws of the State of Florida.
The brand names used in this manual are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective manufacturers.
OK, enough legal stuff.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 11
WHAT IS SHAREWARE?
Snooper is distributed by a marketing method called shareware. Those
of us who distribute software via this technique believe:
* People should be able to evaluate a program in its actual
operating environment, which a computer store is not;
* They should have a reasonable time to evaluate it, which is
longer than a computer salesperson's patience will allow (I know
because I was one);
* Users are honest enough to register the program with the author.
The user will not only gain a clear conscience, but will also
encourage the programmer to improve the software, which in turn
is good for the user;
* Commercial software is too often overpriced. Because many
shareware authors don't have to pay for advertising, fancy
packaging, toll-free numbers, and other commercial marketing
necessities, we are able to keep costs down.
Keep in mind that shareware is not free. We shareware authors expect
those who use our programs to pay us for our efforts just as you pay
writers of commercial software for theirs. We're just nicer about
collecting it.
REGISTRATION
As stated above, you are granted a limited license to evaluate
Snooper. If you continue to use Snooper after a 30-day evaluation
period, you must register it. Just as you have to pay for commercial
software you use, you must pay for shareware you use. Site licenses,
volume discounts, and customized versions are available and
encouraged. Please write or call for details.
What Do I Get For Registering?
Snooper registration involves two tiers--there are two registration
fees. Of course, paying the higher fee entitles you to more benefits.
A registration fee of $15 entitles you to:
* A license number to personalize your copy.
* Free technical support for at least one year (see first page for
contact information). This is a toll call.
* The peace of mind in knowing you have legitimized your use of
Snooper and supported the shareware concept.
* My undying gratitude.
12 Snooper, the system checker
A registration fee of $25 entitles you to all of the above plus:
* A printed manual.
* The most recent version of Snooper on disk.
* Even more gratitude!
Registration is permanent. This means you can acquire a new version
of Snooper, use the setup screen to imbed your license number, and
legitimately use it. Wouldn't that make you feel good?
I will promptly acknowledge your payment, usually by mail.
OK, How Do I Register?
It's very quick and easy. Run Snooper and press <F1> for help, then
<R> to register. Make sure your printer is ready. Then read the
screen and select the port you want Snooper to print the invoice to.
You may print to any valid parallel or serial port, or to a file
called SNOOPER.INV. Complete the invoice and send it with your
payment to the address that appears on the invoice.
If you're a business user, you can pay for Snooper on a purchase
order and send a copy of the invoice to Accounting, making it faster
for you to get your registration incentives.
Please send your registration in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank
with a business, personal, traveler's, or cashier's check; or a money
order, Postal Money Order, or American Express International Money
Order. Sorry, I'm not able to accept credit cards. For your own
protection, please don't send cash through the mail.
Thank you for registering.
SYNTAX
There are several switches and options you can use to change
Snooper's operation. Enter them after Snooper's name at the DOS
prompt. They are all optional, all case-insensitive, and can all be
joined (with no intervening spaces). If you join them, the log and
configuration filenames must come last because they assume the
remainder of the parameter is the filename. Otherwise, the switches
may be entered in any order. You may preface them with hyphens or
slashes if you wish. If you enter an invalid parameter, Snooper will
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 13
display its first help screen, showing you the invalid characters.
Here is a diagram of Snooper's command line options. All options are
in brackets to indicate they are optional. I describe each fully in
the following sections.
snooper [H|?] [B] [D] [N] [Q] [D:] [C] [M] [P] [C[file]] [L[file]]
Help switches (H|?)
"H" and "?" are help switches. If a help switch is specified, Snooper
displays help screens that show command line syntax and examples,
keystrokes you can use while in the program, and shareware
information. Snooper ignores all other command line switches when you
specify a help switch.
Black-and-white mode switch (B)
Normally, Snooper senses if it is being run on a machine with a
monochrome card and automatically uses its black-and-white background
color. However, Snooper can't tell if your PC emulates a color card
but has a monochrome, color composite, or LCD display, such as most
laptops. If you use such a machine, you should try using the
black-and-white switch. In most cases, Snooper's display will be more
legible, but it depends on the particular display. Also, you can
configure Snooper's colors to create the most readable color scheme
without using this switch (see Setup key, below).
Desqview mode switch (D)
Snooper automatically detects Desqview and uses the BIOS to write to
the screen instead of writing directly to the video map. If you have
an old CGA adapter (on which you may see "snow" when Snooper draws
its screen) or if something interferes with Snooper's detection of
Desqview, you may want to use this switch.
Non-interactive mode switch (N)
Use the non-interactive mode switch, "N," when you want to run
Snooper from a batch file and don't want to have to press <ESC> to
exit. Snooper will get information from only one disk drive and
return to DOS. This command is especially useful when combined with
the logging switch (explained below).
Quiet mode switch (Q)
When Snooper runs in quiet mode, it suppresses all its screen output,
and returns the user to DOS (as if the N switch had been used). The
14 Snooper, the system checker
ERRORLEVEL variable and logging features operate as usual. ANSI
detection is disabled. This mode is great for batch files, networks,
software installation, and so on.
Disk drive argument (D:)
D: represents a disk drive letter followed by a colon. Use it to
specify the disk drive whose information you want to see first. You
can, however, see information from each of your disks, as I explain
under "keystrokes" below. If you don't specify a drive, or if you
specify an invalid one, Snooper will use the current drive.
Chip detection bypass switches (C, M)
A few machines lock up during Snooper's microprocessor or math
coprocessor detection routines. When this happens, Snooper will draw
its background and then stop. If you have this problem, all you need
to do is specify one or both of the compatibility switches. The "C"
switch prevents Snooper from checking the CPU (microprocessor) type
(It also keeps Snooper from being able to determine certain computer
types and other information). The "M" switch prevents Snooper from
determining which math coprocessor your computer has, and may also
avoid rare lockups. I hope these switches are now obsolete.
Configuration file (Sfilename])
A configuration file contains options to be used in place of
Snooper's defaults. Colors, license number, B/W mode--these options
and others can be specified in the configuration file. To create one,
see instructions under Setup key, below.
When it starts, Snooper looks for a configuration file in its home
directory called SNOOPER.CFG. Use this option to load a different
configuration file, useful if you have multiple files, as on a
network. Note that the filename is required if you use this switch.
If Snooper can't find the file you specified, it will say so in the
message box. Also, if the configuration file's size is incorrect (as
may happen with an old configuration file and a new version of
Snooper), it will report the file to be invalid. To maintain its
integrity, don't attempt to modify the configuration file manually.
Use the Setup key.
Command line parameters that follow the specified configuration
filename override the config file's options. Those that come before
are overridden by the config file's options.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 15
In the following example, Snooper would load a configuration file
called C:\UTILS\SNOOPER.C1.
snooper /Sc:\utils\snooper.c1 /b
Regardless of its contents, Snooper would run in B/W mode because the
B/W mode command line switch was specified after the configuration
filename.
Logging switch (L[filename])
"L" is the logging switch. When you use the logging switch, Snooper
copies its display to a file or port just before it terminates. The
optional filename tells Snooper the file you want it to log to. The
default is SNOOPER.LOG. Logging is especially handy to use in batch
files for getting printouts of Snooper's output for later reference.
If no log file exists, Snooper will create one. If one already
exists, Snooper will append the new data to the end of the old file.
In this way, you can create one file with system information for all
the computers in the company or school.
The log file grows by 2000 bytes each time Snooper writes to it.
Thus, you easily can tell by looking at the file's size how many
computers you have already logged. For example, if the log file is
8000 bytes, you've logged four computers (8000/2000 = 4). Also, the
file is formatted in such a way as to be easily readable with the DOS
"TYPE" command, as in:
type snooper.log | more
Snooper first checks for a log filename on the command line. Simply
type it immediately following the "L" like this:
snooper /Lc:\files\snoop.dat
If you want Snooper's output to go to your printer, just specify the
port it's connected to (omit the trailing colon). So if your printer
is on LPT1:, type:
snooper -LLPT1
Environment variable
If you don't specify a filename, Snooper searches the environment for
a variable called SNOOPER. You can set the SNOOPER variable by
typing:
set snooper=variable
16 Snooper, the system checker
at the DOS prompt. "Variable" can be any valid filename or even a
port, such as PRN. For example:
set snooper=prn
If you don't specify a log file on the command line or with the
SNOOPER variable, Snooper writes a file named SNOOPER.LOG in the
current directory.
Because not all printers can print line-drawing characters,
Snooper translates its borders to ordinary (low ASCII) characters
(hyphens, vertical bars, and plus signs). This way, virtually any
printer can accurately reproduce Snooper's display. For this reason,
you should use the logging keystroke or switch and not the <PrtScr>
key, which doesn't translate the line-drawing characters.
NOTE: If you have an early Color Graphics Adapter, you may see "snow"
(interference) on your monitor during the logging process. Don't be
alarmed. This is normal and will not hurt your machine.
NOTE: Snooper must find the screen buffer in order to log its
display. It will find it even if it has been moved by a program
adhering to the Relocatable Screen Interface Specification (e.g.,
Desqview, Topview, and Memory Commander).
Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT switch (F)
Specify this switch and Snooper will, upon exit, copy your CONFIG.SYS
and/or AUTOEXEC.BAT files to the log file. You can use this in
conjunction with the logging switch, above; it will use the same log
file.
Examples
Some examples will help clarify Snooper's options.
snooper /h
Snooper will show its help screen and examples.
snooper sd:\utils\snoop.cnf e:
Snooper will load the configuration file named C:\UTILS\SNOOP.CNF,
then show information from drive E: and wait for keystrokes. <Esc>
quits.
snooper -Bc:nl
Snooper will use its monochrome display colors, get drive information
from drive C:, write a log file named SNOOPER.LOG, and return to DOS.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 17
set snooper=prn
snooper -l\snoop.dat
Snooper will show information for the current drive and wait for
keystrokes. After you press <Esc>, it will write a log file in the
root directory of the current drive called SNOOP.DAT. Recall that a
log filename on the command line overrides the SNOOPER environment
variable, so Snooper does not log to "prn." There will be a quiz
later.
OPERATION
After the following brief account of Snooper's operation, I will
describe a few parts in greater detail.
When you first invoke Snooper, it looks for its default
configuration file and configures itself accordingly. Then it reads
its command line, looking for switches. It loads a configuration file
if you specified one. Recall that command line switches that follow a
specified config file override that config file's options. Because of
the EGA's notoriously buggy cursor routines, I thought it would be
wise to leave the EGA cursor alone, so it stays on. But on all other
video systems, Snooper turns off the cursor to make the display a
little cleaner.
It then gets country-dependent information from DOS, based on the
COUNTRY command in your CONFIG.SYS file. (You don't have to use it
unless you live outside the U.S.) The information tells Snooper how
to arrange and punctuate the date, time, and numbers.
At the bottom of its display, Snooper shows the day, date, and
time according to DOS. This feature comes in handy when you want to
view a log file of Snooper's output and you wouldn't otherwise know
when it was made. It also allows you to check your computer's date
and time for accuracy (Some AT clocks tend to run slow). You do set
your clock, don't you?
After Snooper shows you its display, it awaits certain keystrokes.
When you press <ESC>, Snooper writes a log file if you told it to,
turns the cursor back on, sets the ERRORLEVEL batch file variable,
may display its registration reminder screen if you haven't yet
registered (and why not?), and returns you to DOS.
Windows Operation
Snooper performs slightly differently under Windows. If Snooper is
idle, it gives up its time slice immediately. What this means is
Snooper won't slow down your other running programs. The only
drawback is that the time display freezes. Just press the spacebar
when Snooper's window is active to update the time.
In Windows 386 enhanced mode, Snooper turns off IDE model
checking, which seems to interfere with 32-bit disk access. Also, the
Advanced diagnostics screen is unavailable (as it is in every
18 Snooper, the system checker
detected multitasking environment), as it may disrupt activities in
another task.
You can paste Snooper's display, as text, into the Clipboard (see
Paste to clipboard key, below).
Keys
Run without any options or switches, Snooper shows information from
the default drive and continuously displays the current time and date
at the bottom of its screen. While Snooper is running, it awaits
certain keystrokes that affect its operation.
Exit key
The <Esc> key quits Snooper and returns you to DOS.
Help key
The <F1> key, when pressed from Snooper's main screen, displays the
second of three help screens: keys available while you're in Snooper.
The first help screen, accessible with <PgUp>, <Up>, or <Home>, shows
Snooper's command line syntax, just as if you had used Snooper's help
switch at the DOS prompt. The third help screen shows registration
information: benefits of registration, prices, and contact points.
Registration key
Pressing <R> from any help screen takes you to Snooper's registration
screen, which lets you print an invoice you can fill out and send to
me. Along the bottom of your screen is listed every parallel and
serial port in your system. Press the corresponding number and
Snooper will print an invoice to that port. Normally, you would type
<1> for LPT1. The final option is to print to a disk file named
SNOOPER.INV, which you can then print yourself. This is an easy and
fast way to register Snooper; I hope you find it convenient.
Advanced Diagnostics key
Snooper has a screen of advanced diagnostic information you can see
by pressing <Alt-D>. If you have a multitasker or network running,
Snooper will pop up a warning and a prompt to continue before letting
you into this screen. The reason is these routines may disrupt a
network, and serial or parallel communications going on in other
tasks. Also, they sometimes can interfere with Snooper's ability to
gather accurate information. Unload the multitasker or network and
you may view the Advanced Diagnostics screen safely. Its report
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 19
descriptions follow those of the main screen, below. You may log this
screen by pressing the logging key, <Alt-L>.
Bus key
Pressing <Alt-B> will display the bus screen, which is explained in
the section following the Advanced Diagnostics screen. Of course, you
may log this screen with <Alt-L>.
Network key
Pressing <Alt-N> will make the network screen appear. This screen is
described after the bus screen. Yes, you may log this screen with
<Alt-L>.
Sequence keys
You can use the <Left>, <Up>, and <PgUp> keys to tell Snooper to get
disk information for the next lower-lettered disk (e.g. if you're
looking at C:'s info, press <PgUp> to see drive B:). <Right>, <Down>,
and <PgDn> do the opposite. <Home> takes you to drive A: and <End>
takes you to the last valid drive in your computer. The list at the
top right of the display shows you which drives are available on your
system, and which one's info you are looking at.
Drive letter keys
Alternatively, you can press the letter corresponding to the drive
you want to see. If you want the A: drive's data, for example, just
press <A>.
If you press an invalid drive letter, Snooper will alert you with
a message in the message box, at the bottom right.
File editing
From the main screen you can invoke a text editor to edit your
CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and SNOOPER.LOG files. Snooper has a simple
but capable editor built in. Press <F1> when you're in it to learn
its keystrokes. The obvious advantage of using the internal editor is
it's always available. If you wish, however, you can have Snooper
load an external editor, perhaps one with special features you like.
The setup screen lets you choose which editor Snooper will use,
internal or external.
Regardless of the editor you choose, Snooper ensures the file to
be edited exists before attempting to load the editor. The message
line will alert you if the file is missing. Also, after you exit the
editor, Snooper waits for a keypress to give you a chance to see any
20 Snooper, the system checker
messages from the editor before restoring its screen. Of course, for
changes in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to take effect, you
must save the file, return to Snooper, exit, then reboot.
If you don't wish to use the built-in editor, you may use one of
your choosing. If the editor is external, it must be named EDIT.COM,
EDIT.EXE, or EDIT.BAT. It must be in the current directory or on the
path. If it's not already named EDIT, you can simply rename it or
create a batch file called EDIT.BAT that calls it. You can, of
course, add other commands in the batch file. Use a replaceable
parameter for the filename. Here's a sample EDIT.BAT file that would
work for any file:
echo off
copy %1 c:\backups\%1
ed /r %1
In this example, the original file is copied to another directory for
safe keeping. Also, a switch (/r) is passed to an editor named ED.
This should give you some ideas about what to put in EDIT.BAT.
Edit CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT keys
Press <Alt-C> to edit CONFIG.SYS or <Alt-A> to edit AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Snooper looks for the file in the root directory of whatever drive
you're looking at on its main screen. So if you want to load
C:\CONFIG.SYS, make sure drive C:'s information is showing before you
press <Alt-C>.
Edit SNOOPER.LOG key
From Snooper's main screen press <Alt-V> and Snooper will invoke an
editor so you can edit an existing SNOOPER.LOG file. You may want to
do this to compare earlier screen dumps with recent ones, or to add
comments to the log file. See the above for editor-naming
conventions.
Log key
Use <Alt-L> to write a log file to disk or to a port, such as a
printer port (see also Log to printer key, below). You may log the
main screen or the Advanced Diagnostics screen with this key. It
works similarly to the logging command line switch except that it
works immediately, not after you exit. If you also specified the
logging switch with a filename, it will use that filename (the
display will be logged again when you exit). If not, it will use the
SNOOPER environment variable if it exists; otherwise, SNOOPER.LOG.
The information you're looking at when you press the logging key
is the information that will be logged. Because of this, you can
access the first drive on a computer, press <Alt-L>, then <Down> and
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 21
so on until you have a log file containing information for each drive
in the system. This log file can be very useful when you are trying
to remember what kind of drives someone else's computer has.
Log to printer key
<Alt-P> will print the screen you're looking at and it works with all
system information screens. It sends its output to PRN.
Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT key
Pressing <Alt-F> causes Snooper to copy your CONFIG.SYS and
AUTOEXEC.BAT files to the log file. Again, the files on the drive
whose information you're viewing are the ones that will be added to
the log file. The message line will tell you if neither file was
found. If only one file is found, it will be logged. If no log file
is found, it will be created.
Log to clipboard key
Press <Shift-Delete> to paste a copy of Snooper's display to the
Windows Clipboard (<Ctrl-Insert>, being the copy key, would have been
more appropriate, but it's only available on enhanced keyboards).
Snooper will translate its line-drawing characters into low-ASCII
characters as usual because most Windows fonts don't include them.
You can then paste the display into a Windows document. Of course,
for the characters to align, you must use a monospaced font such as
Courier.
Setup key
You may change Snooper's color scheme and other defaults by pressing
<Alt-S>. You will see the setup screen options and a "fake" display
to show you what Snooper will look like with the new color scheme.
To make that annoying registration reminder screen go away, press
<L> and enter the license number I sent you when you registered. Be
sure to enter the number exactly as it appears or Snooper won't
accept it (it's awfully picky). After you save your work (see below),
Snooper will no longer show its RRS.
NOTE: After you enter your license number, you should probably save
your config file under the default name, so it always will be
available to Snooper. Otherwise, the registration reminders will
start popping up again.
It would be foolish, of course, to give your license number away to
anyone--they should pay, too! Your license number is also shown at
the top of the third help screen.
22 Snooper, the system checker
You can force Snooper to use its black-and-white or Desqview modes
by pressing the appropriate letters. Normally, Snooper will detect
monochrome cards and Desqview and set these defaults automatically.
You may have a reason to override the defaults, as explained in the
relevant command line switch sections.
Here is where you can tell Snooper if you want to use its internal
editor or and external one. Pressing the appropriate key toggles this
option.
You may want Snooper to give you information about a certain drive
first, without having to specify it on the command line. Press the
appropriate key in the setup screen and you can type a single letter
to indicate the drive. If you want Snooper to revert to using the
default drive, type a question mark. Of course, once you're in
Snooper, you can change to any drive in the system.
You can change Snooper's colors to suit your taste by pressing the
highlighted letter. Snooper will cycle through the sixteen available
colors. If you pass the color you want, just keep pressing the same
key and the color will eventually reappear.
TIP: If you have a laptop and you must remember to use Snooper's "b"
switch to get a legible display, use the setup screen to find the
colors that produce the most legible display, using the color
background (e.g. make the color background black). Then save your
changes. You will no longer need the switch.
If you want to quit and not save your changes, press <Esc> and no new
configuration file will be written.
If you do want to save your changes, press <S> and Snooper will
ask you for a filename, with a default shown. The default is the
config file you specified at start-up, or SNOOPER.CFG. To accept the
default name, press <Enter>; otherwise, type in a new filename.
Snooper will write a config file with the new options, overwriting
any old one of the same name. To create multiple files, simply select
the <S> option and enter a different name each time. If you have
written the config file to Snooper's home directory or specified a
different one on the command line, the next time you run Snooper, the
new options will take effect. That's all there is to it!
ERRORLEVEL
If certain errors occur, upon exit Snooper sets the ERRORLEVEL batch
file variable and shows the value of ERRORLEVEL on the screen in the
message box. Here are the errors ERRORLEVEL reports:
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 23
Errorlevel Explanation
0 Successful completion-there were no errors.
1 Drive door was open or there was no disk in a requested
(or default) disk drive, or a disk was bad or
unformatted.
2 User specified an invalid drive on the command line.
4 DOS version is older than 3.1.
8 Error occurred while Snooper was writing a log file.
16 User specified an invalid command line parameter.
Notice the numbers aren't consecutive. This numbering scheme allows
Snooper to add the numbers.
For example, if you specified an invalid drive and Snooper
encountered an error writing a log file, it would set ERRORLEVEL to
ten, the sum of two and eight. The ERRORLEVEL variable can be tested
in batch files; for example:
if errorlevel 24 goto LOGERROR_DOOROPEN
See your DOS manual for details of the ERRORLEVEL variable and how to
use it.
BUGS
Although I've worked on Snooper for over six years, I guess it may
have a bug or two lurking in it. To debug Snooper thoroughly, I would
need access to a wide array of computers and peripherals. I don't. I
have tested it on many machines but such testing is never
comprehensive.
If you think you've found a bug, please tell me by sending me the
invoice with a specific description of the bug. Include a printed log
file if you can. The only way I can find out how well Snooper works
on other machines is for you, the users, to tell me. Of course, an
inaccurate report may mean your hardware, BIOS, DOS, TSRs, or
something else is incompatible or is interfering with Snooper. I'd
like to hear from you anyway.
Known Bugs and Anomalies
* A few machines lock up when running Snooper. The culprit is
sometimes the CPU and/or NDP detection routines. Simply specify
the "C" or "M" command line switch (the message box will tell
you which). I've fixed this problem more than once but there's
always one more machine out there. . . .
24 Snooper, the system checker
* Some PS/2s lock up in Snooper Advanced Diagnostics screen. I'm
trying to figure this one out.
* Because of the way NDOS and 4DOS allocate memory in their
non-swapping modes, Snooper will give an incorrect environment
report such as: Free 65,536 Total 0.
WISH LIST
Snooper will never be complete, of course. I have continually found
new reports and features to add to make it an easy-to-use and
powerful utility. There are a few things I still want from Snooper:
* Brand detection of more non-Intel CPUs and NDPs
* Detection of VL and PC-I local buses
* Detection of tape drives
* Detection of XGA video hardware without a MCA machine
* Differentiation of ST506, IDE, ESDI, and SCSI hard drives
* Lots of registration fees
If you think you can help me with the above challenges, please call
me, write me, or leave me E-mail. With your help, Snooper can become
an even more-powerful utility. Also, I'm likely to make you a
registered user for your help. I will at least mention your help in
the acknowledgments (All together: "Oooh, aaah!").
REPORTS
Following, roughly in the order they appear on the screen, is a
detailed list of Snooper's main screen reports, followed by the
Advanced Diagnostics reports.
Computer
The type of computer Snooper is being run on. On some XT and AT
clones, Snooper can't tell if it's running on an actual IBM machine
or a compatible, so it will report the IBM equivalent (e.g. "PC AT").
There are too many possible results to list here. Snooper can
recognize over one hundred machines by name, including many IBMs,
Dells, Toshibas, ATTs, and Olivettis.
NOTE: If you are not skipping CPU detection and Snooper reports
computer type as "Unknown ID: . . ." please drop me a note telling me
what the ID numbers were, and the exact model and brand computer
Snooper was running on. Thanks.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 25
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
The computer's microprocessor chip. Snooper can report the presence
of: 8088/86, V20/V30, 80286, 80386SX, 80386DX, 80486SX, 80486DX, and
Pentium CPUs.
NOTE: If Snooper reports "80386," it means your 80386SX or 80386DX
CPU is in virtual-86 mode (explained below). Some operating
environments and expanded memory managers (e.g. EMM386) would report
an error when Snooper tries to determine which of the two chips is
present. Instead, Snooper automatically skips the determination and
shows you have one of the two chips. If you unload the program that
puts your CPU into virtual-86 mode, Snooper will then tell you which
CPU you have.
CPU speed
The number after the hyphen (e.g., the "16" in "80386SX-16") is an
estimate of your computer's speed in Megahertz. This benchmark is
very accurate, especially since it doesn't induce a noticeable delay.
Virtual-86 mode
If "V86" appears in the CPU report, your computer's CPU is operating
in virtual-86 mode, as opposed to real mode (what DOS normally uses).
The 80286 and newer microprocessors implement a protected mode, which
is sometimes used by memory managers, multitasking software
(including Microsoft Windows), and other software. Multitaskers which
put the CPU in protected mode actually run the programs in virtual-86
mode, which lets each running program believe it has total access to
the machine, when actually the multitasker is controlling their
access.
Numeric Data Processor (NDP)
The Numeric Data Processor (NDP), also called the math coprocessor,
or Floating Point Unit (FPU). Math coprocessors significantly speed
up calculations involving floating point numbers (that is, numbers
with decimal portions). Snooper can detect 8087, 80287, 80387SX,
80387, and Weitek 1167 math chips. Snooper will report "built-in" for
80486DX CPUs, since they have math coprocessors built into them.
Some computers have a switch inside which the user sets to reflect
the presence (or absence) of a math coprocessor. Because these
switches are often set incorrectly, Snooper's report is not dependent
on this switch setting. But Snooper does check the switch. If Snooper
finds that its coprocessor report and the switch setting don't agree,
it displays a check mark in the "NDP" report. This lets you know you
should check (and reset) the switch (or system configuration, if you
26 Snooper, the system checker
have an AT-class computer). If you don't see a check mark, the switch
or configuration is set properly.
Bus
The architecture of the bus your computer uses. The bus is the part
you plug expansion cards into--the slots. Most computers report
"ISA," which stands for Industry Standard Architecture, the bus in
PCs, XTs, ATs, and most clones.
Most IBM PS/2 computers will report "MCA," or Micro Channel
Architecture. The MCA is entirely different and cards based on it are
incompatible with those for the ISA standard, but MCA does add
features and increase performance in some cases.
But a consortium of companies worked out a different standard. It
is called "EISA," (pronounced EES uh) meaning Enhanced ISA. It
retains compatibility with the older ISA bus, but like the MCA, it
adds features and power. Snooper can detect all three bus types.
Memory
Conventional memory
Bytes of conventional RAM (the infamous 640K) in your computer.
NOTE: A few computers use more RAM than most for their video
displays, so Snooper may not report all the memory the computer has
(e.g., it may report 624K instead of 640K on some Tandys).
Free memory
Bytes of conventional RAM still available for programs and data. This
report allows you to see, for example, the effect of changing the
BUFFERS statement in your CONFIG.SYS file, and loading and unloading
memory resident programs.
Used memory
Bytes of conventional memory DOS and memory resident programs are
using (total minus free memory).
Extended memory
Extended memory is available only on AT-type machines; that is, those
with 80286 or newer microprocessors. (If you have an XT-type
computer, this report will always be blank.) Programs written to do
so can store data and programs in extended memory. This report shows
the total amount of extended memory installed, despite how you've
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 27
configured it. Even if a program is using it all, Snooper will still
show the total amount installed.
Snooper gets this report from the configuration information stored
inside every AT-type computer. This configuration is sometimes called
the CMOS (pronounced SEE moss). The letters in "CMOS" stand for the
material the configuration chip is made of. An AT-type computer
ensures every time it boots that the CMOS configuration accurately
reflects the current configuration.
Because of this procedure, the CMOS almost always has an accurate
notion of how much memory is installed. That is, if the battery that
helps store the information is operable. Snooper performs a checksum
calculation to ensure the CMOS is valid before it asks it how much
extended memory is installed. If the CMOS appears invalid, Snooper
indicates so by adding a question mark to the amount of extended
memory reported by the CMOS. In these cases, the extended memory
report may be suspect.
NOTE: Several IBM PS/2 386 models don't implement the checksum
calculation in the standard way, so Snooper may show "?" after the
extended memory report. The CMOS is probably fine; just ignore the
question mark.
Ext free
This report shows how much extended memory you still have available.
Snooper gets this report from the computer's BIOS. This memory is
only available to mostly older programs that don't use the eXtended
Memory Specification (see below).
XMS memory
As I mentioned above, programs written to do so can store data and/or
programs in extended memory. The trouble is, different programs
handle extended memory differently. This is because until the
eXtended Memory Specification (or "XMS"), there was no standard for
accessing extended memory, and the computer's built-in facilities are
crude at best. Some programs are polite enough to decrease the amount
of extended memory they report to other programs by the amount they
themselves are using. Some aren't so polite, leaving themselves open
to having their memory overwritten by another program. As you might
imagine, this leads to problems.
If you have loaded an eXtended Memory Manager, or XMM (e.g.,
Microsoft's HIMEM.SYS)--that is, if you have XMS memory, Snooper will
report how much is still available.
28 Snooper, the system checker
eXtended Memory Manager level
The number displayed after "XMS" is the version of the eXtended
Memory Specification the loaded XMM supports. This is not the same as
the internal version number of the XMM program itself. Different
versions support different features, so be sure you have an XMM that
supports the program you want to run.
High Memory Area (HMA)
The high memory area is the 64K (less 16 bytes) block beginning at
the one megabyte boundary, immediately above the ROM BIOS. It, like
all types of extended memory, can only be used on AT-type computers,
and only by programs written for it. This report shows if a HMA
exists (you must have an XMM loaded to provide it), and if it is
available for use ("free") or is in use by a program ("in use").
A20 Line Status
Shown after "HMA," this report shows if the address line called A20
is enabled. Snooper shows "(A20)" is the A20 is enabled, nothing if
it's not. Usually, the A20 is handled automatically by memory
management software. At times, you may need to know the A20's status,
perhaps while debugging your memory setup.
Upper Memory Block (UMB)
With DOS 5 and some third party memory managers, you can load most of
your device drivers and memory resident programs above conventional
memory, into what are called upper memory blocks. Snooper reports the
largest available UMB. You must have the line "DOS=UMB" in your
CONFIG.SYS file for this report to work.
Enhanced Memory Specification total
The amount of enhanced memory (EMS) installed. Lotus, Intel, and
Microsoft developed EMS to break DOS's 640K memory barrier (kind of).
Some programs, which have been written to do so, can use EMS to store
data. Not surprisingly, many spreadsheet programs use EMS. Unlike
extended memory, EMS is available on XT as well as AT-class machines.
Enhanced Memory Manager level
Shown after "EMS," the version of Enhanced Memory Specification the
hardware and/or software is implementing. As of this writing, this
report probably should be either 3.2 or 4.0. Some programs require
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 29
EMS 4.0, which has enhanced capabilities. Like the XMM version, this
reflects the specification version, not the EMM program's version.
EMS memory free
The amount of EMS still available for programs and data.
Drives
Floppy
The number of floppy drives installed. Regardless of what some people
believe, 3.5" diskettes are floppy disks, not hard disks, despite
their hard plastic shells. Thus, they will be counted in this report.
Hard
The number of hard disks (also called fixed disks) installed. Each
physical hard disk adds one to the total, regardless of its
partitioning. That is, if you have one hard disk split into C: and D:
drives, it will still count as one hard disk.
Physical
Simply the sum of floppy and hard disks. These are physical drives
attached to your computer.
Logical
The total number of disk drives DOS recognizes. These include floppy,
hard, RAM, CD-ROM, and network drives. Simulated disk drives made
with the DOS ASSIGN and SUBST commands, all hard disk partitions, and
other types are also included. This report includes the drives
identified by the "physical drives" (above).
Sometimes software splits a hard disk into two or more
"partitions" (usually C: and D:), usually because the disk is bigger
than 32M, a limit imposed by DOS versions before 4.0. A hard disk
like this will count as two. If you have a single floppy disk drive,
the number given will not include drive B:, as it's redundant. But
every other available drive letter counts.
30 Snooper, the system checker
Video
Video Type
The type of video adapter, and, mostly for VGAs, either the adapter
brand or the type of monitor used. Snooper can detect:
Report Video card
MDA Monochrome Display Adapter, probably a text-only card (one
that doesn't provide any graphics capability)
Hercules Hercules Graphics Card (a monochrome card with graphics
capability) or a Hercules-compatible; Snooper can detect
Hercules Graphics, InColor, and Plus cards
CGA Color Graphics Adapter
EGA Enhanced Graphics Adapter
PGC Professional Graphics Controller
MCGA Multi-Color Graphics Array
VGA Video Graphics Array
SVGA VGA card with more than 256K
VGA adapter brand
Snooper also recognizes several VGA cards by brand as well as many
specific models.
VESA
A few years ago, several video hardware manufacturers formed the
Video Electronics Standards Association, or VESA (pronounced
"VEE suh" or "VEH suh"). Their purpose is to standardize the VGA
video marketplace, making recommendations for standardized
resolutions, frequencies, and so on. If the video report begins with
"VESA," your VGA card seems to comply with their recommendations.
Snooper also shows you the VESA version your card complies with.
Monitor type
Snooper can sometimes tell what type of monitor you are using. If
Snooper has room, it shows which of three kinds of monitor you have:
monochrome (usually displays green or amber), color (digital with
EGAs or analog with VGAs or MCGAs), or digital color (for some
MCGAs).
Video memory
On EGA and some VGA cards, Snooper reports how much video memory is
installed on the card. EGAs can have 64K to 256K; VGA cards, 256K to
2M and beyond. The amount of video memory, the video card itself, and
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 31
the monitor together determine the maximum resolution and colors you
can see on your computer.
NOTE: There is no correlation between your video card's memory and
your computer's memory, or RAM. You can have, for example, a 256K
machine with a 2M VGA card, or a 4M machine with a 64K EGA card, or
many other combinations.
Ports
Serial ports
The addresses of all RS-232 ports installed. Usually, you would use
these ports for modems, pointing devices (such as mice), some
printers, plotters, and a variety of less common equipment.
More-advanced serial port information is available in the Advanced
Diagnostics screen, accessible via <Alt-D>.
Parallel ports
The addresses of all parallel ports (also called printer ports)
installed. Parallel ports are almost always used for printers,
occasionally for scanners or network adapters. More-advanced parallel
port information is available in the Advanced Diagnostics screen,
accessible via <Alt-D>.
NOTE: Novell networks trick software (including Snooper) into
thinking there are more parallel ports than are actually present. If
your system is part of a Novell LAN, don't be surprised to see three
or more parallel ports, some with the same address. To find out how
many parallel ports there really are, take your machine off the
network and rerun Snooper.
Game port
The presence of a game port, or joystick adapter. The word "Game"
will appear next to "Ports" if Snooper detects a joystick. On AT and
later computers, Snooper uses a BIOS function call to try to
determine if a joystick is present. This method seems to work well,
but may not be a perfect method. Also, a joystick actually has to be
plugged into the port for the report to work. On PCs and XTs, Snooper
uses a different method, which also may be imperfect.
32 Snooper, the system checker
Sound cards
The presence of Sound Blaster, Adlib, or Roland MPU-401 MIDI sound
cards, or their compatibles, such as the Thunder Board. The Advanced
Diagnostics screen will show the port address of some sound cards.
Press <Alt-D> for this screen.
ROM BIOS
Brand
The brand (i.e., manufacturer) of the computer's ROM BIOS. Usually,
Snooper will recognize several BIOS brands: American Megatrends, Inc.
("AMI"); Award; Chips and Technology ("C & T"), Compaq; DTK; IBM;
Phoenix; and Zenith.
How well the BIOS was written has much to do with how compatible
your computer is. A poorly-written BIOS plagues its owner with
compatibility problems: programs won't run or they lock up the
computer, new hardware refuses to install properly, etc. A
well-written BIOS is, of course, a joy to behold.
Date
The date stored in the ROM BIOS, which provides an indication of your
computer's age. The computer was built since that date.
Extensions
The segment addresses (places in memory) of any BIOS extensions in
the computer. These extensions, which supplement the computer's
built-in BIOS, are usually found on add-in cards. An EGA or VGA BIOS,
for example, adds routines not found in the computer's own BIOS video
routines, and are often found at C000. An XT's hard drive BIOS is
usually found at C800.
Mouse
Brand and driver version
Shows what brand of mouse is installed (Microsoft, Logitech, Z-NIX,
and Mouse Systems), and the driver version.
A mouse usually requires a software-based driver (program). Its
file is usually called MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS. If a driver is loaded,
Snooper will report its version. This report is useful for debugging,
because if you're having trouble with your mouse, you may find that a
new driver solves the problem. Drivers are often available free or at
low cost from the mouse vendor.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 33
Some drivers, such as Genius and Logitech, report a
Microsoft-equivalent version rather than their own internal version.
Snooper can detect a Logitech mouse driver's true version.
Port
Possible reports are: "bus" (the mouse connects to an expansion card
inside the computer), "Microsoft Inport" (a Microsoft-brand bus
mouse), "serial . . ." (the mouse plugs into a serial port), "Hewlett
Packard," and "PS/2."
If you have a serial mouse, Snooper tries to guess which serial
port it is connected to by knowing what resources the mouse is using.
If it isn't using IRQ4 (COM1 or COM 3) or IRQ3 (COM2 or COM4),
Snooper displays which IRQ it is using. This may assist in
troubleshooting. The Advanced Diagnostics screen shows which IRQ the
mouse is using, and if it's a serial mouse, it can usually tell
exactly which port.
Keyboard
Support
Reports what type of keyboard your computer's BIOS supports. If "101"
appears after the keyboard type, your computer's ROM BIOS supports an
enhanced keyboard, with function keys along the top and a separate
cursor keypad. It will recognize the keys an enhanced keyboard adds
to the standard (XT) keyboard, such as F11, F12 and certain cursor
key combinations.
Present
Reports what kind of keyboard you have attached to your machine.
Possible answers are "84," "101," or, if your computer only supports
84-key keyboards, "N/A" (if your computer doesn't support enhanced
keyboards, Snooper can't test for one).
Environment
The "environment" is an area of memory in which DOS keeps certain
information it needs to run. Some of the information the environment
includes is the format of the DOS prompt and the series of
directories DOS searches for executable files. These are the PROMPT
and PATH strings, and there are others. A string consists of the
variable name (such as PATH), an equal sign, and the value of the
34 Snooper, the system checker
string (often a path or list of paths such as C:\UTILS;C:\DOS;C:\).
This sample PATH string looks like this:
path=c:\utils;c:\dos;c:\
You can view and edit the environment with the SET command. Because
of the way 4DOS and NDOS allocate memory for the environment in their
non-swapping modes, the environment reports will be inaccurate when
Snooper is run under those environments.
Free
The number of bytes available in the environment. To calculate this
report, for each string, Snooper counts each character of the
variable name (such as "PATH"), the equal sign, each character of the
value (such as "C:\DOS;C:\"), and one extra character.
Total
The number of bytes of environment space allocated by DOS. You can
change the amount of memory DOS allocates to the environment with the
/E switch of the SHELL command in your CONFIG.SYS file. Different DOS
versions use different memory units for the extra environment space.
Check your DOS manual.
DOS
Brand and version
Snooper can detect: PC-DOS (from IBM), MS-DOS (from Microsoft,
Phoenix, and others), DR DOS (from Digital Research), HP-DOS (from
Hewlett Packard), DEC-DOS (from Digital Equipment Corp.), or Zen-DOS
(no, not Eastern mysticism, just DOS from Zenith). Snooper will also
report if it is running under OS/2 1.x or 2.x. The DOS version
appears after the brand. A letter appears after the version on system
running DOS 5.0 or newer. This is the DOS revision.
NOTE: There is a bug in DOS versions 4.01 and 4.02 that make them
report 4.00 instead. Snooper reminds you of this by showing "4.0x" if
you have one of these DOS versions. Use the DOS command VER to see if
you have 4.00, 4.01, or 4.02.
DOS 5.0 can load most of itself into the HMA, freeing the
conventional memory it would normally use. If "HMA" appears after the
DOS type, DOS is loaded there. If "ROM" appears, DOS is stored in the
computer's ROM, as with some laptops.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 35
Shell
A DOS shell is a program that either provides features DOS doesn't,
or makes DOS easier to use. Snooper can report the presence of:
Windows Real, Standard, or 386 Enhanced modes; Concurrent DOS;
DoubleDOS; 4DOS and NDOS (only in swapping mode); Desqview; Taskview;
Topview, DOS 5's task switcher, the Virtual Control Program Interface
(VCPI), the DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI), and ANSI.SYS. It can
often report the DOS shell's version number as well. If Snooper
detects Desqview, it uses the BIOS to write to the screen.
Files
Number of files DOS will allow to be open at once, as defined by the
line "FILES=" in your CONFIG.SYS file. DOS always reserves some files
for itself. Usually, your computing activity will require several
files to be used at once, especially if you use a multitasking
environment or a database. Most software vendors recommend you make
at least twenty files available, requiring the line "FILES=20" to be
in your CONFIG.SYS file. A few programs, notably Windows, may
increase this number, so don't be surprised if the number is higher
in Windows than in DOS.
Buffers
Number of buffers DOS uses for disk operations, as defined by the
line "BUFFERS=" in the CONFIG.SYS file. When your computer requests
data from a disk, DOS transfers the data from the disk into RAM,
where the program can access it. Subsequent requests for the same
data are read from RAM, not from the disk. The reason is simple: RAM
is fast, the disk is comparatively slow, so disk operations are sped
up. Snooper detects the number of primary and secondary buffers.
Consult your DOS manual for more details.
Break
Break status (on or off). Pressing Ctrl-Break can force your computer
to stop what it's doing in an emergency. Normally, DOS only checks
for a Ctrl-Break keystroke when it's writing to the screen. However,
if break is on, DOS checks more often.
Verify
Disk verify status (on or off). If verify is on, DOS uses a checksum
method to confirm (in theory) what it writes to a disk is valid. Of
course, when verify is on, disk operations are a bit slower.
36 Snooper, the system checker
Network
A network is a combination of hardware and software that enables
users to share peripherals and data. Snooper can detect several
networks: Novell, LANtastic, Microsoft, Invisible, PC LAN, Easy-Net,
and SHARE.EXE. Sometimes this report only tells you the computer has
a LAN card, not that a network is up and running. On Novell networks,
Snooper shows the shell version. On LANtastic, the network operating
system version.
Disk Information
Drive list
Snooper reports the letters of all valid disk drives in the upper
right corner of Snooper's display, enclosed in brackets. The current
drive's letter is highlighted and capitalized. If you have a
single-floppy system, the list will not include drive B:, as it's
redundant. If your system has at least 20 logical drives, Snooper
will list them in two rows.
Label
The volume label of the current drive.
NOTE: The next reports (BIOS Type through Cylinders) concern the disk
drive, not the diskette in it. For example, if you have a 1.2M floppy
disk drive and you have a double density (360K) diskette--or no
diskette at all--in the drive, Snooper will report 15 sectors per
cylinder. That's because high density drives can handle disks with 15
sectors per cylinder, even though 360K disks only have nine. The
report works this way so you can tell if the drive is high density
without needing a diskette to be in it. You can determine the total
capacity of a diskette from the total space report.
Drive type
Reports what type of disk drive you're examining. Snooper usually
bases this report on a BIOS report for the drive, but it also uses
other methods. Snooper can detect the following capacities for 5.25"
drives: 1.2M, 360K, 320K, 180K, and 160K. For 3.5" drives, it can
detect: 2.88M, 1.44M, and 720K drives. Other possibilities are: fixed
disk (probably a hard disk), CD-ROM (if it's local), RAM disk,
Bernoulli, or ID: nnh (meaning Snooper doesn't recognize the disk
type and shows the actual disk type byte instead).
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 37
CMOS type
Snooper queries the CMOS to find out what hard drive type (expressed
as a number), or what size and capacity floppy drive is installed.
Printing a log file of each drive is a good safety measure in case
your CMOS needs to be reset with the correct drive types.
IDE model
On most IDE hard drives, Snooper can report the model simply by
asking the drive. Recall that Snooper skips detection of the IDE
model under Windows 386 Enhanced mode. Sometimes you can clearly see
the actual model, sometimes the brand, occasionally gibberish. It
depends on what the manufacturer thought best to include.
Status
Shows if the disk is being compressed by Stacker, the disk
compressor, and if so, its version. Other reports are: local,
network, or SUBST or JOIN, if those DOS commands are being used.
Heads
The number of heads a disk drive has. This number is often the same
as the number of sides the disk has. Most floppy drives will report
two; hard drives usually report several.
Sectors/cylinder
The number of sectors per cylinder the disk drive can use. Sectors
are "pie slices" of the disk. Cylinders are concentric rings of the
disk. Normally, floppy drives report 9, 15, 18, or 36; hard drives,
17, 26, or 34.
Cylinders
The number of cylinders on a disk drive. Remember, cylinders are
concentric rings on the disk. Typically, floppy drives report 40 or
80; hard drives, a few hundred to several hundred.
NOTE: Original PCs and some XTs can't report heads, sectors/cylinder,
and cylinders. Neither can simulated disk drives (that is, logical
but not physical drives, such as RAM drives). If they can't, Snooper
will usually leave the appropriate areas blank.
38 Snooper, the system checker
For the following disk information, if the drive has no disk, if the
disk is defective or unformatted, or the drive door isn't closed,
Snooper will report "drive not ready."
Sector size
The number of bytes stored in each sector. This number is usually
512, although some big hard disks may show higher numbers.
Cluster size
The number of bytes in each cluster. Recent DOS versions have begun
to call them "allocation units." A cluster is the smallest amount of
disk space a file can occupy. Thus, even if the DIR command reports a
file is only 35 bytes long, if the cluster size of the disk is 2048
bytes, that file will take 2048 bytes of disk space. A floppy disk
may report 1024, an XT's hard disk will usually report 8192, an AT's
hard disk often reports 2048.
Total space
The capacity of the disk in bytes. This includes all bytes, even if
the FORMAT program has marked some areas unusable.
Free space
The number of bytes still available for use.
Used space (bytes)
The number of bytes in use by files, subdirectories, and any areas
marked unusable. You can use this figure to compute how many floppy
disks you will need to back up your hard disk (floppy disks needed =
used space / floppy disk capacity + 1).
Used space (%)
The percentage of disk space being used. Even if there are no files
on a disk, this number may not be zero because of bad sectors or
empty subdirectories.
Used space (bar graph)
Provides an easily-understood way to see how much disk space is in
use. The solid-colored area toward the left represents used disk
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 39
space; the patterned area toward the right, free disk space. The used
space reports, especially the graph, are among Snooper's handiest
features and provide a quick way to see how much space is available
on a disk, and how soon you should hit up your boss for a bigger one.
40 Snooper, the system checker
ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS SCREEN
This screen, accessed via <Alt-D>, shows you details about your
computer's hardware status. If you have a multitasker or network
running, Snooper will pop up a warning and a prompt to continue
before letting you into this screen. The reason is these routines may
disrupt a network, and serial or parallel communications going on in
other tasks. For example, if you were transferring a file in one
window and Snooper is running in another and you tried to access the
AD screen, Snooper would likely disrupt your transfer--or even hang
up--forcing you to start over. And neither of us would want that.
Also, networks and multitaskers sometimes can interfere with
Snooper's ability to gather accurate information. Unload the network
or multitasker and you may view the Advanced Diagnostics screen
safely. In fact, this screen is most helpful and least disruptive
when you boot your computer from plain DOS--no TSRs, no network, no
nothing (a mouse driver is okay).
If you try the AD screen and your computer locks up, simply reboot
with minimum CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and it should work
fine.
The message box in the lower right corner of the screen shows you
what Snooper is checking. You may log this screen with <Alt-L>, the
logging key.
Serial ports
Address
Here Snooper ensures that an actual serial port exists by testing the
serial port chip (see UART, below). It doesn't just rely on a likely
port address; it makes sure the address points to a working port. If
fewer ports appear on this screen than on the main one, you may have
a faulty port.
UART
The Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter chip handles the
receiving and transmitting of data through the serial port. Snooper
detects which model is in each serial port in your computer (you may
have more than one kind). It detects the 8250 (found in most PCs),
16450 (found in many ATs), 16550 (found in early PS/2 models 50, 60,
and 80), 16550A (necessary for high-speed communications), and Type 3
(supports DMA, found in latter PS/2s and others).
The latter two chips add 16-byte first in, first out buffers
(FIFOs) to store characters being sent or received from the serial
port. These are necessary for high-speed communications at 9600
bits-per-second or faster. The 16550 had defective FIFOs, rendering
the buffers useless. The problem was corrected in the 16550A.
Internal modems provide their own serial ports, so if yours is
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 41
internal, Snooper will tell you what UART is supplied by the modem
itself.
Snooper displays an asterisk next to the UART if the FIFO buffers
are open, a condition which normally shouldn't occur.
Speed
Shows the speed at which the serial port has been initialized. This
speed is different from the speed of a modem that may be attached.
Format
Data bits: The number of bits (per byte) the port treats as a
character. It can be 5, 7, or 8, with 8 being the most common.
Transmitting 7 data bits means 7 of the 8 bits will be treated as a
character; the eighth is ignored or treated as a parity bit.
Parity: Parity provides a crude method of error-detection but is
largely ignored today. Virtually all BBSs use No parity. Other
reports are: Even, Odd, Mark, and Space.
Stop bits: The stop bit or bits are sent after each character.
NOTE: Although the values of the above parameters may not be
important, it is important that they be identical on both ends of the
telephone line (or serial printer cable).
IRQ
Snooper does a live test to determine what IRQ (see Interrupt Request
Lines, below) each serial port would use. These are not just the
default values, but the actual IRQs the port would use. If software
(e.g., a communications program) configured the port to respond with
an interrupt upon, for example, receipt of data, Snooper displays
just the IRQ number. If no interrupt would be triggered, Snooper
displays the IRQ number in parentheses. Occasionally, a port becomes
disassociated from its usual IRQ, and Snooper can't tell what IRQ
that port would use. In that case, Snooper leaves the IRQ report
blank.
Device
Modems and mice are two common peripherals attached to serial ports.
Snooper can usually detect the presence of Hayes-compatible modems
and fully Microsoft-compatible mice, and report which is connected to
each port. It can also show if both are connected to one port (two
ports sharing one address). Of course, if the modem is external, it
must be turned on for this report to work. A mouse driver must be
loaded.
42 Snooper, the system checker
Parallel ports
Address
The same as the addresses on Snooper's main screen.
IRQ
Snooper does a live test to determine what IRQ (see Interrupt Request
Lines, below) each parallel port would use. These are not just the
default values, but the actual IRQs the port would use. If software
(e.g., a print spooler) configured the port to respond with an
interrupt when the printer is ready, Snooper displays just the IRQ
number. If no interrupt would be triggered, Snooper displays the IRQ
number in parentheses.
Occasionally, a port becomes disassociated from its usual IRQ, and
Snooper can't tell what IRQ that port would use. In that case,
Snooper leaves the IRQ report blank. Unfortunately, many parallel
ports don't generate their interrupts correctly, so this report may
not work on your system.
NOTE: Your printer does not need to be on, nor does any printer need
to be attached at all for this feature to work.
Status
Snooper also indicates the status of the parallel ports. The error
conditions change with different printers, so little can be said
about what each line really indicates. Your printer is ready to print
when only the Selected report is active.
NOTE: To help you debug a printer problem quickly, the parallel port
status is constantly monitored, so if, for example, you turn on your
printer, the status indicators will change.
Network card address
Displays the port, or I/O, address of a Western Digital (or
compatible) network card, if found. Snooper searches from 280h to
3E0h.
Sound card address
Displays the sound card that appears on Snooper's main screen, and
also shows the port address to aid in diagnosing port conflicts.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 43
Interrupt Request (IRQ)
The right side of the AD screen shows which Interrupt Request lines
are active (indicated by the asterisks). The PC had 8 IRQ lines, the
AT has 15. These lines are used to get the microprocessor's attention
when a hardware device needs servicing, and several devices have
assigned IRQs. For example, COM1 can trigger IRQ4 when a character
enters the port. Snooper displays these default assignments, although
they may not coincide with your system's.
If a mouse driver is loaded, "Mouse" appears in the IRQ list,
indicating which IRQ your mouse is using. If your driver is new
enough, Snooper will also tell you if the driver is a TSR loaded in
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file ("MOUSE.COM"), or a device driver loaded in
your CONFIG.SYS file ("MOUSE.SYS").
Direct Memory Access (DMA)
Next to the IRQ report is the Direct Memory Access report. DMA
channels are used to transfer data without the aid of the CPU,
speeding transfers. The PC had 4 DMA channels, the AT has 7. Because
detection of the upper channels on the AT is inaccurate, Snooper only
shows the first 4 channels.
Snooper shows which DMA channels have been reserved by various
hardware devices (again, the asterisks indicate the active channels).
The Sound Blaster, for example, uses DMA channel one, so if you have
this card, and DMA use hasn't been disabled on the card, Snooper will
show channel one activity. What this report actually shows is each
channel that has been used since the machine was last turned on or
reset, not necessarily which are currently in use. Usually, this is
close enough.
44 Snooper, the system checker
BUS SCREEN
With the MicroChannel bus architecture comes the ability to detect
adapter cards by name. Snooper has the capability of detecting over
700 cards.
On its bus screen, Snooper will list slots zero through nine, and
identify what cards are in which slots. If you see a message like
"Unknown card, please contact author," please make a note of the
four-digit number, and the actual card installed (your Reference
Diskette will tell you), and let me know. Thanks!
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 45
NETWORK SCREEN
Press <Alt-N> when you're running Snooper on a Novell network (I hope
to add other network types), and the network screen will show you
over twenty reports about your network.
Network type
This will say "Novell" in this release.
Network address
The network address uniquely identifies the network (or part of one)
you're on. See your Novell documentation for details.
Node address
The node address uniquely identifies the workstation you're on.
ARCnet cards need to have their node addresses set at installation,
and no two network cards can share an address.
Socket
Users aren't typically aware of this low-level resource, but it can
come in handy in troubleshooting network installations.
User name
The name with which the user logged into the default server. Note you
can log onto different servers with different names.
Hardware
Network card
Shows what kind of network card is installed in your system if you
have an ODI driver loaded. You do not need to be logged into the
network. Snooper also shows what hardware resources the network card
is using: memory, IRQ, ports, and DMA.
46 Snooper, the system checker
Software
These reports show version numbers, levels, and interrupts in use by
drivers and other network software.
Server
Default
The name of the default server.
Connection
The connection number the workstation is using to connect to the
default server.
Connections
These reports show the maximum connections (users) allowed on the
default server, the number of users currently on, and the most users
connected at one time since the server was last booted.
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 47
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MYSELF
I'm sometimes interested in the people who write the software I use
so I'll take the liberty of assuming some of you want to know a
little more about me. I'll keep it short.
I'm originally from Evanston, Illinois (suburban Chicago) but have
lived most of my life in Florida. At the University of Florida, I
earned a degree in English, a fact I hope is reflected in this
manual. I now own a computer services, graphic arts, and technical
writing business called Vias and Associates (pretty catchy, huh?).
Some day, Real Soon Now, I expect to move to the West Coast to write
about computers, combining my favorite hobbies.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT SNOOPER'S CREATION
I worked on Snooper for hundreds of hours when I probably should have
been sleeping. I began developing Snooper in February 1987 on an 8
MHz AT compatible, then moved on to a 386SX compatible (yuck!). I
tested it along the way on dozens of machines. I originally wrote
Snooper in Turbo Pascal version 3.01A, and have since expanded it
under every version through 6.0. Its source code as of this writing
consists of over 9600 lines of Pascal, including some BASM-compatible
assembler.
48 Snooper, the system checker
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Snooper was not created in a vacuum, of course, although my head has
been likened to one. Here are a few sources of information I used,
and for which I am very grateful. I apologize to those I forgot to
mention. Without them, Snooper would be only . . . well, I hate to
think about it.
PC Magazine (by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company)
An invaluable source of information about the IBM PC family. A
great deal about what I now know about PCs I learned from its
pages. It has helped me become a much better programmer.
Turbo Pascal 6.0: Techniques and Utilities (by Neil J. Rubenking:
Ziff-Davis Press, 1991)
With the help of this book, Snooper's code grows better and
better. I have learned how to write more efficient code by
following Mr. Rubenking's advice and I highly recommend this book
for anyone who wants to write Turbo Pascal programs.
Advanced MS-DOS Programming (by Ray Duncan: MS Press, sec. ed., 1989)
Written by one of PC Magazine's stable of PC wizards, this book
was my main source for documented BIOS and DOS calls.
Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC (by Peter Norton: MS Press, 1985)
The Programmer's Guide was my chosen reference in Snooper's early
years. Eventually, I turned to more up-to-date works, but Mr.
Norton's book did help a lot in the beginning.
Ralf Brown (INTERvvx.ZIP)
(The "vv" is the volume of release and the "x" is "A," "B," or
"C." Ralf now distributes the list in three files.) An enormous
list of DOS, BIOS, and program-specific interrupt calls, many
otherwise undocumented. Quite simply, some of Snooper's reports
wouldn't exist without it. Very useful in that it reports bugs and
incompatibilities books rarely mention. And it's free! Be sure to
check out the book Undocumented DOS, co-written by Ralf.
Andrew Rossman (InfoPlus)
Mr. Rossman maintains a multi-page system information utility.
From it I got snippets of code as well as programming techniques.
John Fox (EDIT2.PAS)
Mr. Fox wrote the freeware editor whose source code Snooper uses
in its internal editor. Thanks, John!
Vernon E. Davis, Jr. (TPXMS101.ZIP)
Author of a Turbo Pascal pre-6.0 unit for using an eXtended Memory
Manager (e.g., HIMEM.SYS).
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 49
Yuval Tal (TP6XMS.ZIP)
Author of a Turbo Pascal 6.0 unit for using an XMM.
Kenneth Morse
He downloaded Snooper from Compuserve, read my wish list, and via
E-mail, helped me figure out how to detect joysticks and RAM
disks. Thanks, Kenneth.
Greg Barton (sysop, ACCUG BBS)
Special thanks to Greg Barton, who kindly set up a Snooper
conference on his BBS, and on short notice.
Greg Wrey (sysop, Timeslice BBS)
Thanks to Greg Wrey, who beta-tested Snooper on his systems many
times.
My friends (by their parents)
Those with more patience than I deserved who helped me debug
Snooper. They ran it on their machines and told me what happened
right before it crashed.
My Registered Users
Without the encouragement and support of Snooper's registered
users and site licensees, I would have given up in disgust and
moved to a tiny cottage in the hills, forever writing programs for
my own amusement. Hmm. . . .
50 Snooper, the system checker
INDEX
(AD indicates reports on
the Advanced Diagnostics screen)
A20 Line Status 29
Acknowledgements 49
Address, network card 43
Address, parallel port 43
Address, serial port 41
Address, sound card 43
Advanced Diagnostics key 19
Advanced Diagnostics screen 41
Association of Shareware Professionals 2
AUTOEXEC.BAT, editing 21
AUTOEXEC.BAT, logging 22
Black-and-white mode switch (B) 14
Brand, ROM BIOS 33
Break, DOS 36
Buffers, DOS 36
Bugs 24
Bus 27
Bus key 20
Bus screen 45
Central Processing Unit (CPU) 26
Chip detection bypass switches (C, M) 15
Clipboard, log to 22
Cluster size 39
CMOS drive type 38
Computer 25
CONFIG.SYS, editing 21
CONFIG.SYS, logging 22
Configuration file (Sfilename]) 15
Configuring Snooper 22
Connection 47
Connections 47
Conventional memory 27
Copyright 10
CPU speed 26
Cylinders 38
Data bits 42
Date, ROM BIOS 33
Default 47
Desqview mode switch (D) 14
Device, serial port 42
Direct Memory Access (DMA) 44
Disk drive argument (D:) 15
Disk information 37
Disk label 37
DMA 44
DOS 35
DOS brand 35
DOS break 36
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 51
DOS buffers 36
DOS files 36
DOS installation 9
DOS revision 35
DOS shell 36
DOS verify 36
DOS version 35
Drive letter keys 20
Drive list 37
Drive status 38
Drive type 37
Drives 30
Drives, floppy 30
Drives, hard 30
Drives, logical 30
Drives, physical 30
Edit CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT keys 21
Edit SNOOPER.LOG key 21
Editing AUTOEXEC.BAT 21
Editing CONFIG.SYS 21
Editor conventions 21
EMM level 29
EMS memory free 30
EMS total 29
Enhanced Memory Manager level 29
Enhanced Memory Specification total 29
Environment 34
Environment free 35
Environment total 35
Environment variable 16
Errorlevel 23
Examples 17
Exit key 19
Ext free 28
Extended memory 27
EXtended Memory Manager level 29
Extensions, ROM BIOS 33
File-editing 20
Files on this disk 8
Files, DOS 36
Floppy 30
Format, serial port 42
Free memory 27
Free space 39
Free, environment 35
Game port 32
Hard 30
Hardware, network card 46
Heads 38
Help key 19
Help switches (H|?) 14
High Memory Area (HMA) 29
52 Snooper, the system checker
IDE drive model 38
Installation 9
Interrupt Request (IRQ) 44
IRQ 44
IRQ, parallel port 43
IRQ, serial port 42
Keyboard 34
Keyboard present 34
Keyboard support 34
Keystrokes 19
Known bugs and anomalies 24
Label, disk 37
Legalities 10
Liability 10
License 11
Little bit about myself 48
Little bit about Snooper's creation 48
Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT key 22
Log CONFIG.SYS/AUTOEXEC.BAT switch (F) 17
Log key 21
Log to clipboard key 22
Log to printer key 22
Logging switch (L[filename]) 16
Logical 30
Memory 27
Memory, A20 line status 29
Memory, conventional 27
Memory, EMS free 30
Memory, extended 27
Memory, extended free 28
Memory, free 27
Memory, HMA 29
Memory, UMB 29
Memory, used 27
Memory, video 31
Memory, XMS 28
Monitor type 31
Mouse 33
Mouse brand, driver version 33
Mouse port 34
Network 37
Network address 46
Network card 46
Network card address 43
Network key 20
Network screen 46
Network type 46
Node address 46
Non-interactive mode switch (N) 14
Numeric Data Processor (NDP) 26
OK, how do I register? 13
Operation 18
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 53
Parallel port IRQ 43
Parallel ports 32
Parallel ports, AD 43
Parity 42
Philosophy behind Snooper 10
Physical 30
Port, game 32
Port, mouse 34
Ports 32
Ports, parallel 32
Ports, serial 32
Present, keyboard 34
Quiet mode switch (Q) 14
Registration 12
Registration key 19
Reports 25
Requirements 8
ROM BIOS 33
ROM BIOS brand 33
ROM BIOS date 33
ROM BIOS extensions 33
Sector size 39
Sectors/cylinder 38
Sequence keys 20
Serial port IRQ 42
Serial ports 32
Serial ports, AD 41
Server 47
Setup key 22
Shell, DOS 36
Socket 46
Software, network 47
Sound card address 43
Sound cards 33
Speed, serial port 42
Status, drive 38
Status, parallel port 43
Stop bits 42
Support, keyboard 34
Syntax 13
Total space 39
Total, environment 35
UART 41
Upgrading from previous version 10
Upper Memory Block (UMB) 29
Used memory 27
Used space (%) 39
Used space (bar graph) 39
Used space (bytes) 39
User name 46
Verify, DOS 36
VESA 31
54 Snooper, the system checker
VGA adapter brand 31
Vias & Associates 2
Video 31
Video memory 31
Video type 31
Virtual-86 mode 26
Warranty 10
What do I get for registering? 12
What is shareware? 12
What is Snooper? 7
Who needs Snooper? 7
Windows installation 9
Windows Operation 18
Wish list 25
XMM level 29
XMS memory 28
Copyright 1989-1993 John Vias 55