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Professional Soft Collection 1.02
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Professional Soft Collection 1.02.iso
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serial.txt
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1989-10-23
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x1k1
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ The Norton Commander, V3.0 │
│ Commander Link and Mail │
│ Trouble-Shooting Suggestions │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘
If you are having problems with either the Link or the MCI Mail
portion of the Norton Commander, the problems may be due to the
configuration of your serial communications adapter. These problems
could manifest themselves in one of the following ways:
Link:
Inability to establish connection to other computer: Verify that
the connection is to the correct serial port, and is connected through a
null-modem cable.
Extremely high resend rate: try reducing the line noise (described
below), or try switching out of "Turbo" mode. (See "Turbo-mode Notes"
below).
The error message "The COM# port is not available.": the serial
port is not responding. Try using the other setting (COM2: vs COM1:).
You may have a serial port in your computer that has been deactivated
(perhaps for an internal modem that was later removed), so you may wish
to try using a different port.
Mail:
"Modem did not respond": This is generated when an invalid
serial port was chosen. Using a valid serial port with no
modem attached leads to a "Session Complete" message instead. Try
configuring the program for a different port.
******************************************
* Diagnosing the serial port *
******************************************
The easiest way to determine if the serial port is responding
properly is to try using it. If it works, it works. To help with
this, we have included a program called Ser-Test.EXE. We suggest you
not use it unless necessary because it will reset all of your
serial ports, messing up whatever mouse drivers are present. This
program will tell you how many serial ports your computer thinks it
has, their allocated addresses, and if they are responding. It also
makes a stab at determining where there are active modems, but due to
the many different ways modems can be set up and the other types of
serial equipment out there, this is not to be considered definative.
This program will NOT tell you whether the IRQs are properly matched
to the COM numbers.
If you have a diagnostics disk for your PC or AT, and if you have
problems using or accessing the serial ports, you should run the
diagnostics. (Alternatively, you may see one of the following messages at
boot-up, but this is unlikely since serial ports are counted at boot-up,
rather than before in hardware the way video and disk drives are). The
error messages to look for span from 1100 to 1157 for COM1: and from 1200
to 1257 for COM2:. They include:
XX00: Everything seems to be O.K.
XX01: Adapter failure
XX42: Problem with IRQ4
XX43: Problem with IRQ3
There are many other messages, but these are the most likely
serial-port specific errors you may run into. Other error messages, such
as XX11 and XX14, may occur if you have a modem attached (those are "Ring
Detect" and "Data Signal Ready".)
If you run into any other error numbers, either look them up in a
Technical Reference Manual or ask your service person- there may be a
problem with some other area of your system.
If you receive either a 4800 or a 4801 (or 4900/4901), you have an IBM
modem. The 4801 would indicate that this modem is in fact not working
properly, which is a moot point at best. Most programs, including the
Commander, are preconfigured to work only with Hayes compatible modems (of
which this is not one), so we suggest you purchase a new modem if you wish
to use the MCI Mail portion of the program. (480X would be on COM1:,
490X would be on COM2:)
****************************************************
* Non-serial-port problems with MCI Mail: *
****************************************************
"Session Complete" before anything has been done: the modem
setting may be too fast for the modem: i.e. you may have configured the
program to send characters at 2400 baud to a 1200 buad modem. Also,
modem may not be properly attached to the computer, may not be turned on,
or simply may be misconfigured so as not to be recognized.
Dials and then "No Carrier or Busy.": the telephone line may
be busy, it may not have reset from the last call (if it was not
properly hung up), or the modem may not be properly attached to the
phone line. If all of these have been checked, try a different phone
number for MCI, and then go to the "minimizing noise" section of this
file.
If the problem with Mail is that the modem is not hanging up and you
are using a 2400 baud modem, you should add two commands to the modem
initialization string: &C1 &D2
*****************************************************
* Cable Specifications for the Commander Link: *
*****************************************************
If the problem is with Link, first make certain that you are
using the correct type of cable: a null-modem cable (3-wire, although
7-wire will work). Null-modem cables have pins two and three crossed,
and are straight pass-through for pin seven (DB-25 connector
numbers). Pins two and three are reversed on the nine-pin connectors,
and pin seven on the DB-25 is connected to pin five on the DB-9.
*****************************************************
* Turbo-Mode and Speed Notes (Commander Link): *
*****************************************************
The Turbo Mode refers to the speed that characters are sent. The
speed of reception is not affected. This is a different speed measurement
than that of the baud rate.
The baud rate refers to the speed that the serial port is run at.
This is the maximum speed that characters can be sent at. Non-Turbo mode
inserts an extra delay between characters to aid in the recognition of the
characters. If the characters are sent before the other computer is ready
for them, some of the data can be lost. This loss is recognized by our
error-checking, and the data is resent (the NAK'd and resent numbers on
the slave computer), but the resend rate rate speeds up the transfer rate.
When running a 386 to an 8086, if you receive many NAK'd errors (if
the 8086 is the slave), you should switch "Turbo" OFF on the 386 computer,
leaving Turbo ON on the 8086 computer. Doing this can increase the
transfer rate by a factor of two, if the error rate was around 10%!
Some computers, such as the IBM PS/2 386 models (70 and 80) can not
run the serial port at 115,200 baud. They must be run at 57K instead.
However, even at 57KB, one or both of the computers may need to be taken
out of Turbo mode.
NOTE: TURBO and NON-TURBO modes refer to the Link dialog box. They do NOT
refer to the speed of the computer on which they are running, such
as a Turbo-XT.
***********************************
* Serial Port Solutions: *
***********************************
The serial ports MUST be configured for COM1: on IRQ4, and
COM2: on IRQ3. Although some programs support COM3 and COM4 (which
should be configured on IRQ4 and IRQ3 respectively), we do not:
versions of DOS prior to 3.3 did not explicitly support these ports,
nor did the ROM-BIOS of computers prior to the PS/2 series.
Examine your AUTOEXEC.BAT file for "mode" commands and
printer drivers that are sending data to the serial ports (most
likely if you have an older LaserJet).
Check for mouse drivers. In general, mouse drivers will not
install themselves if a mouse was not found at boot-up, but some may.
The mouse driver will install itself if it saw the mouse. When the
mouse driver is installed, it expects control of the serial port, and
may cause some problems with our program if you plug the modem into
the same port the mouse was in. (This only applies to serial mice.
PS/2 and Bus mice do not share this problem.)
******************************
* Minimizing Noise: *
******************************
1) Use a shielded RS-232 cable (a round cable) instead of a
ribbon (flat) cable, either as your null-modem cable or to connect the
modem to your computer (not an issue with internal modems).
2) Keep the cables as far away from the monitor and power
supply as possible.
3) If line noise still persists, try turning off all other
electrical appliances (especially televisions and florescent lights)
to see if that eliminates the problem. If so, turn them back on a
few at a time until you find the offending units.
4) You may not be able to do anything about it: some
switching stations are noisier than others (the noise may come from
the phone company). Try calling numbers in different areas. If this
fails, it may be the line and station that your dwelling is routed
through.
5) As always, make certain that all connections are tightly
attached.