OS/2 Shareware BBS: 36 Tips/36-Tips.zip/os2_sfax.zip/os2&sfax.txt

Text File | 1995-04-04 | 6KB | 111 lines

This applies to OS/2 versions 2.1, 2.11 and Warp.  It may also apply to
future versions.  Following are instructions for enabling the SatisFAXtion
400i board in OS/2 by using just the DOS drivers and programs.  These
instructions may work with other SatisFAXtion boards, but I cannot attest to
that personally.

CAVEAT:  No assurances or warranties (implied or otherwise) are made about
how well any of this will work for you.  As with anything like this, test
it first to be sure it doesn't mess something else up.  This compiles my own
and other users' experiences (and I make no claims to originality).  I'm
just making this available in case others might benefit.  That said . . .

To enable the satisfax.sys driver for all modem and fax operations during
each cold boot:

     1. Drag a Program Template to the Desktop
     2. Under Path & File Name, place only a *
     3. Under Parameters: /C EXIT
     4. On Session settings page: DOS Window, Close Window on exit
     5. In DOS settings, under DOS_DEVICE enter the following:
          [d]:FAX\SATISFAX.SYS IOADDR=0350
     6. Save your settings.
     7. On the General settings page, name the object.  Then close.
     8. Put the object or a shadow of it in your startup folder to invoke
          it automatically with each reboot.  You can also have a shadow of
          it on your Warp Launchpad to click in case you don't put it in
          the startup folder.

If you have FaxWorks Pro (the "lite" version included in Warp doesn't
support the SFax but the full version does), it has a driver that enables
any comm app to access the 400i (OS/2, DOS or Win):  Just load it, and the
driver stays in memory, even when FaxWorks is closed.  If you use it, don't
use SATISFAX.SYS at all.  To use FaxWorks with the SFax, though, you have to
copy the download.* and loader.* files included in the software that came
with your board into the FaxWorks directory. (The *.400 versions are for
SFaxes with scanner ports.  The *.402 versions are for the SFaxes withOUT
those ports.)

If you do not have an OS/2 application that handles faxes and enables the
SFax board, you can still send and receive faxes from DOS/Windows.  To fax
from (and receive in) DOS/Windows with whatever SatisFAXtion-compatible
software you have, place the TSRs in the autoexec.bat file you use for the
software (mine was named autofax.bat).  Open the object's settings notebook,
flip to the Session page and click on DOS Settings.  Then select DOS_AUTOEXEC
from the menu and change the file name to whatever path and name you are
using for the autoexec file that has your fax drivers (in OS/2, you can use
any file as an autoexec file for your DOS sessions, so long as it has a .bat
extension).  Change other DOS settings as appropriate.

For example, before I got FaxWorks Pro (no substitute for it as fax
software in my book), I had put the following lines in my autofax.bat file:

     [d]:\FAX\CASMGR.EXE [d]:\FAX\CASMGR.CFG
     [d]:\FAX\FAXTSR.EXE
     [d]:\FAX\FAXPOP.EXE

Modify those lines as appropriate to identify the drive and path where your
fax software is.  Also, if you use an application like WordPerfect for DOS
6.0 that has its own driver, you need to configure an autoexec file for that
application.

Following is additional advice concerning release of the COM port when you
have 2 or more DOS/Win communications applications (comm apps) opened:

For reasons that I can't explain, IBM has designed OS/2 so that when one
DOS/Win comm app has access to the COM port, others can't use it and you
must close the first app, even if the first app is not using the port when
you want to open and use a second.  (The only DOS app I know of that doesn't
keep control of the port is OzCIS.)  That is not particularly satisfactory.
But there is a solution that allows you to keep all those apps open, and it
works very nicely:

If you don't already have them, get the SIO drivers by Ray Gwinn (shareware,
so pay him please).  They are excellent, and there is a utility included
(SU.EXE) that can be invoked to cause a DOS/Win app to release the COM port
to another app for use by the other app.  SU can be invoked from an OS/2 or
DOS command line.  The command is

     SU x CLOSE

where x is the number of your COM port.

I put that line in each autoexec file that has a DOS/Win comm app so that it
will be able to access the COM port.  I also have an OS/2 object (using a
program template, naming [d]:\SIO\SU.EXE as the program and then adding
x CLOSE as the parameter), it runs minimized and closes as soon as that
command has been run.  That way, if I want to use a comm app and receive the
message that the COM port is in use, I can click on that object and release
the port.

Realize, however, that SU.EXE appears to work only on DOS/Win apps, not OS/2
apps (which should have built-in mechanisms to release the port to other
comm apps).  Ray Gwinn's drivers are found in many Compuserve forums and on
many local BBSes.  You will find them as SIO14x.ZIP on the OS2USER forum on
Compuserve at the date this is written.

I'll be glad to help you if you have any questions on this.  I generally
frequent the OS2USER forum, so post a message to me there or at the email
address below.  Since I'm only an OS2 user like most of you, don't expect a
lot of knowledge about the SFax.  Ward Yelverton and others who frequent the
Pure Data Section of the PCVENF forum on Compuserve will be better able to
help with questions about the board itself.

Enjoy,

David Eckman, 75430,[e-mail]
April 4, 1995