Computer Buyer 1997 January

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Dunce v. 2.4 (c) 1996 Vector Development URL.DLL is (c) 1996 Microsoft, Inc. ABOUT: Dunce (or Dial-Up Networking Connection Enhancement) allows for much easier dial-up networking than Win95 currently provides. The program will automatically press "connect" for you on the "Connect To" dialog box, redial your Internet Provider indefinitely (even from within another application), and auto-reconnect if you get unexpectedly dropped. Furthermore it can optionally run applications when you are connected and force connections at a given time. Supports MSN and international versions of Windows. Dunce will also type in your password in the Connect To Dialog. VECTOR DEVELOPMENT: Vector Development is committed to creating shareware solutions for you! Due to a split in the company we no longer make Macintosh products all current Macintosh products are now supported and maintained by Yin Yan Productions: http://www.cjnetworks.com/~machack/yinyan.html Please, send any comments about Vector Developmet to the addresses below and any comments about the Macintosh line to Yin Yan Productions. INSTALLATION: See the VENDINFO.DIZ file for "INSTALLATION" information UNINSTALLING: * Find the executible files of Dunce (dunce.exe) on your machine. * Double click on the Dunce executible until you see a dialog (1-2 double-clicks). * In the dialog go to the Misc tab. * Uncheck the AutoLoad Dunce on Startup * Click on the Apply Button. * Click on the Quit Button. * Now you can delete the files from your machine safely. * If you have difficulty removing files check if they are Read-only by: Clicking on the file and type Alt+Enter Unchecking the Read-only checkbox Cllicking on the OK button. LICENSE: You may use Dunce freely on your computer system. You may distribute Dunce freely on Online Services. You may NOT sell copies of Dunce (i.e. disk vendors) without express permission from Vector Development (terms normally include a copy of the distribution disk/cd). You may NOT decompile, reverse engineer, or modify Dunce or its resources. You may NOT modify the dunce2.4.zip (sometimes dunce2_4.zip) file or its contents. You may only distribute this file under the following file names: dunce2.4.zip dunce2_4.zip dunce.zip dunce.zip may only be used for systems that cannot handle the version number, i.e. ZDNet or Compuserve. If you acquired Dunce from one of these systems and intend to distribute it to another system that can take the version number on the end you must add it. You may NOT distribute any files contained in this package seperately from the other contents of this package. WARRANTY: USE OF THIS PROGRAM IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU AGREE BY USING THIS PROGRAM TO HOLD HARMLESS VECTOR DEVELOPMENT OR ITS SUPPLIERS AGAINST DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM. EVEN IF VECTOR DEVELOPMENT OR ITS SUPPLIERS WAS NOTIFIED IN ADVANCE THAT SUCH DAMAGES MIGHT OCCUR. DONATIONS: With this release we are no longer accepting donations. See the "Gold.doc" file for more deails. USING DUNCE: How do I use Dunce? Well this question is easy to answer. You just install it and then you use Dial-Up Networking the way you did before. Dunce does *NOT* replace the dialer, it merely interfaces with it. Please read the rest of the documentation for setup and features. THE MAIN DIALOG: Now that you have Dunce installed on your system we can begin looking at its features. When you first run Dunce a splash screen will be displayed (this is a once per version screen so don't worry about it). After that the main dialog is displayed. Once again this dialog is only brought up the *VERY* first time. This dialog is the control center of Dunce everything is either located in this dialog or can be accessed from this dialog. There are two methods of bringing this dialog up. You may run the dunce.exe program (by double clicking on it or selecting it from the Start Menu if you added it) or from the Tray, which we will deal with later. The Main Dialog is divided into sections with tabs to naviagate between them. You can click on the tabs to switch between each section or the keyboard shortcut: Ctl+Tab. At the bottom of the Dialog are the following buttons: * Quit: This unloads Dunce from memory and makes all of its features unusable until it is run again. Unusual to use unless you're testing a lot like me. * OK or Close: The Normal, just saves what you changed and closes the dialog. * Cancel: Cancels the changes and closes the dialog. * Apply: Saves the settings you have selected without closing the dialog box. Once you do this you cannot Cancel these settings thus, the Cancel button becomes disabled and the OK button is retitled Close. DUN TAB IN MAIN DIALOG: This tab contains the features that specifically relate to Dial-Up Networking Connections. * Connect To Dialog: This checkbox controls if Dunce presses connect on the Connect To dialog, this is really a necessity but if you don't want Dunce to press the connect button for you it can be turned off. The edit box right beside it sets the number of seconds Dunce waits after detecting the dialog box before pressing connect for you. * Force Redial if line is busy: This feature will cause Dunce to press okay on the dialog that comes up telling you that the line is busy. The edit box next to it again corresponds to the amount of time Dunce waits after seeing this box, this can be useful to give modems time to reset. Note: This should not be a replacement for the redial feature in the Dial-Up Networking folder, this feature is really for those of you who are using AutoDial so that when you run a program that requires a network socket it starts the connection to your provider. When dialing in this way Dial-Up Networking will *NOT* redial that's were Dunce comes in. * Force Reconnect if Disconnected: This feature causes Dunce to respond OK to the Reestablish Connection Dialog. Again the edit box sets the time Dunce waits before responding after seeing the dialog. Note: If you want Dunce to hit Cancel to this dialog open up the ini file and change the ForceReconnect= setting to 2. Like: ForceReconnect=2. This may be necessary in some cases where you are using Automated Connections and your ISP drops on you since DUN won't allow another connection until that box is responded to. Sorry, this doesn't have a user-interface as it got thrown in at the last minute. You have to quit Dunce and restart it before this takes effect or do a reload of the ini file see below for more info (the Cancel feature that is, the OK feature doesn't require this). This feature has another hack in it. Currently if you're bumped off the server, Dunce treats this as a normal disconnect event and will close programs setup to close on disconnect (see the Run Options section for details on this feature). If you don't want it to close programs when you're bumped off the server but still close them if you normally disconnect then add this to your dunce.ini file in the [DUNCE] section: CloseProgramsOnReconnect=0 That will prevent programs from closing *ONLY* when a ReEstablish Connection Dialog shows up. * Minimize Connected Dialog: When the Connected To dialog telling you that you have been connected to the service comes up Dunce will minimize it after the amount of time specified in the edit box to the right of this check box. Note: This feature really doesn't work with OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) so I have disabled it if you are running OSR2. * User Defined: This checkbox toggles the User Defined Dialog defined in the edit boxes below. This allows everyone to add their favorite dialog to the items that Dunce handles. Just like all the other features there is an edit box to the right of the checkbox to determine the timeout after which Dunce handles the dialog. * Button Name: This edit box contains the name of the button that you want Dunce to press when it detects the User Defined Dialog. If the Button you want pressed contains an underline in the name then you must add an ampersand *BEFORE* the character that is Underlined. Example: The Button is named Help and the H is underlined I would enter &Help in the Button Name Edit Box. * Window Title: This edit box contains the Title of the Window that you want Dunce to watch for and then handle. Example: I want Dunce to press OK at the Dialog that comes up prompt me for the Callback Number. This dialog is Titled "Callback Security" as is displayed at the top in the title bar to the left of the close box (the one with X in it). So I type Callback Security in the Window Title Edit box and enter OK in the Button Name Edit box. * Expand Details: When the Connected To dialog shows up this makes it so it automatically expands the dialog out to show you what protocol the connection was done under. There is no edit box on this feature to control how long after seeing the dialog it does this. However, it uses the same time settings as the Minimize Connected Dialog feature does. Again, this isn't really necessary with OSR2 but I left it enabled since it works, why you would want to use it is beyond me. * Run: This checkbox toggles if Dunce will Run programs at various times during your connection. This feature is *NOT* compatible with MSN connections, Sorry. To configure it click on the Run Options button, information on that dialog is found below. * Password: This lets Dunce type in a Password for you in the Connect To Dialog Box. Obviously the box to the right of this checkbox contains the password that Dunce will enter. This is useful if you can't use Password Caching built into 95 or if yours is broken (which is the case for many people who have upgraded to Service Pack 1, see the Dunce tips WWW page for more info on this). Note: The password is encrypted however the encryption is not secure enough to keep out a fairly well versed hacker or the NSA (National Security Administration, a yucky U.S. invention). However, with your password being saved you're really relying upon the physical security of the system anyway because they could just walk up and log on as you. In any case Vector Development will *NOT* take any responsibilty for the security of this password. The encryption is there to make you feel a little bit safer but it isn't DES or anything. * AutoDial: When this checkbox is checked Dunce will cause a dialout when a WinSock Application (32-bit only) attempts to access a network resource. The List Box to this checkbox's right contains the list of connections that are available, select the one you want Dunce to dial when the action described above occurs. The Setup Button to the far right brings up the Properties for the connection currently listed in the List Box. Example: I open up Netscape, Dunce will then cause the connection that is listed in the List Box to start. NOTE: This feature is implemented by the URL.DLL. This file is licensed to Vector Development by Microsoft. If you do not like the way that the it dials out complain to them not me. Also be sure that if Dunce prompts you to place this file in your System Directory that you say Yes if you intend to use this feature. If this file isn't installed in the System Directory when you turn this feature on, Dunce will prompt you again to install it. MSN TAB IN MAIN DIALOG: This tab controls the two features of Dunce that relate to the Microsoft Network. Unlike previous versions of Dunce you no longer have to enter the path of the Guide.exe file. * MSN: This checkbox toggles MSN features. * Delay Sign In Dialog: This tells Dunce to click Connect after it sees the Sign In Dialog. It waits the number of seconds specified in the edit box to the right. * Quick Shutdown: This tells Dunce that when Microsoft Network asks if you're sure you want to disconnect to say Yes. Dunce does this immediately. There is no delay. AUTOMATED CONNECTIONS TAB IN MAIN DIALOG: This is probably the most confusing tab in Dunce. It allows you to control when Dunce will activate a given connection without you even being there. Really useful, ehh? * Automated Connections: This toggles Automated Connections being on or off. * Connection Name: This drop-down box lists all of the connections on your system. You select the connection that you want Dunce to dial into at the specified time below here. * Setup: This button allows you to get to the property sheet of the Connection so that you can change phone numbers etc... * Password: This is the password to use for this connection. This is a separate password from the one in the main dialog and is stored separately. Even if you are using Password Caching you *MUST* fill this field in order for Dunce to be able to use it. If you aren't using the Password box in the Connect To dialog found in standard Dial-Up Networking and are just using a hard coded script then you can leave this blank. * Redial: This sets the number of times Dunce will attempt to connect for a given Automated Connection. This has no effect on other connection types. If this checkbox is unchecked then no redials will occur. Events that trigger redials include busy signals and no dial tones. * Connect at: This is the time that Dunce will Connect at. I think this is self-explanatory for the most part. * Disconnect at: This is the time that Dunce will Disconnect at. This event will only occur if Dunce made the connection. * Repeat every: Repeats this process every x number of hours as the box says. Example: Dunce is setup to connect at 8:00 A.M. and disconnect at 8:15 A.M. If the repeat hour rate is set to 2 hours then Dunce will also connect at 10:00 A.M and disconnect at 10:15 A.M and also at 12:00 P.M. and 12:15 P.M. and so on... * Run Items: This tells Dunce if you want it to run some of the run Items that are checked as Active for Automated Connections. This toggles all of them on or off. * Run Options: This button brings up the Run Options Dialog see below for more info on this. MISC TAB IN MAIN DIALOG: This tab has miscellaneous settings that control the way Dunce behaves. * AutoLoad Dunce on Startup: This lets you toggle if Dunce is installed as a program to load when Windows95 starts up in the registry. More than likely you will always leave this checked. Note: There is no corresponding .ini setting to this feature. Dunce looks to see if its path matches the one in the Registry. For those wondering how this works it places a Value titled Dunce in the following Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run If you want to make this so it only runs for a specific user Delete this key and place the key in the following place: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run If you do this this Checkbox will no longer show as checked. * Tray Item: This enables a tray item. You ask what is a tray item? A tray item is a small icon that sits on the lower right hand corner of your taskbar (for most people) next to the clock. The tray item has three uses. First of all it tells you Dunce is running. Second, it gives you an easy way to turn Dunce off. Just left click on the icon and it will toggle Dunce's features off and on. Third, you can access the Main Dialog by Right Clicking on it. Cool, ehh? ABOUT TAB IN MAIN DIALOG: This tab contains my email address and various web sites that contain useful information for you. You can copy these out by selecting them and then typing Ctrl+C. RUN OPTIONS DIALOG: This tabbed dialog lets you easily access the 4 run items. Each item has its own tab and each item has the same settings so we will only cover what each control does once. * Item Active: This checkbox controls if this item is Active for manually or Auto-Dial connections (i.e. connections that you either double clicked on the connection icon to start or ones that a WinSock program started). This does not control if an item is active for Dunce's Automated Connections. * Active for Automated Connections: This checkbox toggles if this item will be run when Dunce executes an Automated Connection. See the Automated Connections Dialog for more info on this. * Close for Manual Connections: If this checkbox is checked it means that Dunce will close this program when DUN disconnects from the server. Note, currently it doesn't close if you get dumped off the server, this is intentional. Let me know if you don't like it. This feature will be disabled if your path contains C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE. If it was enabled it might close the Shell on you which isn't much fun. * Close for Automated Connections: Does the same thing as Close for Manual Connections except this only occurs if Dunce Disconnects because it reaches the end of an Automated Connection session. If you Cancel out of the disconnect and later disconnect, Dunce does NOT close out the program, unless it is setup to also close for Manual Connections. This feature will be disabled if your path contains C:\WINDOWS\EXPLORER.EXE. If it was enabled it might close the Shell on you which isn't much fun. * Allow Multiple Instances of Program: If this checkbox is checked even if a copy of the program is already running Dunce will start another copy. This can be annoying if you get disconnected from the net and Dunce reconnects you and then runs another copy of Netscape for instance. This box is really an override box so you probably will leave it unchecked. Some programs such as Internet Mail and News from Microsoft require this checkbox to be enbled. * Application: This Edit Box contains the name and full path to the executable that will be run for this item. If you use a path name that has a space in it (Long File Name) then you must enclose that path in quotes. This is because Dunce uses the first space it sees as the beginning of command line parameters that some programs use. For instance if you wanted to have a program with a command line parameter that used a long file name also you would type: "c:\Connect Time Monitor\ccm30.exe" 1 where the 1 is the command line parameter. * Browse: This button brings up a dialog box that will let you select the application that you want to run. In some cases (rare) you may find that it won't come up. If you're having this difficulty delete the contents of the Application box and then try. * Default Directory: This Edit Box defaults to the directory that the application is in and changes itself to such if you change the application. However, you can change this if you want a program to look for files initially in a different directory. This is especially useful to start different copies of programs like Pegasus so that they use different .ini files. * Run When Dialog Appears: This group of Radio Buttons allows you to tell Dunce when to run the program. Each radio box corresponds to the name of a dialog that Dial-Up Networking Displays as it connects you. If you're unsure about what to set this to set it to Connected To. * Run Styles: This group of Radio Buttons allows you to tell Dunce how to run the program. I think the names of the buttons are obvious other than Normal which means what would happen if you just double-clicked and didn't have any special properties setup for that application. Some applications do not function with the Minimized or Maximized features. Dunce is following standard Windows procedures for starting these programs with this window style. If it doesn't work complain to the author of that program. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT: Dunce now supports all versions of Windows to my knowledge!!! This requires no intervention from the user, Dunce detects your version on the fly. Enjoy! Some exceptions to this are noted below: Some versions of Nashville are not detected properly on the fly. Read the Dunce tips page for information on how to override the auto- detection system. This problem is marked by a dialog at startup saying Resource for International Use Failed to Load or that some resources were not able to be loaded out of specific files. RELOADING INI FILE: Some features tell you to quit out of Dunce and reload. Starting with 2.4 there is a slightly more convienent way to do this. Go to the Start Menu select Run and type: "c:\dunce\dunce.exe" -r The quotes are necessary especially if you have Dunce in a directory that involves spaces in its names. Be sure to use the correct path because that is just an example. Also note the -r is case sensitive. This feature may be useful to disable/enable certain features from scripts like WinBatch. SHIFT KEY: As each segment of the connection (i.e. Connect To, Connecting, and Connected, corresponds to the dialogs) begins if you hold down the shift key for a short time Dunce will not load the run items associated with that segment. This works for the closing of programs as well. Just hold the shift key down as you disconnect. DISTRIBUTION: See the VENDINFO.DIZ file for "DISTRIBUTION" information. This file contains the files sizes and CRC values for all the files being distributed with Dunce. Please do not remove the VENDINFO.DIZ file or any other file from the Dunce Distribution. ICON CONTEST: Thanks to David A. Karp of Creative Element for the icon. I love it. Check out his Windows Annoyances Page it's great. Tells you how to get rid of lots of those things you just wish would go away in Windows 95. http://www.creativelement.com/win95ann/ TIPS PAGE: Vector Development maintains a tips page that contains information on how to do lots of things that people commonly ask for. PLEASE look at this page before sending an email. The address for the web page is: http://www.vecdev.com/tips.html TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR SEND: Internet email to: vecdev@vecdev.com MSN: ResDev U.S. Mail: 3735 SW Sena Dr. Topeka, KS 66604-1754 IRC: ResDev on #win95-net Voice: (913) 271-2175 WWW: http://www.vecdev.com Look for updates on my WWW site periodically. Please note I can't always respond to all your messages, I attempt to but it doesn't always happen. Please be patient. Remember look at the Tips Page before sending email about something. The MSN address isn't always checked on a regular basis. BUG REPORTS: When reporting a bug always include the following: 1) A detailed description of the bug. 2) A copy of your DUNCE.INI pasted in the email or the appropriate part of the form (PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS). 3) What version you're running. 4) What other applications or items in the startup folder were running when the error occurred. 5) Anything special about your install i.e. if you're not running the English version of 95 or some other special version of 95. It is best if you use the bug reporting form located at: http://www.vecdev.com/duncebug.html Doing these five things will speed up my bug fixes. POSTCARD OFFER: Vector Development is offering a PostCard Offer, send a PostCard to us and we will notify you of updates and new products. Include a mailing address and an email address. This service is absolutely free and does not constitute registration since there is none, with the exception of Dunce Gold. We will accept letters as well especially if they include comments!! Please send to: Vector Development C/O Dunce Postcard 3735 SW Sena Dr. Topeka, KS 66604-1754 DUNCE-L: This is something new, Subscribing to this lists means that I will send you notification of updates and bugs as I know of them. To subscribe: * Go to: http://www.vecdev.com/duncel.html and follow the steps there. OR * Send an email to majordomo@ftpx.com which in the contents of it says: SUBSCRIBE DUNCE and no subject. Do not put SUBSCRIBE DUNCE in the subject line it will *NOT* work. It must be in the body or contents of the message. KNOWN BUGS: Some people are still having problems with the following: All Known bugs have been fixed with this version. FUTURE PLANS: All future plans for Dunce are to be implemented as Gold features... These are outlined in the Gold.doc file. HISTORY: 2.4 Fixes the following bugs: * Various problems with distinctions between similarly named dialogs. * Ini File now properly updates to new versions from old versions. * Problems related to Connected To being minimized. * Bugs related to MSN returning a cannot complete task at this time. * MSN settings not being saved properly. * The Default Directory wasn't working properly. * AM/PM *AGAIN* * Redials for Automated Connections displaying MessageBoxes. * Run Item #2 settings saving problems. * WinGate/IE/AutoDial:Connected To's not being recognized. * Made Dunce work with Nashville in its various versions (some configuration may be necessary). * Bugs related to machines that don't have DUN installed on them. * Fixed problems with Dunce attempting to dial out an Automated Connection when your already connected. * Connected To now correctly minimizes after a Forced Reconnect. * Redialing for Automated Connections now can be disabled, previously it would do it even if you disabled it. * Error messages for Automated Connections now Close by themselves after 30 seconds. * Automatically Connect to at 12:00 P.M. (time is an example) now displays the correct time. * Programs now restart after a Forced Reconnect, see the details on that above. * A No Dialtone error is now considered a redial even for Automated Connections. New Stuff: * Tabbed Dialog for the Main Dialog. * Auto-Close of Applications started by Dunce on Disconnect. * Auto-Close for Automated Connections. * AutoDial feature. * 1 User Defined Dialog that Dunce will handle. * Command line made to force a reload of the ini file. * Encryption of Passwords. * Supports the new Microsoft Internet Mail Connect To dialogs. 2.3.1 Was never officially released. Was in beta testing for about three betas and eventually became 2.4. 2.3 Fixes the following bugs: * No longer runs duplicate copies of apps (you can override this though) * The A.M./P.M. bug in Automated Connections (formerly Timed Connections). * The tray icon's disabled state is now visible to the color blink, looks nicer anyway. * The File button in Run Options now works consistently. * No longer have to restart before new settings in Automated Connections take effect. * The About Button no longer gives an error message (okay so I wimped out on this one and took out the stuff that caused the problem). * No longer fails on OSR2 (if you know what this is good otherwise don't worry about it). * Run Items for Automated Connections now work even if you have Run Items on the Main Dialog disabled. * Not really a bug but I increased the time limit for the timeouts. New Stuff: * Tabbed Dialog for Run Options. * Default Directory on Run Items. * You can run things Minimized, Maximized or Normal. * Expand Details. * Reworked Automated Connections TOTALLY. * You no longer need a shortcut on the desktop for Automated Connections. * You no longer need to enter the path to Guide.exe. * AutoLoad feature so you no longer need to manually put a shortcut in the StartUp folder. * And some stuff I can't remember. 2.0.2 Fixes the following bugs: Wouldn't always disconnect on timed connections. Default directory on runs. Multiple parameters for run lines. 2.0.1 Fixes the Connect To Run Options Problem. Fixes the Reconnect and Redial bug. It also fixes the problem with the time on the Connect To Dialog. Adds the Password Feature. 2.0 Added Multiple Runs, Tray Support, Timed Connections, MSN support, and International Support. Fixed Minimize bug, Selection of when the item runs, and other things I can't think of right now. 1.3.2 Repairs another GPF only one report of this. 1.3.1 Fixes the GPF and adds the Quit button. 1.3 Added the minimize feature. Fixed some very stupid typos and actually fixed the bring to the front (z-order) bug. Multiple copies of the options dialog will no longer come up. 1.2 Added time-out adjustments for all of the features (run excluded for obvious reasons). Added the run on connect feature. Finally fixed the obnoxious bring to front bug (well sorta). 1.1 Became Freeware, added postcard offer, repaired Grayed Dialog Box Problem. Splash Screen is a one time deal now. 1.0 Dunce v. 1.0 Initial Release! Special Thanx for 1.x Thanx to mook, Nominal, Hunter, berky, mx-3, and all the others who reviewed 1.0 and made suggestions to me!!! Sorry if I left someone out I'm sure I did. Special Thanx for 2.0 Holzer, codeman, StealthM, Aarto, and a few others who I don't remember for Beta Testing. Holzer your work made Dunce one of the most tested freeware apps available :) Scott Craig, and Deanis for their help in implementing the Tray Item. http://www.windows95.com for distributing it. Special Thanx for 2.3 Holzer, StealthM, Herodotus, Brian Emanuels, and many more for either finding bugs or letting me know when they existed. B.E. esp. for the help on OSR2. Alan for your wonderful help on lots of things especially the Process walking code. You're a great friend, best of luck to you and FTPx. As with any program I must thank my Beta Testers. Unfortunately, that list has grown too large to put here. You know who you are. You guys make Dunce great. Special Thanx for 2.4 Thanks go out to all of you who have tracked down hard to find bugs. Dunce just keeps getting better and better due to all of your hard work. I can't fix what you guys don't find. Of special note was the work of Robert Salsbury who spent his 25 cents numerous times, literally, to make Automated Connections work right. Also Tack who spent several nights up late helping me fix Robert's bugs. There are too many beta testers who played other small roles to thank here but you all know I'm thinking of you.