<>**<>¢ HOW TO SET UP 850 EXPRESS TO¢ AUTOANSWER AND AUTOSAVE INCOMING TEXT¢ OR DATA.¢ ----¢ (Ed. As you all know, BBS'ing and¢ Surfing the INTERNET are all the rage,¢ but here is a great way to use your¢ modem. You do have a modem, don't you?¢ If not, get one, don't miss another¢ world of fun and education! A.P.)¢ ----¢ More and more people are buying¢ personal computers and a fair¢ percentage of them are purchasing¢ modems. Electronic mail is not just a¢ thing of the future or just for the¢ wealthy. You can set up your own¢ "electronic mailbox" and receive mail¢ while away from home or sleeping! Let¢ me explain...¢¢ I live in Florida and the rest of my¢ family is scattered across the Eastern¢ United States. Many of my family¢ members own personal computers and¢ modems so we send text files to each¢ other instead of letters...and the¢ best news is that it is often less¢ expensive than the mail service. I¢ have been communicating with my family¢ for about two years in this fashion¢ and find it highly reliable and¢ rewarding, plus it is immediate! When¢ I get up in the morning, the first¢ thing I do is turn on the monitor to¢ see if any E-mail has come in. If so,¢ I immediately save it to floppy, even¢ before I read it so nothing can happen¢ to it.¢¢ At first, we were using MPP 1000's¢ because their software supported¢ unattended downloading. But soon I¢ grew tired of 300 baud and purchased¢ the Supra 1200AT which also supports¢ unattended downloading. That software¢ however did not support the 512K¢ Ramdisk on my XE, so I began to look¢ for other software for this purpose.¢¢ In my opinion, Keith Ledbetter's¢ EXPRESS! is by far the best¢ telecommunications program available. ¢ I began to wonder if this fabulous¢ program could possibly be set up to¢ autosave to buffer or to disk¢ unattended. Nowhere in the 850 Express¢ docs was there any mention of this so¢ you can imagine my excitement and¢ happiness to discover that 850 Express¢ could indeed download and save while¢ no one was around! And...wow, is it¢ easy to do! Here is how:¢¢ Boot up your 850 Express! modem¢ program (I use version 3.0, I don't¢ know if earlier versions will support¢ this) and turn on your modem. From the¢ main menu hit ESCAPE (which forces the¢ program to think you're on line) and¢ then press OPTION (which saves¢ anything that comes in to buffer. Set¢ up this way, as soon as a call comes¢ in, the modem will autoanswer and save¢ to buffer any incoming text. To check¢ to see if any file has come in, simply¢ turn on your monitor (I also hit the¢ SPACE bar at this point to prompt the¢ computer out of the attract¢ mode...ie...changing colors, etc.). If¢ text is on the screen, hit START to go¢ the the main menu and save the buffer¢ to floppy. This will clear the buffer¢ so now just view that file from the¢ floppy or read your mail from a word¢ processor.¢¢ This has been tested on the Supra¢ 1200AT, Avetex 1200 and Avetex 1200hc¢ and should work the same on most Hayes¢ Compatible modems. To test your modem¢ to see if it will indeed work in this¢ fashion, turn your computer and modem¢ off, turn your disk drive off and your¢ computer back on so only the READY¢ prompt of BASIC is showing. Turn your¢ modem back on as if you were going to¢ use it. Now have someone call your¢ number. (If you live in Pinellas¢ County and have GTE telephone service¢ you can dial your own number, wait for¢ the recording saying that you've¢ dialed your own party line and hang¢ up). If your modem answers the phone¢ without having a program to tell it to¢ do so, then it will work perfectly as¢ described. If, however, your phone¢ rings and your modem does not respond,¢ you may have to command it to auto¢ answer in this way:¢¢ From the main 850 Express menu,¢ choose ASCII (not ATASCII)¢ translation. Now hit ESCAPE and with¢ your modem turned on and ready to¢ receive data, type ATAA. Then hit¢ RETURN. (This in all Hayes Compat.¢ modems commands the modem to¢ autoanswer). Now, hit OPTION to save¢ any incoming info to buffer and you're¢ all set. Remember, in this¢ configuration you are saving to buffer¢ so the size of your buffer depends on¢ the DOS you are using. Here are my¢ experiences:¢¢ ATARI DOS 2.0, 2.5 gives you 3328¢ bytes.¢¢ Spartados 3.2 gives a buffer of 4608¢ bytes.¢¢ Spartados 2.3 gives the largest¢ buffer of 8064 bytes, big enough for¢ most all your letter capturing needs.¢¢ For those of you who expect great¢ volumes of incoming text, you'll want¢ to save direct to ramdisk or floppy¢ disk. In order to do this, you must¢ fool the program into thinking it is¢ on line while you set this up. Here is¢ how you do this:¢¢ Most Hayes Compatible modems have dip¢ switches. On the Avetex and Supra¢ modems you would push switch #7 down.¢ This is the CD (forced carrier¢ detected) switch. On the above¢ mentioned modems, the down position is¢ the "on" position. With the CD switch¢ activated, the express programs thinks¢ it is on line. It seems to do no harm¢ to leave this switch on while waiting¢ for a file to come in. Just be sure¢ you return the switch to the off¢ position before making your next call¢ or you'll get a false "connected"¢ indication. Keep in mind that this¢ switch need not be turned on when auto¢ saving to buffer.¢¢ So, to auto save to disk, turn on¢ your CD dip switch, hit ESCAPE from¢ the main menu to force terminal mode,¢ hit START to re-enter main menu, type¢ "T" to capture to disk. You'll be¢ asked to give it a file name and as¢ soon as you do and hit RETURN, you'll¢ be all set to save to disk. Do not hit¢ OPTION to auto save to disk, autosave¢ is already turned on by choosing the¢ "T" function. ¢ Plus, you can always tell if autosave¢ is on just by looking at the border¢ color of your screen. ¢¢ Things to keep in mind:¢¢ 1) Whenever you are sending directly¢ to another computer, you MUST use HALF¢ DUPLEX. Use full duplex only when¢ communicating with a BBS. If you are¢ setting up to auto receive, it is¢ preferable to be in half duplex but it¢ is ABSOLUTELY necessary for the¢ sending modem to be in HALF DUPLEX.¢¢ 2) It is probably best to use the¢ standard ASCII translation unless you¢ know for sure that only ATARI¢ computers will be sending you files. ¢ In that case use ATASCII. No harm will¢ come however if someone sends a text¢ file to you in ASCII and you are¢ receiving in ATASCII, as long as it is¢ just text. You could not send inverse¢ characters and CONTROL characters¢ unless both sending and receiving¢ terminals were in ATASCII.¢¢ 3) If you don't have a copy of 850¢ EXPRESS! version 3.0, ask your Sysop¢ to post it for you. If he doesn't have¢ it, contact me and I'll get it to¢ you.¢¢ 4) I only know for sure that this¢ method of auto saving works with 850¢ Express version 3.0. I know it does¢ NOT work with MPP Express version 1.0.¢ I haven't tried it with 1030 EXPRESS¢ although I feel it probably would not¢ work since the 1030 does not come with¢ a ring detector.¢¢ 5) I truly recommend Spartados 2.3¢ because of the large buffer it gives¢ and it will read and write to most any¢ other dos.¢¢ I sincerely hope I didn't make this¢ sound difficult to set up...it's not.¢ In MOST cases you simply turn on your¢ modem, boot the program, Hit ESCAPE¢ and then hit OPTION. And that's all!¢ If you have any questions, comments,¢ or just want to try it out, you can¢ call my autosaving 850 Express at 813-¢ 393-0173, between the hours of 1:00 am¢ and 8:30 am, 300 baud HALF DUPLEX,¢ ATASCII (ASCII will work fine if you¢ don't have ATASCII). I auto receive¢ at 300 baud because not all my family¢ members have 1200 baud yet...but I¢ have a feeling that it won't be¢ long!!! Remember also that when you¢ call another modem set up to autosave,¢ you receive no prompts when the modem¢ answers the phone. As soon as the¢ connection is made, you are "live"¢ with the other computer. You may then¢ type your message or send a pre-typed¢ file from disk. DO NOT SEND XMODEM to¢ me since I do not set up my program to¢ receive that way.¢¢ Bob Fasoldt ¢ MODEM #: 813-393-0173 1:00am-8:30am ¢¢ --------------end---------------------¢
