Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/dos_util/pcl61b.zip/PART6.ZIP/POWER.TUT

Text File | 1993-08-16 | 15KB | 304 lines

       The following information is reprinted with permission, Ultimate
       Power Tips 1.0A (c) 1992, 1993  Paul Scanlon, Scanlon Enterprises

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                               OTHER POWER TIPS

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        System Security

        If you are the owner of a 286 or 386 system then you may have the
        means to add additional security to your system. If you don't
        want unauthorized users putting software on your system which
        may be infected by a virus, then this procedure will work for
        you. This procedure requires access to the Bios Setup. If you
        have an older AT without a Bios Setup (you have to run an
        external program to set the Bios) then I suggest you upgrade.

        First, reboot your system (hard reset, not <Ctrl><Alt><Del>) and
        during the reboot process your system will suggest entering the
        Setup Option by pressing a certain keystroke, usually
        <Ctrl><Alt><ESC>. NOTE, on some newer systems, you don't even
        have to reboot to use the HOT key sequence to start the Bios
        Setup. If you have one of the older machines, without a Bios
        Setup, pull out your Setup Disk, and start Setup from there.
        Once setup is started, select the Floppy Drive Option, and set
        The Drive to NONE. Before changing the current setting to NONE,
        write down the current setting and place the note with other
        important papers, you have regular access to. Now select exit
        and reboot. Your system will now think, you don't have floppy
        drives. If your system has two floppy drives, be sure to set
        both to NONE. When the time comes to update software, or add a
        new application, simply start your Bios Setup (as per above) and
        reset your Floppy Drive(s) selection(s) back to their original
        settings, and reboot. Perform the software installation or
        change (update), then redo the above procedure to set the
        Floppy(s) to NONE. Now unauthorized persons can't bring unwanted
        software to your system!


        External Modems Light Up

        If your external modem is having trouble making a connection,
        you might want to check the headlights (front panel lights).
        When the modem is powered up, the modem ready (MR) light should
        come on. The terminal ready (TR) light tells you, that the modem
        and your PC are in communications, and are ready to make a call.
        If you've set the modem to answer the phone, the auto answer
        (AA) light will be on. And, whenever the modem "picks up the
        phone", the off hook (OH) light should light. Once your modem
        and the remote modem make a connection, the carrier detect (CD)
        light is supposed to come on. While the modem is sending and
        receiving data, the receive date (RD) and send data (SD) lights
        will flicker. As soon as the connection is severed, the carrier
        detect light (CD) should go off. If your modem lights behave
        differently than the above, you may, have a hardware problem. If
        this is the case, call your modem manufacturers technical
        support line and report what your lights show (light
        combinations).


        Money-Saving Protocols

        If you transfer large files with a high-speed modem (9600 baud
        or faster), you can save time and money by using an asynchronous
        error-checking protocol, such as ZMODEM, windowed XMODEM or
        windowed KERMIT. Synchronous protocols like XMODEM and YMODEM
        send a block of data and wait for the remote PC to check the
        block of data before sending another, leaving periods of idle
        time on the line between blocks. Asynchronous protocols transmit
        data in one continuous stream, enabling you to make cost
        efficient use of all you phone line time.


        Now You See It With Procomm

        With Procomm and Procomm Plus, some monochrome monitors don't
        display all the text or highlighting of the help screens. If
        missing text is a problem, try starting the program with the
        "/B" option, to use ProComm's black and white settings. Type
        "ProComm/B" and you'll be able to see the status line and all
        text.


        Procomm's Handy On-Line Log

        To capture data easily during an on-line session, use Procomm
        Plus's Log File command instead of the usual method, which
        requires you to select a protocol and enter a filename. To begin
        recording just press <Alt><F1> and either enter a file name or
        simply press <ENTER> for the default file name "PCPLUS.LOG".
        Press <Alt><F1> again to finish recording . If you want to pause
        the log to skip over extraneous on-screen data, press <Alt><F2>;
        to continue, hit <Alt><F2> again. To read the log, press <Alt>-V
        and enter the file name.


        Speedy Norton Menus

        Batch File menus made with Norton Utilities' Batch Enhancer (BE)
        can be very slow if there are many BE commands, because BE.EXE
        must execute (read from disk) for each BE command. To speed up
        the process, place all your BE commands in one text file. Now,
        you can launch your menu from a batch file from a batch command
        line of "BE filename", where filename is the file containing all
        the BE commands.


        From the Oven to the Laser

        In humid climates, laser printers can warp the paper coming out
        of them and seal envelopes as well. If you have this problem,
        try baking your paper and envelopes in the oven at 125 to 150
        degrees, for 1 to 2 hours, prior to printing.


        Norton MCI From Anywhere

        Norton Commander 3.0 users can write MCI Mail with any Word
        Processor, as long as the letter starts as follows :
                Via: 1
                 To: MCI mailbox
            Subject: Subject
        After the letter is complete, save it as an ASCII file in
        Commander's OUT directory, and it will be sent out the next time
        Commander logs on to MCI. If you wish to attach a binary file,
        insert the line "Attach: drive:\path\ filename" between the
        "To:" and the "Subject:" lines.


        LaserJet Toner Down but NOT out

        If your LaserJet printer turns out pages with vertical streaks
        on them, you're running out of toner. Don't throw that cartridge
        away, yet. Take the cartridge out, hold it by the handle and the
        opposite side, rock it gently back and forth several times, to
        redistribute the toner. Now, you can print several hundred more
        copies. This is also a good bet for copiers.


        Easy Exchange Between Compuserve and MCI Mail

        It's easy to exchange messages between Compuserve's Easy Mail
        and Mci Mail. Just address as follows, inserting MCI and
        Compuserve ID numbers in place of the #s. From Compuserve to MCI
        : TO >MCIMAIL ###.#### from MCI to Compuserve : TO EMS |
        Compuserve MBX : #####,###


        Crosstalk's Screen Snapshots

        During an on-line session, you may need to save a screen of data
        to disk, such as a new host system's commands. Crosstalk XVI+
        has an obscure command that saves a snapshot of a screen to an
        ASCII file. Press "<ESC>pi <ENTER>" during the session, and
        enter a path and the file name.


        Run Programs Full Screen Under Desqview

        If you want an application to always open full screen in
        Desqview, take these steps. In the Change a Program Advance
        Options screen, give the program a 'Starting Height' of 25, a
        'Starting Width' of 80 and both a 'Starting Row' and 'Starting
        Column' of 0. Now when you launch the application, it will run
        full screen.


        Speeding Modem Dialing Through Office PBX's

        If you have a nonstandard dial tone on your office phone system,
        you may have to tweak your modem's attention (using AT) command
        strings. Start your communications software, enter it's setup
        menu, and under modem setup, find the strings that begin with
        "AT". the modem's initialization string (the longest string,
        usually), add S6=n, where 'n' is any number, in seconds (2 or
        greater) which your system takes to get an outside line (dial
        tone). Setting the S6 register forces the modem to stop
        listening for dial tone, after the 'n' number of seconds, and to
        begin the dial sequence. You can further speed dialing after the
        modem gets an outside line by adding W to the tail end of the
        command string that starts with "ATDT". This sets the modem to
        dial the phone number immediately once it hears a normal dial
        tone rather than wait the entire duration set by register S6.


        Swap Mouse Buttons

        By default, PC Tools Deluxe's shell program doesn't care which
        mouse button you use to open menus or select a file. But if you
        want to copy, delete, or otherwise manipulate a group of files,
        you must use the left mouse button. If you're left-handed,
        however, this can be a pain. The solution: Swap the mouse button
        functions by using "PCSHELL /LE" at the DOS prompt, to load the
        shell.


        Easy LaserJet Printing With Norton Utilities

        Norton Utilities 4.5's LP (Line Print) program assumes you can
        print 66 lines per page, but the HP Laser Jet allows only 62. In
        order to use LP easily with the LaserJet, create a simple one-
        line batch file of : "LP %1 /H62". Call it HPLP.BAT and put it
        in a directory listed in your system PATH variable. Then from
        any DOS prompt, enter HPLP filename, where filename is the file
        to print.


        Chameleon PaintBrush

        A lot of people use PaintBrush in more than one video mode or
        with different printers. Instead of running PBSETUP to change
        PaintBrush's defaults, create variations on the PAINT.BAT file
        generated when the program is first installed. Say for example,
        that your system (and PAINT.BAT) is currently configured for 256
        colors at 640 x 480, yet you sometimes need to run the program
        with 16 colors. Rename PAINT.BAT to "256.BAT", run PBSETUP, and
        generate a new PAINT.BAT with the appropriate settings. Exit
        PBSETUP, and rename that new PAINT.BAT to "16.BAT". Now, you can
        run PaintBrush in either mode with a few keystrokes.


        Modem Trick, Don't Compress Compressed Files

        If you own a modem with built in data compression (using MNP-5
        or V.42bis), be sure to turn off the modem compression when
        downloading or uploading files which are already compressed,
        with utilities such as ARC, LHA and ZIP. Uploading or
        Downloading a previously compressed file with a data compressing
        modem, takes more time, than up or down loading the file without
        the modem compression. Check your modem manual for instructions
        on how to turn off your modem compression.


        DeskJet 80 Column Help

        HP DeskJet printers provide near laser-quality printing at a
        much lower price. There are, however, drawbacks. For one, the
        DeskJet prohibits you from printing close to the edge of the
        paper, so text files with 80 column lines don't always print
        correctly. To fix this problem, create the following one line
        batch file, calling it something like DJ80C.BAT.

        ECHO [(s1Q[&a5[&L7.27c[&k11.25H>PRN

        Replace the above "[" bracket characters with <ESC>. Many text
        editors allow entering the <ESC> character, by holding the <Alt>
        key down and entering "27" from the numeric keypad. If your text
        editor or word processor do NOT support this feature, use EDLIN,
        which comes with DOS.


        ProComm and Auto Scripts

        Users of the popular shareware telecommunications package,
        ProComm can take advantage of ProComm's script language and
        automatically log on to Delphi and other online systems. The
        following is a listing of a ProComm script file that will dial
        the Telenet number stored as Number 1, in the dialing directory
        and automatically log on to the Delphi at 8 bits, 1 stop bit and
        no parity.

                DIAL "1"
                WAIT "3"
                TRANSMIT "!D!"
                WAITFOR "@"
                TRANSMIT "C DELPHI"
                WAITFOR "Terminal="
                TRANSMIT "D1!"
                WAITFOR "Username:"
                TRANSMIT "{YOUR NAME}"
                WAITFOR "Password:"
                TRANSMIT "{YOUR PASSWORD}"
                WAITFOR "MAIN >"
                TRANSMIT "GR PC"

        For more information on the ProComm script language, see the
        ProComm's documentation. Procomm is available for downloading
        from most major BBS systems. Many other communications programs
        also support script languages of their own. The above script
        listing, can be converted to other script languages with
        relative ease.


        Pascal TypeCasting

        Typecasting in Turbo Pascal 4.0 works very well on variables
        and values. However, if you try to typecast a function result to
        match a variable, you will run into trouble. A solution to this
        problem, is to typecast the variable to match the function
        result. An example : POINTER(LongIntVar) :=PointerFunction;

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