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[About The Guide]
WHAT IS DOORWAY?
DOORWAY is a software program which allows remote control of a
computer via a modem. It also allows almost any program to be
run as a door for bulletin board systems. Bulletin boards can
utilize DOORWAY to transform normal programs into "DOORS", and
anyone can use DOORWAY as a remote utility. As a remote utility,
DOORWAY will allow you to control a distant computer via modem,
as if you were there. DOORWAY will redirect all programs on the
host computer, with the exception of programs which use
bit-mapped graphics.
DOORWAY shells to the program to run, or shells COMMAND.COM, when
used as a remote utility. DOORWAY then translates and redirects
all video to the required COM port and all COM port inputs to the
keyboard buffer. BIOS interrupts or screen RAM comparisons are
used, so that programs, which DOS CTTY cannot redirect, can still
be used. The HOST's keyboard is active so that the SYSOP (or
person on the HOST end) can aid a REMOTE user, and the SYSOP
(bulletin board SYStem OPerator) can monitor what the REMOTE user
is doing. COMMAND.COM is not loaded by DOORWAY unless
specifically instructed to do so by the HOST setup; therefore, a
user cannot break a program and get to DOS. If the user exits or
breaks the program, he will simply return to DOORWAY, which will
return to the bulletin board (or HOST program) after resetting
all vectors, including any the application program may have
changed.
Doorway monitors Carrier Detect, and after displaying a message
that carrier was lost, returns to the bulletin board or HOST. It
monitors the input character string and traps any character(s)
the SYSOP wants trapped (such as DOORWAY can also abort a
program with any character(s) the SYSOP has defined, thus making
it possible to run UNBREAKABLE programs, such as many commercial
games (check with the game publisher to verify this is not in
violation of their copyright).
The keyboard time and user's time are monitored, and if either
expires, DOORWAY will return to the board (or HOST). Keyboard
expiration time is settable, but defaults to 255 seconds (4
minutes 15 seconds). See section 3 for more information. The
keyboard timeout is reset on both the com port and the bulletin
board's keyboard, so characters entered at either will reset the
timer. It can also be reset by video updates. If you set up
DOORWAY to use PCBOARD.SYS or DOOR.SYS, the user time will be
computed from what time he has left, unless overridden by a
command line switch.
Full ANSI GRAPHICS are supported, but if your program doesn't
need it, DOORWAY will work just fine in NON-ANSI mode. DOORWAY
also allows the REMOTE user to send all the extended keyboard
codes, such as the cursor, ALT and FUNCTION keys.
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Written by Dave Pearson