DialupMaster

Version 1.3-d13 (Sep 12th 2000)

Copyright © 1999-2000 by Peter Koch
All Rights Reserved.

For all windowsCE 2.x devices (H/PC, H/PCPro, PS/PC) And Pocket PC 3.x devices (PPC)


This program is Shareware. You may trial it for 15 days, after which point if you find it useful and would like to continue using it please visit http://www.peterepeat.com to purchase a license key for only US$14.95
Overview of features
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Registration

Thanks for trialing DialupMaster. This is a time-limited shareware product, which allows you to try out all the features for 15 days, after which time, if you would like to continue using it you must purchase a license key for US$14.95.
For details about online registration please visit http://www.peterepeat.com and follow the directions. Once you have a license key, simply open the About screen (From the Help Menu) and click the registration button. Enter your email address and license key and you will be registered.
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Getting Started

Well, you're already running!
If all you want to do is connect quickly you don't need to do anything else; all your remote networking phone entries will already appear in the popup menu, simply select one of those to bring up the connection dialog box.
However, you will benefit from the other features available from DialupMaster to make your remote connections even more easier and faster.
Check out the How Do I... section for quick steps for commonly used features, such as creating shortcut sub-menus or making login scripts.
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Features

Connectivity is crucial with a WindowsCE device, and power mobile users require more functionality then the current set of features in Remote Networking. DialupMaster is a utility to fill the gap with the following features:
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Quick Connect Shortcuts

The popup menu in the system icon tray will display shortcut menus to quickly launch a remote networking connection. You can choose to show modem, direct or system phonebook entries. (This is controlled from Pop-up menu settings).
Because WindowsCE devices are a complement to a desktop, they tend to be used in a mobile environment. So it is common to have one or more ISP's or connections that a single device may connect to, and also the connection may use different devices such as internal modems, external modems, IRDA, direct, etc.
With DialupMaster you can group together similiar phone entries into sub-menu groups. If you connect to an ISP called ZipWorld, and use both the internal modem and a GSM capable card modem, then you can have both these under a ZipWorld menu.
To group, you need to use a seperator character to mark which part of the phone entry name is compared. By default, the @ character is a seperator. Using the above example the phone entries could be named:

You can have more then one type of seperator.
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Creating Login Scripts

When you create a login script, DialupMaster will automatically send your details to the ISP for you! A login script is an ASCII text file that contains commands. The following commands are available:
Any text following a ; is a comment and is ignored.

The text used by the SEND command can contain macros. Macros are a special tokens surrounded by < >. If you need to send a < then type <<.
The following macros are available:

DialupMaster will create an template script file for you when you select New from the Login Script settings window. It look's like:
; [ Simple PPP Script ]

; Wait 1 second after connect



DELAY=1



; Send the username

SEND=<username><cr>



; Send the SAVED password

SEND=<password><cr>



; Wait 1 second for main menu

DELAY=1



; To commence PPP on this server

; we send ppp as the selection

SEND=ppp<cr>


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Keep Alive Timer

If your ISP disconnects you after a period of inactivity, you can use the keep alive timer to avoid being disconnected. The keep alive timer simply sends an internet PING message to a designated server. It is common for web servers to respond to PING messages, but it is not guaranteed to be the case - so there is a test button provided to check if the server is compatible.
You can define any period of minutes for the delay between sending PINGs.
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Online Timer

The online timer enables you to view how many minutes you've been online for. If you enable it, then then timer will automatically appear when ever a connection is established.
This is very useful for monitoring how long a connection has been running over expensive cellular and wireless data connections.
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Shortcut to Remote Networking

If you want to change your remote networking configurations, this shortcut on the popup menu will enable to you to quickly open the remote networking (connections on PS/PC) application.
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Integration into OS


DialupMaster is fully integrated into the OS. You do not need to connect using the DialupMaster popup menu to benefit from scripts, timers, and keep-alive. As long as DialupMaster is running it will receive notifications of connection related events.
DialupMaster will also modify your phone entry to turn on the post dial terminal when you select a script to be run with a particular phone entry.
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Settings

From the Properties menu, these settings are available

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Pop-up Menu Shortcuts

You can choose which network entries are displayed in the pop-up menu and which characters are used to split an entry into submenus.
The following options are available for Show
Enable "Split entries into sub-menus" to check the phone entry name for any of the listed seperators. As soon as any of the seperators is found in the name a sub-menu will be created. (Sub-menus only go 1 level deep).
By default the @ key is a seperator to split the DIRECT serial entries into a sub-menu. Another typical seperator is a SPACE.
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Login scripts

Enable the all scripts checkbox to allow scripts to run. if this is not selected then DialupMaster will NOT run ANY scripts during a connection.
To create or assign a script for a particular phone entry, select the entry from the drop down list, and either type the EXACT path to the an existing script file or use the browser button to explore the file system and select the script file.
You can edit an existing script file by hitting the EDIT button. This will open the script file in the default text editor on the WindowsCE device. Note: Not all CE devices have a built in text editor. If your device does not have one, then either copy the script file to the desktop for editing, or install a 3rd party editor on the CE device and alter the Advanced settings to use it for script editing.
TO create a new script, hit the NEW button and type the new name of the script file.
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Keep-alive Timer

Select the checkbox to enable keep alive messages to be generated. PING messages will be sent to the host specified.
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Advanced Settings

Advanced settings enable an alternative text editor to be defined for editing scripts.
When processing a script, DialupMaster sends it's output to the window with the name defined here.
Note: Do not modify this unless informed by technical support. The default of "Post Dial Terminal" should work in most cases.
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How Do I...


Commonly used functions are described here to quickly get you started.

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How to make a login script

If you currently need to use the Post Dial Terminal after you connect to your ISP to enter your username, password and PPP/Slip options, you can now automate this process with login scripts.
When you create a login script, DialupMaster will automatically send your details to the ISP for you! A login script is an ASCII text file that contains commands.

login requirements

The first step is to determine exactly what you need to type when you do a normal login. If you already know, skip to Creating login scripts.
You need to connect to your ISP using the Post Dial Terminal. (If you don't already use this then you may not be able to use login scripts to connect). When the terminal appears, make a note of what prompts are given from the server, and the EXACT responses that you type (or write!).
You are now ready to create a login script!

Creating login scripts

You can create a login script on a PC, or directly on your WindowsCE device if it has a text editor. (Note: Not all devices have a built-in text editor, if yours does not either use a PC or install an ASCII compatible text editor from a 3rd party)
You can create a new template script file from the options/scripts preferences screen, tap NEW and enter a name for the script.
To learn the simple scripting capabilities, tap Writing login scripts.

Activating login scripts

Once you have your login script saved, you can assign it to one or more of your Networking profiles from the options/scripts preferences screen. Select the network profile and browse to select the login script. Each time your connect using that profile, DialupMaster will automatically execute the script for you! Note: DialupMaster knows when you connect, even if you dial with Remote Networking or some other program, and it will still automatically run your script(s)

Details about login scripts
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How to make sub-menu shortcuts

To use sub-menus, firstly you need to make sure you have this feature enabled.

From the Pop-up menu select Options, and then Properties.

Select the Popup-Menu page, and make sure the checkbox is enabled.

Initially the only seperator defined is the @ (at) character. This allows the system DIRECT serial connections to be stored under one sub-menu. You can use the @ character in your phone entry names to create your sub menus.

Close the Properties dialog and open Remote Networking.

As an example, say you had 2 entries both for connecting to the ZipWorld ISP, but one used the internal modem and the other used a GSM cellular card modem.
Rename the entries to be:



These entries will now appear in the same sub-menu.
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How to setup the keep-alive timer

To use the keep-alive timer to avoid being disconnected due to inactivity follow these steps.

From the Pop-up menu select Options, and then Properties.

Select the Keep-Alive Page, and make sure the checkbox is enabled.

By default the host www.yahoo.com is defined as the PING server. Do not change this option unless you want to use your own PING server (for faster response).

Alter the time setting to a value below the inactivity time used by your ISP.
Eg: If your ISP disconnects you after 10 minutes of inactivity, then set your PING time for every 9 minutes.

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