Contents

The Door setup program lets you create virtual ports for running doors on your BBS. For more detailed information, refer to the chapter on doors in your Sysop Guide, or check the online help in the door section of wcConfig.

An overview of Door setup

The door setup screen

Virtual Ports

More about doors

Creating virtual door ports

How can I find out what Base Address to use for a virtual port?

Configuring your doors for virtual ports

Door technical support


Virtual Ports

Virtual door ports: Windows 95

Virtual door ports are used in Windows 95 to allow DOS door programs to communicate with a unique port for each node, whether or not a node is actually connected to a COM port.

If you are not running DOS doors on your BBS, you can ignore these settings.


Creating virtual door ports

To configure virtual door ports in Windows 95:

1.   Start DOORSETUP.

2.   Click Edit.

3.   The property sheet shows a list of virtual COM ports, from COM1 to COM16. Double-click a COM port name to edit its properties.

4.   Enter the Base Address and IRQ settings. Click OK.

Because these ports are "virtual", you can assign any available IRQ and base address. More than one port can share the same IRQ.

If you are running Windows NT, you will be notified that the required installation is in place.


How can I find out what Base Address to use for a virtual port?

The Base Address is a memory area reserved for a hardware device. Virtual devices such as virtual COM ports also require base addresses. You cannot assign the same base address to more than one device.

To find out what base addresses are available in your machine:

1.   Click your right mouse button on the My Computer icon on your Windows 95 Desktop, and select Properties from the context menu.

2.   On the System Properties property sheet, select the Device Manager tab.

3.   Select the Computer icon at the top of the list, then click the Properties button.

4.   On the Computer Properties property sheet, click the Input/Output (I/O) button. The window displays a list of base addresses currently in use:

Base addresses between 0x100 and 0x3FF are the most suitable. To avoid using part of an address range that may belong to another program or device, always use addresses that end with zero or eight. You may have unpredictable results if you use addresses outside this range.


Configuring your doors for virtual ports

Most quality DOS door programs allow you to address non-standard COM ports by specifying the port number, IRQ (Interrupt ReQuest) and Base Address in the door’s configuration.

The procedure for assigning nonstandard ports varies from one door to another, and it is not possible to describe in detail the procedure for setting up individual door programs to work with nonstandard ports.

Review your door documentation for information on nonstandard port setup, and contact the door’s developer for assistance if necessary.


More about doors

What is a door?

Doors are external programs that you add to your BBS, that your callers can start and run by “remote control”. Callers can run doors whether they are using Wildcat! Navigator in graphics mode, or a regular communication program such as QmodemPro in text mode.

Four types of applications can be run as doors from your BBS:

1.   Programs written specifically as BBS door programs, with their own communication I/O routines built-in.

2.   wcCode applications.

3.   Client applications written specifically for Wildcat! 5.

4.   Character-mode programs that can be redirected to the serial port with a redirection utility such as wcRedir.

Some applications that cannot be run as doors include DOS programs that run in graphics mode (for instance graphical games), and Windows graphical applications.

Wildcat! recognizes two types of door programs:

Generic 16-bit

Generic 16-bit doors are door programs written to run in a 16-bit DOS environment (MS-DOS versions 6.x and earlier). Most popular MS-DOS BBS door programs fall into this category.

DOOR32

Door32 doors are door programs written specifically to work with the 32 bit door interface in Wildcat!. They can run as text or graphic applications. run in “console mode” in a 32-bit “Command Prompt” window (Windows NT) or an “MS-DOS prompt” window (Windows 95).


Door Technical Support

Because door programs vary widely in setup and configuration, we must limit our technical support to problems with the Wildcat! interface only. This means that the we are unable to extend advice on specific door operation or hardware system configurations.

We will assist in configuration of the DOORTEST and DORTST32 programs, which are included with Wildcat! 5,  but after proper operation of DOORTEST, the responsibility for installation and operation of specific programs rests with the user.

We make no commitments that any door program will run properly on your system. Each door operates differently and may require a conversion program, special device driver, runtime module or other type of manipulation to operate.

Questions on specific doors should be directed to the program author. We encourage program authors to contact Mustang Software for configuration advice and possible testing of their product within our beta group.

If you want to run doors, we suggest you call Mustang Online and make use of tips and suggestions offered by other Sysops in the message conference and file areas devoted exclusively to doors.


The door setup screen

The door setup screen consists of four basic elements:

Port

Base Address

IRQ

Node


An overview of Door setup

Door setup is a utility program that you can use to setup virtual door COM ports on machines other than the machine running  wcServer.  It is used both by wcConfig to set up your virtual ports, or it can be run as a standalone program on client machines to set up virtual ports. It also sets up the WCDOORNT.DLL if it is run under Windows NT. This allows you to set up multiple client machines that run wcOnline without having to go to the trouble of actually running the full wcSetup on each machine.


Port
Select the COM port number you want the node to use. COM ports cannot be shared.


Base Address
The Base Address is a memory area reserved for a hardware device.


IRQ
This is the Interrupt ReQuest.


Node
Select the node to be assigned to this virtual port.


Edit
Pops up the Door Edit screen.


Clear
Removes the information for the selected door setup.


Close
Closes door setup. You must restart your machine for any changes you have made to take effect.