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ttmanual.txt
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1996-07-10
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Tamalpais Technologies - The Login Checker II
Copyright (c) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 - All rights reserved
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Introduction
──────────────
One day, I was sitting at my desk at work (I was a MIS/Help Desk manager for
a major software company) when the phone rang. It was someone from the
Marketing deparment, they were in Excel in Windows and they could not print to
the printer, it gave them some error message. I explained to the person
(who has great Marketing skills but little computer skills) that the problem
most likely was due the fact that she had not logged in. This got me
thinking... This was the third call that day for a problem related to the fact
that the employee had not logged in. Of course I couldn't blame the employee,
the message that they were not logged in flashes by as the rest of their
AUTOEXEC.BAT file is executed.
I asked myself, why didn't Novell make the login.exe program check to see
if you logged in correctly and if not, ask you to try again?
So I dusted off my 'C' manuals, turned on my tunes on and got to work on trying
to correct this little problem. Hence, the birth of The Login Checker. I
implemented it at the company that I work for and after 3 weeks of not having
ANY calls related to not logging in (and having no one complain about any
problems with The Login Checker itself - could the first try be bug free??)
I decided that maybe others could benefit from this handy dandy tool. After
only 2 months over 200 people downloaded it from Compuserve, so I must have
been right! Since then over 6,500 people downloaded this product and it has
been registered for use for over 35,000 network users!
After having it in place at work for a couple of months I noticed another
hidden benefit. Many of the employee's liked to add there login name after
the login call in their AUTOEXEC.BAT (saving them from having to type it in).
This was great for them but frustrating to the Help Desk staff because if you
wanted to do any work setting up there machine you had to either not login
(and miss whatever setup pertained to the network in their AUTOEXEC.BAT) or
change their AUTOEXEC.BAT and reboot. What a pain. With The Login Checker,
all we needed to do was press return at the PASSWORD: prompt and type in our
own login name and password instead. Life is good again and we go home
smiling now (most of the time!).
The easiest way to test the Login Checker and use it is to simply copy the
two files (TTLOGIN.EXE and TTLOGIN.CFG) to the LOGIN directory and change
your AUTOEXEC.BAT to use TTLOGIN.EXE. If you ever feel the need to login
using the regular Novell login, you can always type LOGIN.EXE.
I hope you The Login Checker is as useful to you as it was to us. Many
thanks to all of you who have send me your comments on the program and
those of you who have joined our family of registered users. Please
send me any comments you have about the product, good or bad, and any
ideas you have that would improve it.
Time Savings
────────────
For every 100 employees, about four of them will not log in correctly into
your network. Most of the time, this will result in a call to the help desk.
If that help desk call takes an average of six minutes to solve, two employees
could be working on something else for a total of 12 minutes...
4 x 12 = 48 minutes daily
48 x 22* = 1056 minutes a month
1056 / 60 = 17.6 hours a month
(*22 is the average number of working days each month)
The login Checker will insure that your end users will log into the network
correctly every time. The program monitors the login and verifies that it
was successful. If the login sequence was not a success, it will ask you if you
want to attempt the login again. How much does 17.6 hours of work time cost
your company every month?
With this product, network users never bother the help desk again!
Full Working Copy:
──────────────────
This is a full working copy of The Login Checker. It is not crippled
in anyway.
Description:
──────────────
The Login Checker is a program that is designed to check whether you have
logged into a Novell network or not. This is advantageous for several
reasons:
* Less typing and frustration when logging in.
* Less calls to the MIS / System Administration /
Help desk - because employees will know when they
type their login name or password incorrectly.
(Most of the time they do not know they did not
login because the login command is part of the
autoexec.bat file, so the 'Access denied' message
scrolls past before they can read it).
* If a station is set up to login with that person's
login name (I.E. LOGIN MIKE), pressing return with
TTLOGIN will ask you for the new login name, so that
if someone else wants to log in to that station (such
as System Administrators!) all the network commands in
the 'AUTOEXEC.BAT' file that requires network login
are still executed.
How to Use:
────────────
Copy the two files (TTLOGIN.EXE and TTLOGIN.CFG) into the F:\LOGIN directory
(you must be logged in as supervisor to do this). Then type (or add to your
`autoexec.bat' file):
ttlogin <LOGINNAME>
You will need to keep LOGIN.EXE in that same directory. If you login without
making any mistakes, it will look and act just like regular LOGIN.EXE. If
you mistype your login name or password, The Login Checker will ask you if
you want to login again. This continues until you either login correctly or
answer no to the question.
New features in version 2.50
──────────────────────────────
* Eliminate the ability for users to exit:
One of the requests that I received the most was to allow administrators
the ability to remove the 'Exit' option from the Login Checker. This feature
has been added to version 2.50.
* Administrator modifable Help
The administrator can now personalize the help menu. This will allow
administrators to give information specific to their company (like who
to call when trouble arises) in the 'view info(Help)' section. (This feature
was actually introduced in version 2.03)
* Explanations in the user configuration file (TTLOGIN.CFG).
I have added the lines that explain what each line means in the configuration
file. This should help the administrator setup and modify the Login Checker.
Using the Help File Feature
───────────────────────────
To modify the help, you need to use an ASCII editor.
The file that contains the help information is TTLOGIN.HLP.
The information should not be greater than 65 characters wide or
more than 15 lines long. Information bigger than that size will
be ignored.
Eliminating the 'Exit'
──────────────────────
The last line of the configuration file (TTLOGIN.CFG) is an option that
indicates whether you want to show the 'Exit' option from the Login
Checker. Enter 'Yes' (the default) if you want 'Exit' to show up on
the menu, and 'No' if you do not want to to appear. System administrators
can still exit the Login Checker by pressing a '~' (Tilda).
Format of the Configuration file
─────────────────────────────────
The configuration file (TTLOGIN.CFG) needs to maintaint the format that
it is in when received from distribution.
That is:
First line = Comments
Second line = Network login file name (LOGIN.EXE)
Third line = BLANK
Forth line = Comments
Fifth line = File server name (or BLANK)
Sixth line = BLANK
Seventh line = Comments
Eighth line = 'Yes' or 'No'
We recommend that you make a backup of the orginal file before making any
changes to this file.
For Experienced System Adminstrators:
──────────────────────────────────────────
System Adminstrators can easily give everyone access to TTLOGIN, without
having to modify everyone's machines. This is recommended for System
Adminstrators that have experience with DOS and Novell. If you do not
have much experience, you may want to use the method suggested above.
Here's how:
* Login as supervisor.
* Copy TTLOGIN.EXE and TTLOGIN.CFG into the F:\LOGIN directory.
* Using `attrib' or another utility, remove the
'READ ONLY' tag from Novell's LOGIN.EXE program.
* Rename the orginal LOGIN.EXE to another name:
REN LOGIN.EXE LGN.EXE
* Rename TTLOGIN to LOGIN.EXE:
REN TTLOGIN.EXE LOGIN.EXE
* Use an ASCII editor to change the Second line in TTLOGIN.CFG to the
new name you gave Novell's LOGIN.EXE (LGN.EXE).
* Reset the `READ ONLY' attribute on Novells LOGIN.EXE (now LGN.EXE).
This makes it so that if anyone types LOGIN (or it is in an `autoexec.bat'
file), it will automatically call The Login Checker. Be careful NOT to delete
Novell's LOGIN.EXE. You will need that to log in.
If you want to login without using The Login Checker, simply type the new name
you gave Novell's (LGN.EXE).
System Adminstrators can also modify the fifth line, which may help to
explain to end users which file server they are logging into.
Registration:
────────────────
Register this product and you will receive:
* The very latest version (with extra features)
* Information on other Tam Tech products
* A clear conscience!
The Login Checker is shareware (give one to a friend!), but NOT freeware
You must register the copy (and pay the fee) to use it (we do want to eat!)
When you register the copy, Tamalpais Technologies will send you the latest
version. This copy will include all new features developed so far.
Some ideas we may include in the future are:
* The ability to check for more than one file server on a network
* Ability to explain to end users which server they are logging into
(Done, see above)
* New features that we dream up before you get it!
Cost is: $35 for every 50 network users
Network users: Price
------------------------------------------------
1 to 50 $35.00
51 to 100 $70.00
101 to 150 $105.00
151 to 200 $140.00
Anything over 200 users: $175.00
* One site is one physical address. You need to purchase a Login Checker
license for each site that is using the product. You can also purchase an
unlimited, corporate wide license (can be used at any branch of the company,
including growth) for $750.
Please include $2.50 for shipping and handling.
You can register the product in one of four ways:
1) Phone in the order (Monday - Friday: 9:00 to 6:00 PST):
Phone: (415) 927-0333
( You may pay by VISA or MC, COD, or we will be happy
to invoice you )
2) Fax us the order:
Fax: (415) 927-4619
Please print the order form in ORDER.DOC (simply type
'ORDER' from the DOS prompt. (You may pay by VISA or MC,
COD, or we will be happy to invoice you.)
3) Mail us the order to:
Tamalpais Technologies
c/o Login Checker
P.O. Box 125
Larkspur, CA 94977
Please print the order form in ORDER.DOC (simply type
'ORDER' from the DOS prompt. You may pay by credit card,
check, or VISA/MASTERCARD.
4) Paying through Compuserve
You can now register Login Checker through Compuserve!
It will get billed directly to your Compuserve account.
Simply type GO SWREG and follow the instructions.
The keyword is 'TamTech'.
You will need to order 1 copy for every 50 users. For
example, if your company has 150 network users, order
3 copies (and you will be billed $105). You can
use the chart above as a reference.
If you would like to order multiple copies (for several
sites) instead of for more users at one site, please Email
us through Compuserve and explain how you would like it
broken down.
We will be happy to accept purchase orders. You can either mail them to us,
fax them in, or call the order in and give us the PO number over the phone.
Order Form:
───────────
To print the order form, run 'ORDER.BAT' by typing: ORDER
Paying via VISA or MASTERCARD:
───────────────────────────────
Tamalpais Technologies now excepts VISA and MASTERCARD. to pay with by
credit card, simply print out the order form (by typing 'ORDER' from the
DOS prompt), fill it out, and fax (or mail) it to us. Please be sure to
sign the form.
We can also take your credit card order over the phone.
Tamalpais Technologies Complete Satisfaction Guarentee ...
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The Login Checker comes with a 60 day money day back
guarentee. If you are unhappy with the product for any reason,
Tamalpais Technologies will refund your money in full. Simply call or
write TamTech within 60 days of purchase.
Suggestions / Support:
─────────────────────────
We welcome suggestions for improved features for The Login Checker, as well as
ideas for new utilities you'd like to see. We already have some idea's we are
playing with for future releases, such as automatic path correction (so that
when you logout your path is returned to it's healthy state), message ability
- so that the System Administrator can notify the user what server they are
logging into, etc.
To contact us, write us at the above address, send us a Compuserve Email (to
73257,2166) or call Tamalpais Technologies at (415) 927-0333. We would like
to here from you, so please do write or call us and tell us your complements,
problems, or new feature ideas.
You can also reach us at your Internet account:
tamtech@well.sf.ca.us
Disclaimer:
────────────────
This software has been tested thoroughly and is believed to be free of
problems, however, software is one of the most complicated kind of product
produced by humans. No person can be absolutely and completely certain that a
piece of complicated software will work in any given machine and environment.
Therefore, you are completely responsible for determining the fitness of this
program and Tamalpais Technologies and it's staff are not liable for any damages.
Are you a Shareware Distributor or BBS?
──────────────────────────────────────────
So long as you include all of the UNREGISTERED version files of the
Login Checker, you may distribute this version of the Login Checker as
you see fit. Please call us at (415) 927-0333 if you have any questions and
to get the latest version of the Login Checker. We reserve the right to
remove permission of any distributor to distribution of any of our
products at any time.
About Shareware . . .
─────────────────────
Shareware is a concept of "Try before you buy" software. It allows you, the
customer to look at and use software before purchasing it. This program is
the full working version of the Login Checker, it is not crippled in any
way.
Shareware works because people share good programs. If you like the Login
Checker and it works for you, give a copy to a friend!
We at Tamalpais Technologies live off the proceeds generated by shareware
sales. Your registration allows us to create more products. Thank you for
your support.